Get to know our team a little better in these series of blogs...

Who are you and what is your job role?

My name is Melissa Hingston and I work as the Junior Graphic Designer here. As well as building websites and designing logos I also write our blog posts, update our support site, record our training videos, head our accessibility work and occasionally help the support team.

What does a typical workday look like for you?

Typically I get to the office for 9:00 where I make a cup of tea, catch up with my colleagues and check my emails for updates and amendments to be made to the sites we are building. When a new site comes in Anji will either send it to me or Paul to start work on which may take from a few hours to days. In between this I will be writing blog posts, helping with support tickets where needed and more recently answering queries from our clients regarding accessibility. I have lunch from 12:00 till 13:00 and I finish work at 17:00.

What do you like to do outside of work?

Every Monday I play Dungeons and Dragons with a group of my friends and occasionally I play another campaign in which I play Alice from Alice in Wonderland. When I’m not with my friends, I enjoy papercutting while watching YouTube and tv shows on Netflix. I may also occasionally be found reading a book or a graphic novel.

What is your favourite book/tv programme/movie?

My favourite book is most probably the Night Watch by Sir Terry Pratchett, though really any book in the Discworld Series would be a strong contender. I love the way Pratchett subverts typical story tropes, especially those of the fantasy genre while still clearly showing his love for them.

Picking a favourite film is much harder as movies are probably one of my favourite forms of media and I think every one of them has its merits. If I had to pick one, it would be Into the Spiderverse just for the beautiful animation style and enthralling story that manages to be heart-warming and fun for people of all ages. I especially love that they took an already well known story and managed to tell it again in a way that felt new and refreshing. Any Edgar Wright film (Scott Pilgrim and the Cornetto Trilogy) would also be up there in my top ten list.

What would your superhero name be and what superpower would you have?

If I was a superhero I think I’d want to affect probability. Like if the probability of me winning the lottery was 0.1%, I could change it to 100% etc You could make anything possible this way. I guess my superhero name would be Gamble or Chance or something along those lines.

When they asked you what job you wanted to have when you were a child, how did you answer?

When I was very young I wanted to be a teacher as I’d always done well at school and liked helping my friends to understand as well. When I got a little older and my parents took me to Harry Potter World in London I thought I wanted to be a set designer because all of the set pieces looked so beautiful and I loved movies and art so this seemed the best way to get the best of both. When I got to college I wanted to be a psychologist but now that I work in web design I couldn’t think of any other job that suits my interests better.

Can you tell us one fun fact about yourself?

I volunteered to help with beekeeping at Princesshay two years ago and got to wear a beekeeping suit to help look after the bees and even got to extract honey that you can buy from Chandos Deli in Exeter.