Forum fam. It’s officially October and you know what that means.
Yep… it’s PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE season. Which, happily, are now vegan at Starbucks!
In Monzo user news, we now have…
1,026,264 customers!
Seriously cool. I feel like we only just hit a million and now there’s 26,000 more of us. Picture 26,000 people. Now picture 1,026,264. It’s a lot of people. Like, a lot. And we’re just getting started.
Before we get into this week’s Q&A, you know what to do!
This week in the Hot Coral Hot Seat™️ we have… Natalie Price, Visual Designer!
Natalie started here at Monzo in September 2017 and she works with the Marketing and Community team, creating illustration and graphic design work for use in our blog, in communications, and across social media!
Fun Fact about Natalie:
From the age of 10 I’ve found four-leaf clovers wherever I go! I’ve probably found over 50 in my life so far.
Her favourite thing about working for Monzo?
Sometimes I still can’t believe I work for a company that allowed and supported me, in the space of a year, to switch roles completely (I started out as a Customer Operations Fincrime Specialist!) and move from London to Copenhagen.
You know the score, folks! Get your questions in and Natalie will be here later this week to answer them
This sounds like a cool job, something that I’d love to do!
How did you get into the role, qualifications etc and what does it entail each day? Do you basically get to be a detective and solve crimes where they’ve funnelled money through shell corporations and offshore accounts like you see in the movies?
What’s your favourite illustration you’ve done for Monzo? Any other personal works you’ve done that you also love? Apart from graphic design, is there another art medium you would like to pick up?
What project have you had the most fun on? Any favourite designs?
Anything involving Hot Chip is always a delight! Aside from that, last month we tried out sharing more of our blog content on our Instagram account. As part of that, we experimented with turning a blog post on credit scores into an illustrated Instagram story, and it ended up being a really fun little design challenge.
Could you give us any insights into your design process?
This is something that I can feel changing (and improving) all the time! When I’m illustrating for something, I start out by casting the net really wide and writing down all the ideas that come to mind, even if they seem half-formed or really terrible. Then I’ll start whittling these ideas down to the ones that I feel are the most solid, and sketch out several until I get a sense of the direction that feels the most right. At various stages I’ll ask the Marketing team or other designers for their thoughts, which helps me make sure I’m doing my best to create things that convey the right tone and meaning for the content they’re supporting (as well as looking pretty).
How did you find the switch in roles?
Great, although definitely a bit weird at first! I went straight from very operational work to my first design day job, and it took me a few weeks to adjust to the change in pace. Now, though, I’ve settled into it, and I love it – I’m learning so much.
This is weirdly specific, but the lighting! It’s warm and beautiful pretty much wherever you go. I was working from a cafe this morning and they’d lit candles on every table.
This is such an interesting and difficult question to answer (and one I definitely won’t be able to do justice to)! In short – I think it’s probably impossible to design without being influenced by trends, at least somewhat. Good design grows out of research and an awareness of visual culture, and inevitably that means you end up referencing things along the way, consciously or subconsciously. It also means evolving, and knowing the right time to refresh or redesign a brand. However, for sure, I think there’s a real balance to strike. Picking up on a trend for the sake of being current feels quite hollow to me, probably because, the more I learn, the more I love how thoughtful and considered design has the potential to be.
I actually had zero fincrime experience when I applied for the job! I applied because I thought I had some skills which fit the job description (I’d previously had jobs that had a customer-facing element, I love solving problems and investigation/analysis, etc.)… but probably the main reason I applied was because in the first job I got when I moved to London, my new employers (who never paid me) turned out to be fraudsters. That’s a whole other story though
This is such a cliché, but genuinely I found that no two days were the same, probably because fraudsters are pretty good at switching up their methods. The range of financial crime we’d come across meant that we were dealing with things that we came to consider ‘common’ behaviour (like stolen card fraud), to situations that were completely bizarre or difficult to untangle. I’d really recommend reading the Q&A done by Shak (a current Fincrime Spec) a few weeks ago if you’re interested in finding out more about the job: Monzo Staff Weekly Q&A - Shak Welch (COps, Financial Crime Specialist)
I don’t know if this is overlooked, but I’m including it because I think it’s such a lovely touch that might be more easily forgotten because you only encounter it once (maybe more if you lose your card!): the card carriers and navy envelopes. I love paper/print, and as a digital bank we obviously don’t use it a lot, but I think it’s a lovely way of making what is normally a super mundane experience (receiving your bank card in the post) really charming.
♂
🂡
Obviously the dreamy Marketing & Community team 
thank you for taking the time to answer and