The Lockdown Log | Interview with Sophie – In House Designer

Last updated on 27 December 2024

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Welcome to The Lockdown Log!

In this new series, The Lockdown Log, I’m going to be interviewing some of my friends from New Zealand, to hear a little about what their experience was like during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) Lockdown that our country went through in April (and continues, in some degree until we’re told otherwise). For some of my friends, life has radically changed, for others, it’s only a little different. But whatever has happened in the last few months, whatever their situation has been or will continue to be, they have a story, and one that I believe is worth sharing, if not for now, then for the future.

In this installment of The Lockdown Log, I chat to my friend Sophie, who is an In House Designer based in Wellington.

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Hey Sophie! It occurs to me we should really record another episode of Rants and Reviews soon… But in the meantime, thanks so much for chatting with me about what the New Zealand COVID-19 Lockdown has looked like for you. To kick us off, what would a usual week look like for you?

Usually I’m working 8:30 – 5pm all week at an office in the CBD (15 minutes walk from my house), gymming 2-3 times a week, and then I’d see family and friends at the weekend. Either having people to visit or heading up to my parents up the coast to stay with them for a couple of days escape. Most of my hobbies are inside, the only type hobbies like reading and gaming so they haven’t really stopped.

Inside hobbies are fantastic for times like this! How has work changed for you during Lockdown? Were you able to work from home?

My work had actually trained for this last year, our building was deemed earthquake-prone with a rating lower than the required percentage to safely continue to work there. So because of that, in July we all were shipped off to work from home until a suitable temporary building was found. Due to some technical problems I was actually working from my colleague’s house for the two months before we got temporary offices so technically I wasn’t working from home.

However, because of this situation it meant my work was fully prepared to ship everyone home again and had sorted out most of the technical issues that would occur back last year. As soon as it was announced we were to be moving into level 4 they shipped us home with computers, desk chairs, and headsets for Zooming.

Oh woah! It seems like last year’s ‘work from home’ situation was actually really beneficial for this year! How did you find working from home this time round?

I actually like working from home; I can wake up a bit later and I can do fun stuff like watercolours for a break instead of scrolling Twitter like I would in the office. I’m also one of those people who struggle to work properly if someone is looking over my shoulder etc so I’ve found I’m just as productive as home as I would be at work.

That’s really good; I’m definitely less productive at home! Part of your job is a print magazine … how has that been affected during Lockdown? 

Yes! So, I’m currently working on designing a 100 page magazine that we produce and print monthly. While our printers were allowed to continue printing throughout lockdown (as they were printing essential items) we haven’t been printing our magazines. Mainly due to the fact that we usually send it out to work addresses and would not be able to get home addresses for our circulation of 13,000. Other than not printing though, much of my work has stayed the same as it would at the office, we just have a bit less on as those above us that would usually supply work have been focused more on COVID-19 things.

Gotcha! For those who don’t like working from home or who struggle a bit, do you have any tips for them?

I’m a stickler for routine so that’s what I recommend even though my routine is slowly lagging at times. I think one of my main tips is to go with the flow, don’t push yourself too hard if you need a break have a break.

My work luckily understands the troubles working from home so are rather lenient about the hours you’re working as long as you’re contactable when needed and get work done. So I’ve been finishing a little earlier most days and taking some time out once a week to go grocery shopping when the supermarket will be a bit quieter instead of going outside of work hours.

Also don’t spend all day on Zoom, utilise email and whatever type of instant messenger app your work uses (we use Teams and send a lot of gifs). It can be easy to lose all day in meetings and have no time to do actual work. But when you are on Zoom make sure you have an excellent background! I personally have the ‘this is fine’ dog meme has by background.

Haha! Virtual backgrounds on Zoom have been hilarious! Great tips, thank you! Has there been anything that you’ve found challenging about Lockdown?

I’m going to be honest with you… not being able to order takeaways. Having to cook every meal breakfast, lunch, and dinner even when you’ve had a bad day or are feeling tired or a bit ill sucks.

As I’m writing this it’s the second day of Level 3 and yes we had take out last night haha! We didn’t brave the super long queues of the drive-throughs and unfortunately couldn’t order from local businesses (we stupidly ordered too close to dinner time), but I had a glorious Hell Pizza that I didn’t have to cook or do dishes afterwards for and it was amazing!!

I also had a lockdown birthday which wasn’t ideal. Luckily my Fiance did everything he could to make it the best day under the circumstances, he even went as far as trying to make a homemade Big Mac sauce to have homemade McDonald’s.

Take out for the win! It’s funny how, even if you don’t get takeaways a lot, you miss it when you can’t have it any more! Other than homemade Big Mac, what have you been grateful for during Lockdown?

Definitely Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch, which I know not everyone knows about or understands (aye Anjali 😉) but it’s been such a blessing to have a game that takes you out of the current world and places you into another much more calming place. Just like books which I’ve also been grateful for, I haven’t actually been reading as much as I usually do but I don’t think that’s down to lockdown I think I’m just in one of those slumps. But contemporary YA has been my jam right now, distracting and hilarious. Plus, without being too smushy, my Fiance definitely helped keep me sane.

Animal Crossing is everywhere and I only half understand it, you’re right, but boy do I want to play! Speaking about fun things, is there anything you’ve actually really enjoyed about this time?

Just gonna advertise myself for a little bit but I’ve been doing a daily challenge over on my art Instagram, Sofilly Letters, called #AprilCreateDaily. It was basically a challenge to make myself create everyday which would both help me get out of the creative slump I was in and also hopefully improve my daily mood. While I’m not going to force myself to create every day in the coming months I’m going to continue to try and do daily creations as it was fun to try new things.

I’ve also been baking a lot more, along with the rest of the world, which I’ve really been enjoying (both the baking and the eating). One of my goals for the year was actually to bake more so thanks lockdown for helping me out with that. I really want to continue baking throughout the coming months too but we’ll see if that happens.

I really enjoyed the posts you shared on Instagram for the month of April. Definitely had me thinking I should get out my pencils again! For those people around the country and the globe who are still self-isolation, do you have any tips for surviving? 

I’m probably not the best person to answer this. I enjoy being inside and without people to an extent. Throughout the entire 4 weeks of lockdown I only left my house to go to the supermarket once a week (hello designated shopper) and to sit in my garden. I didn’t go for daily walks like the rest of the world because I didn’t need to… I almost enjoyed lockdown.

One of the things I have been doing though is having a to do list for my weekends so I don’t just sit on the couch and binge Netflix. I admit some of the things on my to do list are to watch a certain movie or latest episode of a TV show but the action of crossing it off made it feel more productive.

I totally get that! I love me a good list! Speaking of Netflix, watch anything good? 

Yes! Here’s the Top 10 movies and shows I’ve watched/rewatched over lockdown (out of A LOT).  In no particular order…

1. Grey’s Anatomy
2. Kiki’s Delivery Service
3. RuPaul’s Drag Race
4. Doc Martin
5. Fresh Meat
6. Nailed It!
7. All four Shreks
8. Howl’s Moving Castle
9. Madagascar
10. Shark Tale

All four Shreks! Impressive! Great list, thanks for sharing. And last, but certainly not least, in fact possibly the most asked question about Lockdown … did you do anything drastic to your hair?

Hahaahahaa nope!

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There’s still time to change your hair, Sophie! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me about Lockdown! Shall we go and record a podcast episode now?

You can find Sophie’s design work here:

Instagram | Website | Shop

Stay tuned for another edition of The Lockdown Log coming soon!