Take Us There: get to know our employer brand illustrator

It takes more than words to express our employer brand – who MarketAxess is as an employer, and why talent should join and stay with us. While we took an extensive research-based approach to unlock our authentic narrative around what differentiates us as an employer, we took it one step further to develop a “visual language” for bringing our employer brand to life.  

Enter: Aron Leah, a UK-based illustrator, who rose to the challenge of drawing illustrations to reflect our Culture Principles and Values – two important building blocks of our employer brand – in order to uniquely depict the essence of being a part of our company. We chatted with him to learn more about his background and how he approached this project, to both give more context for our own employees, as well as educate prospective talent who sees our branding when researching us as an employer and may be wondering what these little drawings are all about!

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Tell us about your background and how you became an illustrator. 

It’s quite a long story. But first, I have to say, I used to work for an insurance company in my early 20s. And it would have been amazing if they'd done something like what you’re doing, and describing what it's like in the office to attract new people. 

Anyway, I've always been into drawing. When I was younger, I used to always get told to stop putting so much into my drawings because I’d hit a point, and ruin them by overdoing it. I think that's something that I’ve become really conscious of as I started working in the creative industry.  

I grew up listening to punk and metal and was into the skate and BMX scene. The brands within those sports have always influenced my taste in graphic design, and as I got older, it influenced my work. I went to college to do graphic design. I did photography, videography, and fine art – but no one at any point was like, “hey, you could do this for a living.” I went on to go to art school, but then for about 10 years I didn’t do anything with my art. I was a green keeper on a golf course. I worked in petrol stations, insurance companies, landscape gardening, carpenter, all of that. I never really knew what I wanted to do. I traveled, did BMX, surfed and lived out of a van for a little while. I think all this gave me my own perspective on the world.

I came back and started doing a little bit of freelance, doing logo design and brand identity, and really gaining a good understanding of graphic design. Going back to what I was saying about me putting so much into my work and overdoing it, graphic design helped me pare it back and go really simple and think about how I can communicate a complicated idea and emotional feeling in this simple form. As freelancing started to pick up, I started to be more selective about my projects and focus solely on illustrations. At that point, I was really bad at drawing people…which is funny because pretty much every project I pick up now is drawing people.  

As I've understood my work more and where it fits within the creative industry, I realize it has really become about communicating brand values, and doing it in a way that’s simple, but fun and witty. I take a lot of pride in it and really enjoy it. 

How did you feel about this project when you were approached about it? 

I've always been very drawn to New York and its culture. I went once when I was in college. I think I share the same sense of humor as New Yorkers, so when any client approaches me from New York, I get really excited. As soon as I jumped on the phone with your creative ad agency, darling, we just hit it off.  

It was explained that you were celebrating an anniversary and launching your employer brand, and that these illustrations would be going in print, up on walls, etc. to celebrate your history and culture. I was told that you have these brand values and culture principles to use as inspiration. To me, if you write them down, they are a little boring, because it's just words. But you wanted to make them more engaging and drive a greater understanding amongst your current and future employees. It felt like the perfect fit for me as a project. 

What was the creative process like for developing these? 

This is probably one of the biggest projects I've done. I have various ways to develop ideas, but essentially, I tried to just use what you gave me, and this is what came out. And, by the way, some of the illustrations are just fun and completely random, like the ducks.   

You had all these prompts that express your values as a business. You know how you value your customers, your employees, your team, etc. And I thought, “give me the prompts, and let me work”. I asked if the illustrations needed to be a specific shape or more organic, and I was told, “Just draw. We trust it.” Normally, this is really scary. But I think the way you were all drawn to, for example, a duck with glasses that I drew on another project. I knew you understood what I was trying to do. Any fear or apprehension I would have when a client would say typically “do your thing”, because who knows what feedback is coming, wasn’t there.  

I've always been a huge fan of the New Yorker cartoons and that expression. There are subtle pop culture references in my illustrations and things that I'll latch on to. Like in your case, post-it notes. Putting a post-it note in a really silly situation can add so much character to a boring illustration. Or coffee cups with legs on them.   

I did have these thoughts where I asked myself, “why would this big, important company want my silly little drawings?” But I was told to just draw, and that's what I  did, and I kept receiving such positive feedback that you loved everything and to keep going. It was a huge confidence boost for me.   

I didn't feel like I had to put on a front when talking to darling. And I could tell, even if I was going to be working with your team directly, I could show up in a hoodie and a hat and just be myself. I don’t want to change who I am, and I'm really lucky that I get to work with people like the ones at MarketAxess who seem to be on the same wavelength as me. That was felt throughout the whole project, which was really nice. I had zero problems. While this was the biggest project for me, it was also the easiest in terms of working relationship. 

I tried really hard to understand you, as the people who work at MarketAxess. Only you can provide authentic, interesting insights into how the business works, why you started it, the employees there – there's all these stories and I think people often forget from a branding perspective, that you don't have to do what everyone else does to stay on trend. You are really unique, and you just need to find a way to communicate who you are in an interesting way. The fact that my way of illustrating fits for you as a corporate company is pretty cool. 

What’s your favorite illustration you did for us and why? 

There were so many. I think my favorite is the astronaut holding the light bulb: “ideas can come from anywhere”. What went through my mind was the idea that your brain is trying to find the right answer and then ideas can come out of nowhere, from any person. Once I drew it all out, I realized just how cool it was. It’s quite funny. 

What do you want our future candidates and employees to take away from these illustrations? 

I want them to interpret the illustrations however they’d like. Even though there’s meaning to many of them. The world's pretty bleak right now, and if they make them smile, my job is done. 

Want to learn more about Aron and see more of his work?  

Visit his website.

Follow him on Instagram.

Connect with him on LinkedIn.