Now
I am currently a Design Director at thoughtbot. I still work with clients on a daily basis designing and building new products. I also mentor a team of designers, and help grow the business.
Iâve been a designer and front-end engineer for more than 12 years. I started out as a Graphic Designer, around 2014 I transitioned to Product Design. Since then I have worked with clients of all sizes in many different industries.
I am currently a Design Director at thoughtbot. I still work with clients on a daily basis designing and building new products. I also mentor a team of designers, and help grow the business.
2020â
Design Director
thoughtbot
2016â2020
Product Designer
thoughtbot
2015â2016
Digital Designer
FutureGov
2011â2013
Graphic Designer
Condiment / Inn Style
August 2021
August 2021
August 2021
December 2021
March 2024
I grew up in a small coastal town in the east of England 1. Not much happens in a town like that, but the beaches are nice. My choices at school were pretty limited, my favourite subjects were Computing, Media Studies, and Art - âdesignâ wasnât something anyone was familiar with. Regardless I loved building things for screens, creating images, and writing. Eventually youâre told to find a future career, something you can âdoâ for the rest of your life. I was determined that âsomethingâ should be âsomethingâ Iâd like, and that would include my hobbies. I eventually started researching this thing called Graphic Design, it took me a while to work out what it was.
While aimlessly googling âWhat do graphic designers doâ I found a small forum of enthusiasts (the name of which I never remembered, if it still exists) who were swapping images of their favourite pieces of design. One commenter posted a blurry snapshot of what Iâd eventually learn was âWatching Words Moveâ 2 It amazed me, it is simple, playful and expressive, constructed solely from words, in a single typeface.
A few years later, sat at a desk of a small design agency, I was again Googling: âWhat do Service Designers do?â, âWhat do Product Designers do?â. I loved parts of Graphic Design as a job, but my interest in User Experience, and User Interfaces had been growing. It was an itch that couldnât be scratched designing logos and building small Wordpress sites. The empathy and considerate approaches of Product Design, combined with strategy and process appealed to me.
A few more years later Iâm happiest doing a little bit of everything that takes an idea and turns it into a working product or service. In my spare time (not chasing my toddler around) I tinker with new web technologies, read as much as I can about design, walk, and fawn over photos of brutalist architecture 3.