I’m a graphic designer. Although, after 14+ years working in design, branding and marketing, calling myself just a graphic designer feels like selling it a little short.

I’ve spent my career jumping between branding, advertising, marketing, digital, print, motion, exhibitions, signage and all the other weird and wonderful things that tend to land on a designer’s desk. I’ve worked agency-side, in-house and everywhere in between, which has given me a pretty good understanding of both sides of the creative fence.

I started out in agency environments, working across different clients, brands and industries. That was probably where I learnt one of the most useful things about design. You have to be able to adapt. One day you might be building a brand identity, the next you’re designing a campaign, laying out a brochure or figuring out how something is actually going to be produced.

I then moved into the fast-paced world of digital and retail, including my time at Shop Direct, where the sheer volume of creative work taught me a completely different side of the job. Digital design isn’t just about making something look nice. It’s about understanding how people move through things, what catches their attention and how creative can influence what they do next.

I also spent time at JR Rix & Sons, working across multiple brands and getting more involved in the wider marketing side of things. Photography, digital content, campaigns and printed communications all became part of the mix, which suited me pretty well because, as it turns out, I’ve never been very good at sticking to one discipline.

Then came Wren Kitchens, where I briefly swapped marketing campaigns for learning and development. Designing training resources and internal communications might sound like a completely different world, but the same principle applies. Take something that needs communicating and make people actually want to engage with it.

From there I moved to Endurance Doors, where I was back in the world of brand and marketing, but with a much stronger focus on building a consistent, premium brand across multiple touchpoints.

I worked across everything from advertising and brochures to POS, exhibitions and digital campaigns. It was also at Endurance where I started moving further into managing people and developing creative teams, alongside the hands-on creative work.

This was probably one of the biggest changes in my career. I still wanted to be designing, but I was becoming more interested in the bigger picture. How a creative team works, how you get the best out of people, how you manage workloads and how you create an environment where good ideas can actually happen.

While at Endurance, I completed a CMI Level 5 Department Manager Apprenticeship, gaining a Distinction and becoming a Chartered Manager. It covered leadership, strategic planning, project management and team development, and gave me a completely different perspective on the job.

It turns out managing designers is a lot like designing.

You need a plan.
You need to understand the brief.
You need to know when something isn’t working.
And occasionally, you need to accept that your favourite idea isn’t necessarily the right one.

The difference is that instead of moving pixels around, you’re working with people. Which is considerably more complicated and, thankfully, much more interesting.

That experience has carried through into my role at MKM Building Supplies, where I’m now not only responsible for delivering creative work but also helping lead the design team, develop people and shape how the wider creative function works.

My work at MKM covers national marketing campaigns, brand development, branch branding, signage, large-format graphics, exhibitions, digital and print design. I also work closely with marketing, commercial and senior leadership teams to make sure the creative supports the wider business, rather than simply looking good.

And that’s probably the biggest change in my career so far. I still love the hands-on design side of things, but I’ve become just as interested in people, process, creative strategy and finding better ways of working.

Which brings me neatly to the current chapter. Trying to work out how we can make creative teams faster, smarter and more efficient without sucking all the creativity out of them.

Hence the AI experiments.

I’m currently involved in AI implementation and workflow development, exploring tools such as Microsoft Copilot and Claude and looking at how emerging technology can genuinely improve the creative process. Not because AI is shiny and new, but because I’m interested in finding better ways for designers to spend more time doing the stuff that actually requires a human brain.

Because apparently, after 14+ years in design, I still haven’t learnt to leave well enough alone.