Career

Table of contents

I’ve been very lucky to have enjoyed a creative career in digital. I wrote it all down as insurance against memory loss, but you may find it interesting nevertheless.

The DTP years — 1989-1993

I left school aged 17 with an incomplete education and no plan. My dad had died that summer after a long battle with alcoholism and I was affected by it deeply. It took time to recover from losing my dad and life was peculiar for quite some time. Eventually, with help from local careers advice and my amazing older sisters, I joined a training program at the technical college in Brighton, studying Information Technology (IT).

In those days, IT meant office applications such as Lotus-123 and WordPerfect. It was extremely dull stuff, but useful for getting a job. What really interested me though was learning an early version of PageMaker for designing magazines, and the flair I showed with it secured me a work placement at American Express for the next two years. There I produced a wide variety of training materials and presentations using PageMaker and Harvard Graphics.

Subsequently I joined Mobil Europe and worked on designing training materials for the SAP program being rolled out to Europe. Again the work was created using a combination of PageMaker and Harvard Graphics which I learned inside-and-out, producing training brochures and workbooks. And I absolutely loved it.

The early digital years — 1993-2002

My digital career started after I replied to a local advert for a “CBT Author” in early 1993. I didn’t even know what that meant! I got the interview at Maxim Training, a management training company in Brighton, my home town. Maxim were moving away from traditional classroom based training and needed people with digital development skills. I didn’t have any at that point (other than learning BASIC at school years earlier and tinkering on my Amiga), but they must have seen something in me as they gave me my first opportunity in this exciting new area.

I quickly learned the tools, and started work building interactive training courses that were delivered on floppy disc. We used Quest, a rather clunky DOS based authoring system made by Allen Communications. Somehow we beat Quest into submission and used it to make very popular courses. It was fun and rewarding, and I built a reputation for my high production values and eye for detail.

Sadly I’ve no screenshots of anything from this period: it was before I thought about such things. While the courses were only 16 colours and used simple graphics, I do recall some nice work, especially considering the technical limitations.

Then came the multimedia years as we progressed to interactive CD-ROMs. I learned the Macromedia tools Authorware and Director which gave great creative power to those of us who weren’t traditional programmers. The state of the art was 640x480 screen resolutions and video no bigger than a postage stamp. I worked on many interesting projects for clients such as Rover, Audi, Motorola, Powergen and LIFFE.

To this day I still miss Authorware: it was a great tool and I enjoyed mastering it. Adobe eventually got hold of Authorware as part of the deal to buy Macromedia and then killed it, a sad fate for the once king of multimedia creativity.

I left Maxim in 1998 for a year to work at FEDA, the Further Education Development Agency (which no longer exists). The role was lead designer of their new website. It was an interesting role but I was honestly out of my depth, expected to support the main developer by writing ASP even though I’d been taken on as a designer!

Fortunately (or not, given what eventually happened) I was then head-hunted back to Maxim a year later. I returned as Lead Multimedia Developer for a long CD-ROM project for the University of the West of England. During that time, Maxim was bought by KnowledgePool for an over-inflated price which eventually had a greater cost: Many of us were made redundant, an event that turned out to be unlawful and triggered a bizarre employment tribunal. Agatha Christie once said that one should never return to a place where you’ve been happy, as the act of returning will destroy it. I doubt that she was talking about former employers, but in this case I think she had a point.

I was fortunate though: I secured a contract at Tim Neill Associates for 6 months on high profile CD-ROMs for Nestlé and South West Trains which kept me afloat while I worked out what to do next.

Web design and development — 1997-2007

By the late 90s, CD-ROMs were falling out of favour: the Web was becoming mainstream and the CD-ROM industry started to move to this new platform.

While at Maxim, I taught myself HTML by doing a lot of viewsource and by reading the spec for HTML 3.2. (I wouldn’t recommend that these days, but back then there wasn’t much HTML training available). You can view my very first website in the Wayback Machine, an early version of the Maxim Training company website. It’s full of dated horrors: awful design, framesets, chaotic structure, incoherent content. But it’s good to look back at this and recognise my growth.

Around 2000, I started to learn about web standards, accessibility and good usability, thanks largely to the efforts of the Web Standards Project (WASP). Like many other frustrated web developers, I realised this was the way forward. I was tired of spending so much time writing different code for different browsers—I just wanted to make websites that worked. At the time, so many sites didn’t work and I knew I could do better. What I learned in the next two years opened my eyes to a better future; one where we could concentrate on designing experiences, rather than wrestling with technology.

During this period I worked on projects for UNICEF, British Airways and DFES. I also formed my strong views on universal web accessibility which I continue to believe in to this day.

In 2003 I decided to go freelance which I did for a year, doing work for SpecSavers and then working with digital agency CogApp on a number of museum related projects.

In 2004 I returned to full time employment by joining the web agency Nixon McInnes (now defunct) as a designer and front-end developer. Here I established in-house standards for accessible, semantic front-end coding, as well as designing and building the front-end of many client sites. I mentored several interns, training them in HTML/CSS and worked closely with the rest of the team which was very fulfilling. A great place to work, with a unique company culture, Nixon McInnes gave me a wonderful opportunity to improve my skills in a small but very talented team.

Self employment in web design — 2007-2013

In April 2007 I left Nixon McInnes and worked briefly at HSBC in London as a web-designer and accessibility consultant. Although this was initially a one year contract, it was clear very quickly that the corporate life was not for me, being far too constraining. I decided to go it alone and set up my own freelance business: Frisk Design. I’ve no idea why I chose such a ridiculous name, but despite that I secured some good work and went on to design and build websites for small businesses and several London web agencies.

Frisk Design was extremely hard work — being freelance is at least two full time jobs in one — but I was pleased with the success I had. But continually securing enough work to remain profitable and working primarily alone took it’s toll. I suffered depression and poor health. No amount of perceived freedom was worth becoming ill for, so after four years I closed the business and joined Design Culture, one of my former clients.

Design Culture were keen to do more digital work and needed help. I signed an 18 month contract to work on all their output: digital design, front-end development, CMS builds and client/project management. The work was interesting and varied and I achieved some very good work for clients such as Carebase, Work Place Giving, Croner and Weber Shandwick.

Full-time again — 2013-2014

After finishing at Design Culture, I returned to freelancing for 6 months, then took a new full-time role at EdComs as Senior Frontend Developer. I wanted to work on more socially worthwhile projects and the work EdComs were doing in the education sector was compelling. I was the lead Front End Developer on a number of high profile projects for EDF Energy and projects connected to Olympics 2012.

However something had been pulling at me for the last few years and I realised that I had been ignoring a long standing inner voice: I wanted to work on my own projects and be more in control of my work.

I left EdComs in April 2014 and entered the world of contracting while I decided what I wanted to do longer term. Contracts for Barclays, Global Radio and Alan Rogers Travel gave me a great opportunity to work on some high-profile projects, while consolidating my years of experience into producing some lovely work.

Potential products — 2015

I took some time to reflect on what I wanted out of my working life. I realised that I still had an urge to write, something that I’d loved at school but hadn’t touched since. I realised I’d been collecting story ideas for years. An old dream of writing a children’s adventure book came rushing back to me. But that would never be a full-time job, not this late in life. Perhaps future me could explore that path one day.

Something else had also been bothering me about web design: everything was starting to look the same. The complexity of creating robust responsive sites, and the rise of design systems and frameworks meant that websites were rejecting the complex aesthetics of the previous decade. The maturation of web design was obviously inevitable, but I felt that websites had lost their personality. I pondered how we might bring that soul back to the web.

I decided to develop artistic web templates for popular platforms like WordPress and Blogger. These templates would use modern development practices, but branch out from the now ubiquitous simple grids and flat colours. I was excited to use my skills and experience to do something a bit different in the web-template marketplace.

However, after self-funding some research and development, I concluded that it wasn’t the right path for me. I didn’t really believe in web-templates as a product. They didn’t offer any interesting problems to solve, the market was saturated, and it seemed like money for old rope. I realised that what I was doing wasn’t about returning the lost soul of the web; I just wanted to make art.

FutureLearn — 2015-2016

In September 2015 I looked at my options. I pondered contracting again, but thought that working on a long-term product might be an interesting challenge. It was the one thing I hadn’t yet done in my career, having always been in agency style work for multiple clients. Perhaps working in a team on a product would be more fulfilling than short term projects?

It was pure luck that I saw a tweet from FutureLearn just before I went on holiday, advertising for a front-end developer. I applied, they hired me, and I started work there in October 2015. I worked within a great team of lovely people, helping to build a brilliant learning platform for millions of learners around the world.

But despite FutureLearn being one of the best places I’d ever worked, I found that the role was more limited than I’d hoped. I really wanted to do more user-interface design, and my desires weren’t compatible with their expectations. Sometimes that happens and while it can be frustrating to discover a role isn’t quite right, it’s best to chalk it up to experience and try something else.

So in November 2016 I left FutureLearn with a revised plan.

Tough times — 2017-2018

I returned to self-employment and continued with web-design contracts. I worked on Inclusive Retreats, designing the site and building the front-end. This work was in partnership with another ex-Maxim colleague, Peter Lewis, who managed the project and built the back-end. It was great to work in partnership again and we produced something really good that we could not have done individually.

Unfortunately due to funding problems the project was canned. I still got paid, eventually, but it was six months of work down the drain. It was rather soul destroying and made me think more seriously about doing something more permanent than purely digital work.

The rest of the year got worse. I thought that I’d peaked in my digital career, and tried to do something different by getting into book cover design. That turned out badly and I chalked that one up to an error of judgement.

In September my mum died after a brief battle with cancer which had not been diagnosed until it was too late. It was an awful time and in my grief I had to stop work for a few months. My mum had been mentally ill for most of her adult life, and dealing with her illness had been traumatic for decades. That had long term effects on my own mental health too. In her passing I began to feel a weight lifted: she was finally at peace, and perhaps in a way I was now too.

In 2018 I undertook some career coaching to help me work out my next career move. It revealed a lot about my strengths and interests, and it was clear that I should be using more of my design skills and not just writing code. I had known this subconsciously for years, but it was empowering to finally have it validated by a professional coach. With this knowledge, I started looking for a new suitable role.

Natural History Museum — 2019-2022

Eventually I saw an advert for a frontend developer role at the Natural History Museum. Although this was another coding role and not the design role I was looking for, the job description discussed the close working relationship between developers and designers. It sounded right up my street and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I’d spent many a happy time in my youth exploring the halls of that museum. To work there would be a dream.

I didn’t expect to get the job, but after a day-long interview with six different people, they offered it to me. I almost didn’t believe it. I really had landed a dream job.

Although I’d been seeking a more design oriented role, the frontend developer role at the museum ticked most of my boxes. I was able to work closely with a designer on prototyping new features for the website, which included testing our designs on the public. It was great fun to be in the museum spaces and get input from visitors. There’s something magical about that place—you can feel the energy of its history and purpose—and I was getting to experience it every day. I was happy in my work again for the first time in many years.

Then Covid happened.

And then I became a dad.

I was put on furlough for three months, at the same time our baby boy was born. It was a boon in many respects, as I had a bonding experience with my son that I would not have had otherwise. In time I returned to work fully remote, but the role was different and the team dynamic forever changed. Lockdowns caused the Museum to close several times, and the projects I’d been working on were quietly shelved.

During my furlough I’d missed out on the work done by the team that remained. It was difficult to rebuild those working relationships when I returned: the pandemic had definitely taken a toll on everyone and the energy and enthusiasm we’d had was in short supply. I stayed there for another two years, working remotely, but it was not the same. My role had dwindled to mostly maintenance which is a death knell for creativity. When the digital team was restructured in a way that wasn’t positive for me, I realised I couldn’t stay. It was a sad end to what I’d expected would have been my last job: I’d hoped to stay there until retirement!

GDS / GOV.UK — 2022+

Before leaving the Natural History Museum, I’d secured a new role at GDS (Government Digital Services). The position involved front-end development on the gov.uk website, a site that’s a great example of user focused design.

I’ve often felt that being a frontend developer who understands design has been a problem. Employers often don’t know how to get the best out of us. But after doing this for many years, I know that my combined skill-sets are great strengths. And it seemed that GDS could see that too. Indeed, during the remote video interview (a first for me) the team who were present made it clear that I’d found somewhere my experience would be valued.

It’s now nearly two years since I joined GDS. It’s been quite the journey already: the amount of new things to learn has at times felt overwhelming. But I’m getting there slowly and I’m constantly amazed by everything that goes on here.

GDS is the most supportive place I’ve ever worked, with a brilliant team of dedicated colleagues all focused on making great digital services that work for everyone. It’s a privilege to be here and I’m proud to be a part of this important organisation that helps millions of citizens every day.