Design is the skillset I have prioritised to leverage my creativity.

That single choice has shaped my entire career, but it could just as easily have gone another way. From the earliest descriptions of who I was, the word creative always appeared. By today’s definitions, some of the traits I carried might now be labelled differently, perhaps even as a disability, but at the time they were simply quirks that nudged me in this direction. It became the identity I took on. Whether that identity was imposed on me or the result of genuine talent is still up for debate, but I passed every test I ever took and won every art competition I ever entered.

The irony is that I am not competitive. I have never cared about competing with others, which is why I still do not value awards for their own sake. I only care how they could be leveraged to generate more business. But I was never considered a business person. Even when I turned talent into design skills, I never stood out for business acumen. I was recognised for creativity.

Still, I genuinely believe that had I pursued any other field, I would have thrived as long as I committed to it in the way I committed to design. I could have applied myself to almost anything. If you have not met me, you might be surprised to know the only thing I ever formally studied was personal training before I became a designer. If you have met me, you would probably understand.

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The First Detour

I am not a bodybuilder. That is a whole other level of dedication. I have always been in good shape. That came from resisting the idea that I was useless at sport, even though I was never encouraged to play much. For the most part my family were overweight and did very little to stay in shape. My father, a pilot, was the exception, showing real athleticism through running, hiking, and keeping fit for his job. My brother and I looked different to the rest of the family, much slimmer, so at eighteen I started going to the gym to gain some muscle.

I got results quickly and learned that hard, consistent work pays off. I obsessed over training. I fantasised about bodybuilding, but I never had the discipline to build the frame required to compete. Still, I looked good enough to model and walk around with confidence. I still train with intent and consistency, and when I am not talking about design I am usually talking about fitness, nutrition, longevity and mental well being.

Early in my personal training career, I discovered I could make far more money in design with less time investment. I abandoned the idea of being a PT and committed to design. Despite once swearing I would never be a creative, and trying different paths, I found myself pulled into a career of creativity anyway.

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Finding My Medium

At first, I thought I would be a graphic designer. I tried designing business cards, flyers, and letterheads. But I found web design early, and that changed everything. It was not only about visual design, I had to learn to code and build websites. That led into Flash, which opened the door to animation, illustration, sound, interaction, and experiences that were far richer than simple layouts.

I became obsessed with being an internationally recognised Flash designer. This distracted me from any other creative pursuits because I was fully committed. The more I built, the more attention I received, and the more ambitious my work became.

Over time, my skills broadened. Bigger clients demanded more than just Flash sites. I had to think about branding, campaigns, technology, and experiences. Year on year, I built range. But when the 2008 recession hit, working independently became unsustainable, and I started flirting with the idea of joining an agency.

In 2009, I entered advertising as a Creative Director.

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From Designer to Leader

Being hired directly as a Creative Director meant leading from day one. I was responsible for digital and for integrating it with traditional teams, raising standards and pushing for brand building across channels. After a decade working for myself, the shift into leadership felt natural. I focused on outcomes and on helping people do the best work they could.

As a creative director my role was broad from the start. It covered brand, campaigns, digital integration and the wider picture of how creative work shapes perception and drives business. I thrived in that environment. Even without previous experience on set, without understanding why production was outsourced to directors or why DTP handled asset design, I figured it all out. I was just as comfortable concepting a TV advert as I was launching a website or planning a seasonal campaign. My personal taste and standards carried me through.

Leadership, however, was a skill I had to learn. At first, I thought I was doing fine, but in truth I was making mistakes. The difference was that I was open to guidance from great leaders, and I learned from them quickly. I applied their wisdom, caught up fast, and found success as a creative leader.

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Beyond Agencies

When I left advertising, I intended to return my focus to design. But I never saw myself as only a designer. My career had taught me that my creativity had more range. I could deliver far beyond pixels. I expanded my scope into systems, product design, brand strategy, and content production at scale.

Even in my role as Chief Design Officer, where others sometimes saw the job as managing designers in Figma, I was reshaping brand perception, building a digital product function, and influencing business direction. I rebranded companies, introduced design thinking, built systems, took over social media, and spoke business with CEOs.

Creativity was always the lever I pulled. It gave me access to projects and responsibilities that others might have overlooked.

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Beyond Design

Despite being boxed in at times, I have always seen myself as more than a designer. I can adapt to new tools and frameworks quickly, and I am not limited to a single discipline. Design has been my foundation, but I know I could have written, directed film, or worked in fashion with equal commitment.

Could I have been a successful businessman or CEO in any field? I believe so. But it takes only a few minutes with me to see where my instincts lie. I am creative. It is natural, it is obvious, and it has always been the constant.

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Creativity as the Constant

The point is not that design was the only path open to me. It is that creativity is a transferable foundation. Once you commit to mastering a skill, the same mindset can be applied elsewhere. Design has been the skillset I prioritised to leverage my creativity, but the real story is that creativity itself is the asset.

It has carried me through industries, helped me adapt, and allowed me to thrive. Design was my chosen medium, but creativity has always been the thread running through everything I do.

Recruitment works better when it feels more like representation. The most effective recruiters aren’t acting as middlemen but behave like agents. Such professionals know their talent, back them, build trust, create access, and understand how timing and fit actually work. This shift in mindset changes everything.

You’ve seen this before. A client sends over a job spec and the recruiter reposts it to LinkedIn. Hundreds of applications come flooding in. Within hours, the inbox is full and the system is overwhelmed. No one gets a good experience, not the client, candidates, or recruiter.

Recruiters often complain they do not have the time to respond to everyone or to sort through portfolios properly. But the chaos is a symptom of waiting for client requests and then call for candidates begins. Theres only going through CV’s and forwarding them on.

I propose a better approach. Start early, build a bench of talent before the demand appears, know who is doing good work, and understand what they are looking for. Stay in touch with the people in your network, even when they are not actively searching. That way, when a client calls, you already know who to call back.

Clients do not need help reposting jobs. If they have written the spec, they can post it themselves. What they expect from a recruiter is access. Such clients want a shortlist and perspective. People want to know who you rate, and why. That is what earns the fee and builds trust.

Talent agents work this way all the time. In film, in sport, in music: representation is proactive. Agents do not wait for the casting call before getting involved. Such professionals know their client and understand the brief before it arrives. Agents pitch, coach, and prepare while creating the opportunity, not just responding to it.

Recruiters could be doing the same in creative and tech. Many already have the network and just need to activate it differently.

Help your candidates refine their CVs, shape their portfolios, understand their ambitions, know when they are open to move, offer interview prep, and give feedback. Bring creative leaders into your process if you do not feel confident reviewing portfolios yourself. Turn quality into your edge.

Recruitment agencies should be attracting candidates by sponsoring industry events, regularly publishing trend reports and making sure candidates up upping their skillsets to respond to demand.

You don’t need to be a middleman pushing paperwork between two sides because that isn’t the role anymore.

The people you represent should trust you before the job goes live. Clients should feel the preparation in your process, not just see a name on a list.

The best recruitment is built on readiness rather than rush, where you represent people well, stay close to them, and earn the right to place them.

That is the job.

I don’t design so much as I give design or creative direction. I’m a leader, but I still give direction. I default to Creative Director, and given the level I’m at, I sometimes say Executive Creative Director. I’ve been a Chief, but that seems to scare some and confuse others.

But that’s not what this is about.

I’m talking about the role you play. Not your title, but the actual role. The way you show up. What you take responsibility for. What others rely on you for.

This isn’t about me and my experience, I’ll try to keep it about you.

What role do you play?

It’s usually a really tough question to answer, and if I told you to explain it in one sentence, I’d probably stress you out. While you think about that, and you’re welcome to add your answer in the comments, let me explain what I mean.

If I ask most people in advertising agencies what they do, I’ll get two common answers: “I’m a copywriter” or “I’m an art director.” Sometimes with “junior” or “senior” in front. But that tells me very little about the role they actually play or the work they actually do. Is it print, web, above the line, below the line, through the line? And what does that even mean to someone outside of the ad industry?

If I asked a designer in an in-house team at a fintech, most would say they’re a UI designer, UX designer, or maybe a product designer. If pressed, some might say “I do user research and user flows,” which is a bit more specific to their day-to-day practice. But few would say “I work on the user experience of banking products like how to freeze your credit card” or “I work on onboarding for the business banking app.” Not many people go that granular because they might be jumping across multiple features while working at the company.

Most are likely also distracted by chasing the junior, senior, lead titles. It’s understandable, we all want growth and to be recognised for our achievements.

Another thing that sometimes gets added by advertising folk is “award-winning,” and by designers, “user-centred.” There are lots of crafty ways to say these things.

Let me bring it back to me for a second.

I can remember trying to write a one-liner that explained what I did, something that captured the breadth of my experience. I would say Executive Creative Director, then add “from concept to execution.” Whether it worked or not, I don’t know. I don’t recall getting too many questions about it. But I felt it worked because it included the job title, which covered the seniority, the “creative” (since most things at the time were still lumped together), and the fact that I give direction. Then it explained that I work from the concept of a campaign all the way through to execution, meaning building out the full solution.

This felt important to me. In advertising, most creatives only really did conceptual work. They were paid to come up with mood boards, storyboards, ideas and campaigns, but they handed it off. The work was then done by DTP teams, directors, campaign managers, art buyers, producers, etc. Rarely did they do the final work themselves. That was outsourced. They would give final approval and still get most of the credit, as agencies were mostly in the business of big ideas.

But as a digital creative director, we often had to come up with the big idea, create all the assets, build it, and run the campaigns. Hence “from concept to execution.”

In in-house teams, there’s broadly speaking a UX phase and a UI phase. Maybe a discovery phase and a delivery phase. Research and conceptualisation, then development of visual assets. But it’s usually handed over from design to dev, and the output is often not what you originally intended. Many designers are left feeling disappointed.

But given how long these things take in corporate, “shipping is shipping” and apparently we’ll iterate next time. Or so it’s sold.

So my earlier soundbite after Executive Creative Director made sense at the time. No one challenged it. It worked. But now I find it more challenging.

Again, this isn’t about me. What about you?

I read titles and headline descriptions all the time. Very few actually say more than the job title. The ones that do try to describe what they do often end up making a really confusing statement. And I often see the same generic “user-focused” blah blah I’ve probably used myself.

Occasionally, I read something with a bit more clarity. It might explain that someone works within a specific industry or business unit, or on a specific product or feature. That certainly helps.

But what do you actually do? That’s the elusive nugget we should all be searching for.

Some of these headlines include a flex, like “award-winning.” In tech, it’s usually “ex-Google” or “ex-Facebook.” That’s just a flex, like saying “Oscar-winning director” or “three-time best-selling author.” You have every right to flex. It adds credibility.

So what do you do? What if you had to pick one statement? Maybe two. I understand how diverse your skill set has to be to get any job these days. There’s no judgement from me. I’m simply trying to work this out in my own mind. Trying to figure out if what we say makes any sense to anyone else besides ourselves.

I usually try to explain that I lead teams, building experiences people love. It says what I do. It says what we deliver, not just with my input, but together, as a team. And who it’s for. Oh, and that they actually love it.

I also have a cheekier line I use now and then. I say I’m the creative leaders’ leader. Because I am. I lead creative directors and other senior leaders. I use “creative” because “design” feels too narrow. I say “leader” instead of “director” because not all leaders direct. There are leads, heads, managers, and so on. But I’m their leader. I represent their function within the organisation.

I’m always trying to find the most elegant way to say this and to make sure it lands, which I have to admit has gotten tougher over the years. I’m asked all the time what I do, and I fumble. I throw things out to see what lands.

And if I struggle to explain it to someone in person, writing it in a way that makes sense to anyone else is even more challenging.

Do you feel the same way too?

I’d love to know how you describe yourself, in person or in your headline, outside of your job title.