Senior Digital Designer

2008–2013

I was senior digital designer in a digital media team (from mid-2008, thereabouts) that the organisation had created to help and bring-to-life their digital ambitions with a new website and content management system. I also steadily became a bit of champion and leader for the brand’s digitally-led ideas and associated products and services as I mostly (or sort of!) knew about those matters.

I was told (I think light-heartedly, but was never totally sure) as being the ‘best of a bad bunch’ by my eventual line manager on gaining the role but at least was given a constructive environment to competently and confidently, in my own way, establish digital design among the organisation’s (at the time, new) digital media team and led for and showed how approaches and attitudes, not just what something looked like, could help enhance ways of operating and behaving to customers, even breaking down, where appropriate, barriers that existed because of the classic, ‘well, we’ve always done it like that’ approach.

[...] Rob has consistently shown an aptitude for being innovative and creative. His real strength is his creative flair and bringing to any project he works on an enthusiasm for the digital world.

Rob also has a passion for what he does, which is clearly reflected in his work and he always strives to produce a high standard of design. Working closely with Rob on the designs for the new property pages he was always forthcoming with innovative ideas and was always ready to listen to what others had to say and would incorporate these into his designs. He consistently pushes the boundaries of what can be done within projects and often presents exciting new challenges within his team.

Another of Rob’s strengths is initiative – this is clearly demonstrated in his design concepts such as [...] the build of Labs which successfully enables us to share and communicate within the Digital Media Team (DMT) and to stakeholders the designs and concepts that we have been working on. This has proved to be a valuable tool for both communication within the DMT and outside of the team.

Line manager Digital Media Team

Just a shame a lot of the time the main website project within, around, under, or on top of the digital media program seemed weighed down, (despite its ambitions?!), by outdated ways of working and attitudes and approaches, as well as outsourced, licensed (and expensive) non-open-source tech and was lost, a bit like many an idea or process I thought could be given a go to achieve something helpful for the cause in a welcoming, cost-effective and even meaningful way.

Looking back on the time and efforts (and even when there in the program’s initial years) like all kinds of in-house efforts that are not an organisation’s main reason-for-being, it started off reasonably well but it didn’t really help itself by not even daring to work the project(s) any differently from typically ‘corporate’ ways and was brought down by – certainly chipped away at – (often self-made) bureaucracy, egos, (project-)managerialism, data and spreadsheets probably, budgets, attitudes, IT departments and propriety tech that drove any spirit that might have been there, out the door.

Still, as it became clearer during my time there, it never felt truly welcomed, wanted or even safe and constructive to really question, learn of and better understand, even critique and adapt wider organisational methods and needs that inevitably and always affect just what the point and purpose of the work you do, is. Without that, you end up being predominately used as a delivery service that has a certain set of skills and knows some software that others can capitalise on and so can tick some boxes and get some things done.

Ah well.

Achievements in this role included...

• Championing the benefit of attracting new visitors by prototyping, in the browser, the charity’s first possible iPhone app for places to visit.
• Making cups of tea, for myself and team members when and, delivering in the rather large office, where necessary.
• Collaborating and leading for design and the charity’s visual identity for digital projects and working with external digital partners and projects.
• Creating and leading an internal website – called Labs – to push forward new digital ideas, inspire others and to help share knowledge in the team.
• Starting an internal email newsletter, Thursday Afternoon, in the digital media team to share ideas and content from the outside world.

A long-held personal opinion

From the digital side, it would have helped to see a stronger willingness from the Trust to embrace more agile and open-source methodologies so they could innovate, develop and test web projects and services more efficiently, without things getting bogged down in expensive enterprise technology, staff processes and passing of bucks . . . a bit like living up to its core values, and so say involved and democratic, reasons for being . . .

Feedback given to me

• ‘He is increasingly coming to understand the political nature of the organisation (as am I [my line manager]) and now tailors his presentations with other departments accordingly. He should however remember that he is always free to demonstrate his real feelings and frustrations within the content team unit and we would all miss out if he stopped expressing his opinions, however forcefully.’
• ‘Having looked at his back catalogue on Labs, I can see he has great vision and could have achieved more with a usable platform.’
• ‘There may be some value in attempting to see things from the other party’s point of view more readily. Rob is highly skilled and perhaps finds it frustrating when others don’t immediately “get it”. Trying to imagine what approach and reassurance others may need to be persuaded could possibly help.’
• ‘Know that you have amazing creative talent – let people see it and appreciate it. You’re obviously someone who doesn’t like to shout about your talent, but please know that it is appreciated, and that you should feel able to bring more ideas and solutions to the table. However frustrated you get that ideas don’t always come to anything concrete, you need to keep contributing, and as a result you’ll hopefully see more of your input come to fruition, but you never know, you might also have more fun!’ [Fun isn’t a reason to justify work and doing it just to make others look good . . . plus, where was the open and accommodating environment to encourage, seek and take those things forward anyway? Oh, yeah, it didn't exist.]
• ‘I was hoping that Rob might step up this year into a more visible / influential role within the wider marketing team. This has not happened as I might have hoped but he has made a significant transition to management and produced some excellent design and thinking work across a number of different campaigns. He continues to be a fantastic web designer and a great person to have on the team when he is on song.’

Then, things changed

New plans were made (some fairly, given the state of the wider digital endeavours and legacies that had happened), new people with different approaches arrived and new structures and positions were made, one of which is that I became . . .

Design Lead

2013–2016

Not involving metal but directing, leading and supporting, through graphic design and skills and knowledge, creativity and management, mostly considered projects and sort of reasonable organisational priorities alongside a good design team and some good people, across ‘central’ and a few regional teams, in and around a somewhat single-track setup seemingly chasing things for the sake of corporate machinations sometimes seeming from another decade (or two) ago!

With some seniority and working with like-minded and loosely similarly-skilled-in-the-same-industry (but not always and which is appreciated and insightful anyway) people across the regions of the National Trust’s remit, I was able to visit a fair few places under their control and meet some passionate and enthusiastic teams doing their bit for conservation and preservation.

However, despite the breadth of skills and passions throughout those places and roles, centrally it was a somewhat different story.

Rob is an excellent manager. He is very supportive and encouraging of his team. He seems to trust us and regularly checks in to see how things are going and if we need any guidance. There is no design challenge he can’t solve, and I always appreciate his advice and expertise on a project. In meetings, he is very calm and collected but manages to cut straight to the key point. [...] Rob spends a lot of time helping his team and the rest of the agency on various projects, and doesn’t always get the chance to exercise his own quite considerable design skills. Rob is very talented and sometimes the politics of the job get in the way of him doing what he does best, which is to sit down and create something awesome.

[...]

It seems to me that Rob isn’t always given the credit he deserves. I think that’s because ‘design’ as a discipline isn’t taken particular seriously within the agency, it’s regarded as a delivery function rather than a serious pursuit. I think Rob needs to be in strategy meetings right from the off, understanding the business needs of a particular department and recognising what the creative opportunities are early on.

Direct report Graphic designer

I tried my best around the expectations, instructions and direction I was offered (not that there was much, if any, from those above me) and sort of encouraged to be guided by and do (even if I didn’t agree with it).

Where and when I could – plus, felt it was necessary for the organisation first, not its internal marketing agency and that it was safe and empowering to do so – I think a few worthwhile opinions and decent things were shared and achieved (in and around the pretence and appearance of just trying to fulfil requirements, probably continuing to get jokes and opinions made behind my back, just get the jobs done and keep others off my back and get some work done, with plenty of exorcising in my personal diary to help understand it all and dampen the fire).

The first of my managers was a Traffic Manager (and was, in my opinion, somewhat bureaucratic and clearly wanted to ‘achieve’ something, but no doubt was facing their own battles and others’ attitudes) then a Head of Print and Production (or whatever their role title officially was) that was a good person, just a bit stuck in previous decades of working, in my opinion, despite leaving me predominately to run my own show.

Although never really sure what that show was meant to be, especially never being privy to the higher-ups’ meetings that might have helped my endeavours or be allowed to (or even made to feel that it was okay to) challenge and ask (plus be respected for doing so), ‘Why do we need to do this and like that?’ in a constructive, wider-reaching meeting or two.

Hmmm . . . ^{1 2 3}

The meetings I did get invited to always seemed like forgone conclusions of strategy and reason, weighted by others’ opinions and agency excuses to ‘show progress’, with most of the them seeming (and actually being) pretty pointless to achieving things but would just about justify costs, probably.

It really made one feel important, recognised and respected in the internal agency when no senior figure in it made any attempts to just chat (constructively) with me every now and then exploring and debating marketing and strategy intent and purpose and how critical thinking would be useful with organisational efforts and ambitions and show and help that not even doing a (yearly or seasonal) campaign once in a while would likely be a good thing and acting beyond just playing the departmental roles, hierarchy and titles that seemingly defined operating ‘successfully’ would be more relevant and fulfilling.

Not great

Wider departmental meetings were also a waste of time to be honest, preaching forgone conclusions, sorry, marketing updates, and seemingly wrapping it all up in presentations, team spirit and hired places to fit everyone in and attempt to treat it as meaningful and important.

Still, the few minor presentations I did do (in response to creative review sessions that had been run about understanding the efficacy of our marketing projects) in small, internal-agency get togethers weren’t great, partly as I always had to reduce qualitative work into quantitative entities to induce some kind of affinity, relevancy and understanding to design and creative purpose (with me taking the piss with it and having presentation slides of largely typeset numbers and percentage symbols) to the marketeers and, being honest (again), didn’t really personally give a toss about it as it seemed more self-fulfilling and self-justifying marketing claptrap.

Not too bad

Okay, I wasn’t the greatest leader or manager (with no doubt some inaction, ineptitude and unhelpful mores), nor particularly active in talking about or raising work matters (why bother, when someone else might have already said words to the effect?), but the skill in leaders is at least breaking barriers and hierarchies down through non-bureaucratic and non-administrative ways and to not be so prescriptive nor specific in tackling things and at least explore possibilities and potential (outside of the marketing obsession or bubble) to make and do things a little differently (or not at all!) and adapt your own views with, to and for others.

Work outside the top-down structure and its near-endless tick boxes and dare to do less with more diversity and maybe a cuppa and chat about possible future roles and opportunities that might be needed, even.

It may be that my methods and some comments about personal ambitions and skills made at certain moments inevitably made their way up the hierarchy and set my stall, somewhat in stone, to others.

Again though, not sure why the ‘seniors’ didn’t seem to break barriers, learn, challenge or even want to nurture any potential outside their own roles, demands, bubbles and approaches, but little respect from me went to them or the skills they may have had for their jobs because of their attitudes and approaches. However, some feedback given me by someone external running their own agency – that completed work for the NT when and where necessary – was good:

One of Rob’s strongest assets is his ability to understand and champion the genuine quality of experience the National Trust provides over the long term. He has proactively taken the visual brand from a set of static guidelines to a real working ethos that resolves confusion, adds clarity and celebrates real experiences.

[...] Another key strength is his proactive attitude to challenge and improve things – this can be seen on countless occasions where he has not simply delivered what some expected from him – he looks further into what’s needed and at different ways of improving what the outcome can be.

Rob is also very understanding of what complications a wider context can bring, working as part of a team to resolve and tune different stakeholders requirements into a holistic solution. An example of this is how he tackled the task of creating a unique proposition for the groups audience, a task that involved untangling a very complex set of issues, which at first must have seemed almost impossible to resolve. Working through a collaborative process, Rob was able to create a solution that worked for all parties involved. Throughout this challenging process, he stayed enthusiastic and responsive to the various needs.

[...]

I would say however that at times it must seem hard for Rob to know what his role is and as such, what his input should be. Obviously he is Head of Design but he also serves a wider role of visual brand guardian – which he has taken on as there is clearly a need and benefit for this role – maybe he should state to others more clearly that this is something he can offer.

Design Director Third-party, creative partner

Leaving

In mid-2016 I left the organisation for new horizons. I had tried as best I could (and be bothered to in certain circumstances, given group attitudes) and I think I had my moments of being a helpful and enthusiastic guide and leader to and for others but had, in reality, been ground down by the ins and outs of processes, management and a mostly unchanging organisation, over my eight years there.

Anyway, I'm sure things changed when I left given a new Head of Creative role had been made and recruited for so the senior management could up their grandstanding!

It was a recruitment process I was part of, given I had made it clear beforehand (after some consideration) I would not be applying for it, partly as in amongst my thoughts about it, I was in no way enamoured with (or probably even wanted by) the very senior people I was working alongside anyway and that the role would be (more?) required to brush along with, certainly at central office.

I guessed the eventually successful applicant would be the chosen one from the pool of applicants we interviewed and my reading of the ‘senior’ characters leading it and what they themselves were looking for.

Still, nice to know from feedback that I knew my onions and could play the required organisational game(s) – when I could be bothered!

[...] Rob is an excellent collaborator, challenges the norm and is very willing to see things from a new perspective. Rob is not content relying on what has worked in the past – he is always keen to make improvements for the benefit of the Trust. In my experience Rob is always interested and listening and keen to share knowledge to help others excel.

Rob has a difficult role and because of his skills and knowledge, like me, can be painted as a ‘blocker’ to new ideas. This is not a criticism, just something to be aware of. It’s natural for designers to seek better options than what’s first proposed, which is often misconstrued by others as not being positive about the original idea. I fall foul of this too and as I say, it’s just something to be aware of in an organisation with very few designers.

[...]

Rob’s skills and knowledge are first class and it would be great to see Rob continue to share his knowledge with his immediate team and beyond.

Corporate and Visual Identity Manager National Trust

Oh . . . and that first Head of Creative that joined in November 2016? They stayed in the role about two years (and a bit, I think) then quit (albeit possibly for certain personal reasons and timings), but before the organisation’s Covid-19 ‘inspired’ 2020 reset.

Achievements in this role included...

• Being a respected voice with influence and insight for the brand’s visual identity and national design output.
• Managing and mentoring design colleagues.
• After some instruction, managing creative reviews of key marketing output by collating views and data to then present to and inform the agency of achievements and lessons to maybe learn from for next time.
• Visiting a few places as part of regional team get-togethers, ongoing projects (and a few volunteering days), including: the Back to Backs; Coughton Court, Dyffryn Gardens; Hardwick Hall; Kingston Lacy; Quarry Bank Mill; South Milton Sands; and around Settle in the Yorkshire Dales.
• Running (relatively weekly!) short sessions (borrowed title, Friday 15) that got those attending quizzing, hunting, thinking and doing activities that freed them up a little to relax and enjoy the get together alongside their agency colleagues. For the record, I lead it (had some fun) but it was a manager/agency suggestion as apparently agencies do things like that.
• Pitching and winning as the in-house team against two external agencies for the charity’s membership point of sale campaign. [Although being realistic, one can’t help but feel it was because we were cheaper!]
• Leading and directing the look-and-feel (and not plastering the organisation’s logo on everything required for it) of the National Trust presence at the first Countryfile Live show (at Blenheim Palace, 2016).
• Making a few cups of tea for the working week’s break times and having a snack with some of them sometimes.

Not very good at

To be honest, I don’t think I had the best communication skills (good, and to the point, but not always consistent given who might be ‘preaching their vision or rule(s)’ to me) predominately because I never felt totally empowered or constructively encouraged to, nor had a good departmental environment or structure that understood and appreciated what good design is and those approaches can do and offer, so was often too focused on detail and delivery as I had some control (and plenty of knowledge) over that . . . but, despite my best efforts in guiding, listening and helping those in my team and to some extent other teams (well, certain people in them!) when and where I could see that would just be good and helpful for the organisation . . . however, sometimes there was a sense of ‘What now?’, ‘Why is it me needing to sort that out?’, ‘Why are we bothering with that?’ etc. etc. . . . and it just felt unnecessarily exhausting at times, like marketing got in the way of itself to justify its efforts, likely no doubt at the expense of the potential to really understand and learn that it wasn't always the answer to ‘look good’ and follow the commerical market . . .

There’s balance in them thar hills and, it might pay to not waste money on advertising campaigns and other so say ‘big ideas’ so as seeing the wood for the trees might be possible . . . to take stock and realise and discover new (non-marketing-led) potential and avenues worth exploring and creating.

Still, it would have been actually handy to feel empowered and that my opinions were wanted and listened to constructively in and around a forum that allowed and justified their existence as I would have responded much better and been more open to meaningful and helpful change if I could see change elsewhere; rather than those things being expected from me, by others, because of somewhat arbitrary hierarchies (and outdated ways of working?) and expectations.

Anyway, an organisational value, Common Purpose, was one I seemed to struggle with in my employment PDRs (and being honest, looking back, how could I share a common purpose when I never really felt truly encouraged or involved in the one on offer?)

Here is a personal comment from me from one of my own reviews (and not pulling my weight too well, or at all!) . . .

• This one always seems to get the better of me. I feel most times I make the right decisions, and have been honest and kept things simple. However, on a couple of occasions this year [2013 and managed by a Traffic Manager] I've not had the most productive attitude to work – criticising without offering anything new, getting bogged down in my own frustrations rather than growing up and moving on, to name a few. With clear responsibilities and guidance from my manager, I now focus on trying to be a better creative and leader to my direct report and team, which will ultimately help the agency and wider organisation.

Feedback given to me

We won’t talk about . . .

. . . but we will mention . . .

• ‘Rob is a deep thinker and once a stroke of inspiration hits he delves in and delivers, which is such a benefit to the team and the agency. However, this can sometimes cause slight upheaval to the workflow of the team, as once Rob starts on something he can forget where certain items have been allocated. Rob just needs to ensure he’s up to date with what others are working on so there isn’t any duplication (this very rarely happens with projects, mainly internal comms/Design Team promotional material.) I think this is just a case of improving communication in the team and remembering that we don’t have to do everything ourselves! We are a team and are all here to muck in!’
• ‘I think Rob – like all bright people – can get bored with things – and our project has been quite drawn out – and his enthusiasm can wane a bit, so I suppose the “better demonstration” might be to maintain the momentum.’
• ‘Stop: Trying to be a crowd pleaser all of the time and taking on too much work. You’re allowed to say no!’
• ‘Off the back of Rob’s work we have won over some tricky clients who haven’t previously wanted to work with the [internal] agency, this is such a huge step forward and couldn’t have been achieved without his vision.’
• ‘You continue to display a more positive approach to your work and role as the Design Lead and have made significant progress in the last 6–9 months [of 2014], which hasn’t gone unnoticed by junior members of the design team. It is worth remembering that they see you as a position of authority in the team and you need to continue to work hard to maintain and gain on the improvements you have made in recent months. In recent weeks there has been an improvement in your oversight of both the freelancers and junior design team however ideally I would have liked to have seen this level of oversight from the beginning of the year but glad to see it happen now.’
• ‘It’s been a good year [2014 and managed by a Traffic Manager] for the design team and I recognise the effort that you’ve put in to support the setup of the in-house studio. The leadership element of your role continues to be a challenge but you are aware that this is something you need to keep working on. You’ve shown improvement in how you lead the design team but the wider agency are looking for you to be a stronger voice in championing great creative and interpreting the brand.’
• ‘My view of your performance this year [2015 and managed by the Head of Print and Production] is that you have had a good year. You have grown in stature this year and taken on the responsibility of leading the team in a way that you’d not previously been allowed to. You’ve down a great job at driving the creative review sessions and I do think there’s some very tangible improvements in the consistency of quality to be seen as a result. There’s plenty to work on in the coming year (getting closer to the other G5s and having a crack at the Membership POS pitch are two notable challenges), which I think will help you and the team to develop further. I have really enjoyed working with you through the year, thank you for you effort and for your support.’

In conclusion

Having gone on enough about my time at the National Trust during 2008–2016, here is a personal note I had originally written on 8 April 2016 . . .

• Working at the Trust is no longer the challenge I seek, [it] no longer has the variety I seek [and] is no longer particularly enjoyable.
• My efforts tend to be focused on managing intangible things, rather than projects and design [in its truest sense].
• Working at the Trust will involve the same things now and in the future.
• I’m not willing to go for the Head of Creative role as I believe I will not be [wanted or] accepted by the senior management [given that none of them have even chatted to me about it, but maybe that’s their point to get me not to apply] and that I do not wish to work for or alongside them as they will not be moving on [or doing anything differently,] within the year [2016 and onwards], considering what they want to affect and a TV execution[, among other grand moments, no doubt,] they want to bring to life.
• I also can’t abide the PDR process and would enjoy the chance to step away from it. [It wasn’t that internal employee reviews aren’t helpful it’s just that the organisation’s system and process were (maybe still are!) way too bureaucratic... no doubt leaving them wondering why employees can become disengaged, even enraged, from it all.]
• Given those insights, I do feel it is time to seek new challenges, whether freelance or in another full time role, in other locations.
• I don't see significant opportunities beyond this year [2016] for doing work that is much different from what I’ve already done. Yes, there may well be better processes and more collaboration, but I’ve waited before for ‘opportunities’ to come along and more often than not they don’t.
• The last few years have not been challenging in a manner that really suits me, and those that I do have to deal with are unnecessary and tiring, no thanks to our setup and leadership.

The end

Methinks I had good skills and talents but was just not very good at effective (nor necessarily helpful) communication, organisational management, bureaucracy, leadership, or even daring to constructively take down shit ideas internally or by outside agencies (certainly without the internal encouragement or support to do so) . . . nor was I really bothered in wasting energy on or being anywhere near diplomatically (or just politically) effective enough at brushing along with egos, arrogance and a marketing mindset driven mostly by its glamour not its substance . . . if it couldn’t be seen that it was a shit idea, why should I waste time and energy pointing that out, especially often without much support in feeling validated in having those opinions? (In some ways it would often be more interesting to see what excuses might get made about the decisions and money spent and then the efforts made to save face!)