Digital Design Career Paths

The Trojan Horse approach for sustainability careers. Most sustainability professionals don't start in sustainability roles. They begin elsewhere and strategically integrate their environmental expertise into core business functions. They understand that companies are not hiring sustainability experts. They are hiring experts who think sustainably. They master essential business capabilities first, then embed sustainability thinking throughout their work. This strategic integration creates professionals who speak the language of business while advancing environmental goals, across multiple business functions. Financial Services: Analysts and bankers are incorporating climate risk modeling into investment decisions and developing innovative green financing products. Operations Management: Engineers are implementing waste reduction and circular economy principles and designs into manufacturing processes. Technology Development: Software developers are building ESG data platforms and creating automated systems for carbon tracking and reporting. Strategic Planning: Business strategists are embedding long-term environmental considerations into corporate planning frameworks. Marketing and Branding: Marketers are developing purpose-driven and sustainable brands, and focusing on stakeholder engagement and transparency. The professionals advancing in the sustainability market are those who have established credibility in core business areas while developing deep environmental expertise. This combination enables them to influence decision-making from positions of established trust and competence.

Hiring Managers: Clarifying the Role of a #CreativeDirector If you’re hiring a Creative Director, it’s important to understand what they DON’T do: • Graphic Design & Video Editing – They guide the creative vision but don’t produce individual assets. • Daily Social Media Posting – They develop the brand’s storytelling but don’t manage day-to-day execution. • Copywriting – They refine messaging but aren’t responsible for writing every ad or post. • Marketing Analytics – They consider performance data but aren’t in charge of deep campaign analysis. What a Creative Director actually does: ✅ Develops the overall creative strategy and vision. ✅ Ensures all branding and messaging are cohesive. ✅ Collaborates with designers, writers, and marketers to execute campaigns. ✅ Oversees content direction across multiple platforms. A Creative Director is like an orchestra conductor—they don’t play every instrument but ensure the entire performance sounds perfect!

Stop chasing sustainability careers without a clear specialisation. The same story keeps playing out. People entering ESG with passion but no direction. In 2026, interest alone won't build your career. Organisations don't just need awareness anymore. They need people who can actually deliver results. Here's what to do instead: - Pick one sustainability vertical and go deep. - Understand how theory translates into real business decisions. - Stay close to regulations. GRI, ISSB, CSRD are moving fast. - Get hands-on experience, even if it starts behind the scenes. - Share your insights publicly so your expertise becomes visible. There's no shortage of verticals to master: - Climate risk and adaptation - Sustainable finance and banking - Circular economy and resource efficiency - Sustainable supply chains and human rights - Renewable energy and decarbonisation - Biodiversity and nature protection - ESG reporting and frameworks - Social sustainability and workforce wellbeing - Policy, governance, and regulation Staying broad keeps you replaceable. Going deep makes you indispensable. Pick your lane. Own it.

Creative direction is a skill Being a Creative Director is a responsibility Over the years I have worked with people who were excellent at giving creative direction. They could shape ideas, guide tone, and bring a vision to life. The skill usually grows out of art direction or copywriting. In traditional agencies it meant defining the strategic and creative vision for a project, campaign or brand. Giving creative direction means being able to articulate what needs to be done without being a dictator. It is about setting a clear vision, giving your team enough to build from, and having the taste to pull the right levers at the right time. Talent, experience and intuition come together here, shaping something people are proud of, aligned on, and capable of executing. Years of curiosity, exposure and craft eventually turn into creative instinct. Good creative direction is storytelling. It helps people see where the idea could go and gives them confidence to explore it. At this level you might be leading one project or several, but the focus remains on the work. Management plays a smaller role while creative problem solving takes priority. Being the Creative Director is different. The moment the title lands, the focus shifts from what is made to how it is made, and by whom. That is where the difference really shows. Giving creative direction shapes the work. A Creative Director shapes the environment where that work happens. You are no longer just guiding an idea. Now the responsibility includes everything that surrounds it, from structure and people to culture and rhythm. Hiring, budgets, performance and growth become part of the job. Rituals are created to bring consistency and stability. Thinking expands beyond the creative outcome toward the creative function itself. Many people who grow into this role struggle with the balance. The creative power is appealing, yet the admin and accountability are heavy. Endless meetings, budget discussions and constant context switching make the job less glamorous than the title suggests. Instead of being the one who gives creative direction, you become the one who holds the space for others to do it. For me, this became even more complex working as a Digital Creative Director. Responsibility extended across visuals, copy, UX, technology and production. Managing structure, workflow and culture added another layer, especially in environments where senior leadership did not understand digital. That experience taught me that creative direction is earned through responsibility, not only through instinct. I will write more about that in a follow up article because it deserves its own space. Creative direction shapes the work. The Creative Director shapes the people behind it. That balance defines real leadership. The best leaders learn to do both. ❤️

UX/UI VS Product Design VS Service Design! What's the difference? The industry keeps trying to collapse them into one role. And honestly? This is where a lot of confusion in design careers now comes from. — 🔹 UX/UI Design primarily focus on, but not only: → discovery → user research → defining problems → ideation → wireframing → prototyping → usability testing → accessibility → interaction design → user journeys → information architecture → visual interfaces → reducing friction → design systems The core question is usually: “How does the user experience this product?” And this work matters enormously. But it mostly operates around the visible layer of a service. — 🔸 Product Design expanded this further. Today, Product Designers are often expected to understand: → UX/UI → UX Research → product strategy → experimentation → analytics → conversion → product metrics → business goals → stakeholder management → agile delivery → prioritisation → user behaviour → feature adoption → growth thinking The core question becomes: “How do we design a product that is useful, viable, usable, and commercially successful?” This is why Product Design became so dominant in tech and UX roles started to reduce with time. It connected design to business outcomes. — 🔴 Service Design expands even further beyond the product itself. Because services are not isolated interfaces or standalone products. They are interconnected operational ecosystems. Service Design often requires understanding: → operations → governance → policy → organisational structures → backend systems → APIs & integrations → service blueprints → delivery constraints → end-to-end ecosystems → cross-channel journeys → implementation reality → staff workflows → dependencies → risk → service ownership → organisational incentives → legacy technology → procurement → accessibility across systems → communication flows → real-world delivery pressure → overlapping services → ecosystem coordination → supplier relationships → third-party dependencies → interoperability between services → how one service impacts another → institutional complexity → multi-service environments → public and private sector interactions The core question shifts again: “How does the entire ecosystem of multiple services work together to deliver an outcome?” And this is where many designers begin realising: good interfaces alone cannot fix broken systems. This is one of the reasons I moved deeper into Service Design and System Thinking over the years. — I've been trying to make sense of the future of AI, tech and Service. If you feel the same way... Join my Newsletter: ⤷ https://lnkd.in/ehy-HwXW Volume 3: Service across Societies: How Services Became the Infrastructure Behind Modern Life Date: 12/06/2026 If you are trying to transition from UX into Service Design, get my workbook: ⤷ https://lnkd.in/eRGV-PhY

This is what I usually send to a client when building a brand at an early stage. It’s the creative direction document. Before creating anything, we need to encode the visual DNA of the brand. This guides every creative decision the founder will make for the business. This includes presenting a creative direction that covers: 1. Logo Style Not every brand needs the same logo style other brands use. Here, we lock in a specific and intentional logo direction for how the business should identify itself in the market. 2. Moodboard This is a visual curation of references that captures the story, mood, and vibe the brand is building its offer and value around. 3. Typography This defines the exact typography style that should appear across every visual touchpoint of the brand. 4. Color Model Are we using duotone, multicolor, or monochrome? The way a brand uses color says a lot about its personality and character. 5. Brand Overview This is the most intensive part. It outlines the brand goals, audience, metrics, keywords, and the broader perspective of what we’re building. Creative direction is the backbone of every strong visual identity, and the most important, thoughtful part of the brand design process.

If you're thinking about getting into UX, this is for you. A co-worker recently asked me about how they could get into UX. I reminisced about how I got into it for a bit (the early days were too fun, tbh) and proceeded to say something like this. 👇🏾 1. Practice UI design → First, replicate UI designs or do UI design challenges. i.e. 100 days of UI. → Your UI design skills are the ones that get your foot in the door, especially in the beginning. → Deeply Learn Figma, but you’d be surprised how far just knowing auto-layout takes you. Auto layout - https://lnkd.in/dXAxErwH Figma basics (love this guy btw) - https://lnkd.in/dnUXZNVV 2. Learn UX foundations, and then if you’re interested move on to product design. → Get a free course(s) that teach you UX. → I took Google’s UX Design on Coursera with a fee waiver. It’s still fine if you don’t want to look for another course. → There might be better courses like the Interaction Design Foundation courses, see if you can get them for free. Anyone who knows how; let us know in the comments. It’ll be much appreciated. 😉 3. Get exposure to different products early on. → Get exposure to different products, industries and niches early on. → Try freelancing, pro bono work, and anything that exposes you to different problems, teams and workflow styles. 4. Use AI! Make your life easier. → Perplexity for web search and competitive analysis. → AI chatbots (Chat GPT, Deepseek, Claud, etc.) to explain requirements… thank me later. 😉 5. Don’t just doom scroll, learn → Rather than doom-scrolling, clean your feed and follow these creators. Memorisely &⚡️Zander Whitehurst → UI & Interaction design tips. Tommy Geoco → UI and Interaction inspiration, & workflow tips. Adham Dannaway → UI design tips & design systems Filippos Protogeridis → Product thinking, Mindset tips, & workflow tips. Matt Przegietka→ Career insights & Portfolio tips. Nolan Perkins → Equal parts UI design and Product design tips. Christopher Nguyen→ Portfolio tips, Career insights, & Designprenuership (Just discovered this word btw. 😅) → Also, learning design is 20% reading about new info. and 80% practice. 6. Continue reading about product design and upskill whenever you can. → I love Toptal’s blog. Medium is a hit or miss. I usually only read case studies on Medium. → Play around with new tools when they're getting popular. I’m getting into Framer for web design and Rive for web animations right now. Bonus tip 🧐 → Your process won’t ever be linear or perfect because a real-world product lifecycle isn’t perfect. You’ll be surprised by how much “winging it” happens. In most cases, you won’t be given time to do research. So, focus your research on your biggest unknowns and risky bits. Some research is better than none.

Map Your Path into Sustainability (Interactive Exercise) Not sure how your major or background fits into sustainability? Let’s figure it out together. One of the biggest challenges in sustainability is not a lack of interest. It’s a lack of clarity. I designed a simple exercise to help students and career switchers map their path into sustainability: Step 1: Your Background Ask yourself: What is my major, degree, or current field? Examples: Engineering Business Finance Environmental Science IT / Data Social Sciences Step 2: Match It to Sustainability Roles Now connect your background to possible roles: Engineering =Energy Analyst / Climate Tech Business =ESG Analyst / Sustainability Consultant Finance =Sustainable Finance / ESG Investing Data / IT=ESG Data Analyst / Climate Data Social Sciences =Policy / Community Sustainability Sustainability exists in every field. Step 3: Identify Your Skills What do you already have? Analytical thinking Communication Research Project coordination Problem-solving Step 4: Fill the Gap Now ask: What skill do I need to move into this role? Example: ESG - Learn reporting frameworks Energy - Learn energy systems basics Data - Improve Excel/analytics Step 5: Take One Action This week, choose ONE: Take a short course Start a small project Join a sustainability group Research a company’s ESG strategy Remember, progress starts with one step. #SustainabilityCareers #ESG #CareerDevelopment #Students #ClimateCareers

Most people think a Creative Director’s job is to protect the brand. That’s part of it. But at this level, the real job is bigger. You’re protecting clarity. You’re protecting decision-making. You’re protecting the connection between the work and the business. Because right now, every team is being asked to move faster. More content. More channels. More AI. More pressure to prove results. And that’s usually when brands start to drift. Not because the team is bad. Because the system gets noisy and chaotic. A strong Creative Director helps hold the line. Not by slowing things down. By making sure the brief is clear, the priorities are aligned, and the work is tied to something measurable. What problem are we solving? Who is it for? What does success actually look like? What KPIs are we measuring against? That’s the work behind the work. The best Creative Directors I’ve known aren’t just tastemakers. They’re translators between brand, marketing, product, and leadership. They know when to push and when to simplify. When to protect the brand, and when to evolve it so the business can grow. That’s where creative leadership becomes real value. #CreativeDirector #CreativeLeadership #BrandStrategy #DesignLeadership #MarketingLeadership #BrandExperience #AIinMarketing #CreativeOperations

The best career advice I ever got? "Don't become a manager." Sounds crazy, right? For years, I watched incredibly talented designers climb into management roles they didn't actually want. They were chasing the only path to "senior" that existed. More money. More respect. More... meetings they hated. The unspoken rule: If you want to grow, you have to stop designing. That rule just got obliterated. In 2025, something shifted. The "Super IC" movement arrived—and it's rewriting the entire career playbook for designers. Here's what's happening: Companies like Duolingo now have IC tracks going up to VP level. We're talking $654K compensation packages. For individual contributors. For people who never manage a single person. 87% of design job postings are now for senior+ roles. The market isn't just tolerating craft-focused careers - it's actively rewarding them. The message is finally clear: You don't need to manage people to matter. Why this changes everything: → Your best designers can stay designing (instead of becoming mediocre managers) → Management becomes a choice, not a promotion → Craft expertise gets the compensation it deserves → Teams get leaders who actually want to lead people I've seen both paths. I've watched designers who chose management thrive. And I've watched designers who stayed in craft absolutely soar. Neither path is "better." But forcing everyone down one road? That was always broken. The future of design isn't management-or-bust. It's craft AND management. Two equally valuable tracks. Two ways to grow. Two ways to lead. If you're a senior designer who loves the work but feels stuck—this is your moment. If you're a design leader building career frameworks—now's the time to formalize those dual tracks. If you're a founder wondering whether to push your best IC into management—maybe don't. The "up or out" model is dead. Good riddance. Agree? *** If you found this useful, consider reposting ♻️ to your network. #design #careers #leadership