Jamie Nicoll
Jamie’s passion for design started at a young age - sitting in his mother’s design studio experimenting with Photoshop.
He started out as an apprentice in the print trade learning the laborious techniques of embossing, die cutting and foil blocking, quickly making his way up the design ladder. He took his desire for knowledge and perfection with him and realised several years ago that the digital industry was the one with the most potential.
He is now creative director at Phantom, a London based creative agency collaborating with Google, Sony Music and the FT, playing a key role in helping to develop the agency. Be it mentoring his team, or collaborating with clients, he is always looking to learn new skills or push ideas to their full potential.
10 questions for Jamie Nicoll:
-
What did you do before becoming a designer?
I worked in a print studio as a Junior, learning from the Senior Designer in-between cutting out printers proofs and making tea. It was fun and I learnt a lot. However, I did slice the top of my finger off whilst chopping up a proof in my second week!
-
Where do you turn for inspiration?
The usual spots: Dribbble, Behance, Awwwards etc. I always like to see what’s happening on Designer News and sidebar.io. I also get a lot of inspiration from books. Currently on my coffee table is Detail in Typography and the Graphis Poster Annual 2015.
-
Which are your favorite studios, designers or agencies?
Stink Digital, Unit9, FI, Hello Monday, Instrument, Framestore, Andreas Nicolas Fischer, United Visual Artists, Davide Quayola
-
Is your city a good place for designers?
London is a great place for designers. The competition is pretty fierce but that only makes you work harder.
-
Which technologies are you excited about in 2015?
I can’t wait to see what kind of things come out of Google’s Physical Web project. I’m also intrigued to see more projects around artificial intelligence.
-
Do you listen to music while you work? Describe your playlist.
I almost always have music on while I’m working. This playlist usually does the trick.
-
Tell us your funniest anecdote related to your work.
Project manager to client - “Is the advertising campaign for digital or the iPad?”
-
What are you cultural influences? (Music, books, films, ideologies, etc.)
-
Have you got an academic background or are you self taught?
I studied Art and Design at College and was planning to go to Uni to continue my studies. I was offered a place at Uni and a job as a Junior in the same week. I took the job and never looked back.
-
What do you do in your free time?
Being stuck in the city all week, I like to get out and explore a little.
-
Where do you see the industry in 5 years?
With wearables on the rise and the internet of things becoming more of a reality for everyone, I think there will be more of a focus on UI/UX design, with websites behaving more like apps, built to support the hardware.
-
Are you working on any personal projects?
Finding the time to do any personal projects has always been a bit of a challenge. I’m hoping this year will be different as I have a few ideas that I have been wanting to start for a while.
-
If you could give one piece of advice to newbie designers, what would it be?
Learning how to take criticism was one of the hardest things for me as a new designer. Clients would often express their opinions (no matter how wrong they were) and learning to deal with them was tough at first. I quickly learnt that being able to take out the positives and stay inspired while working on their project was the best way to deal with them, while helping me improve as a designer.
