What Do You Look For in a Designer?: Nicolas Roope, Poke
Nicolas is founder and creative director of both Poke, a London based digital creative agency and Hulger, a boutique electronics brand. After graduating as a sculptor from Liverpool Art School in 1994 Nicolas has established himself as a progressive thinker and practitioner in the centre of the colliding worlds of design, art, technology and commerce.
1. What do you look for when hiring a designer?
I look for existing talent and ability--the kind on the surface and in evidence in an imaginatively presented portfolio or site. I'm looking for confidence mixed with an openness. There's nothing worse than someone who either rolls over too easily or won't budge at all.
Then I'm looking a bit deeper to figure what latent potential lays beneath. We're always looking for people with the potential to become exceptional but who may not necessarily be there quite yet. Clues lay in attitude and the way someone talks about anything--not just their work. The thing I see in exceptional people is a kind of hunger, an ambition that is still tempered by a humbleness that gives them the space to learn.
2. Is there a particular "tell" that signals a good or bad fit?
I like odd people. There's no rule. For me you can only be too cool or slick, never too uncool. And it's not about the right type; it's really more about fundamental qualities and someone's energy and enthusiasm.
3. What is your best interview "horror story"?
This is technically not my story, but a colleague's at Poke. A friend at a rival agency was raving about a designer that they said, for purely financial reasons, they couldn't hire themselves, so passed them on to us for consideration. We eagerly approached them and organised an interview. He came in, opened his book and nearly burned our eyes out. It was horrific, and we had been royally duped. Of course you can't boot someone out of an interview on the grounds of offensive work, and certainly it wasn't his fault that he was there. So we sat it out, trying not to hurt his feelings. I'm tempted to expose the culprit, but he's now in a high position and don't think it would do his reputation much good...but YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!! (If you are the designer I'm very sorry he put you through it.)
4. Do you have any specific advice for recent graduates, or people just starting straight out from school?
It would be very simple advice: Get what you can, because doing something is much more productive and motivating than doing nothing or waiting for the right thing to come along. After that it's just a matter of working hard, learning and being opportunistic. I would also say that if given the option between comfort and a challenge, always go for the challenge, as it's the only way to grow. When you leave college it's tempting to think the learning's over and the cashing in starts, but it's quite the opposite if you want to get somewhere interesting with your talents.
5. What is the single, most valuable piece of advice you could give to those on the hunt?
For me it would be that I want to see evidence of your own work, own thoughts, own enquiries. When someone comes in with a bunch of random things that show that they are engaged and living their work, it really impresses me. If you can't help using your design thinking in every situation, creating interesting byproducts as you go, it means that you'll get inside design problems--not just sit there on the sidelines all business-like, trying to pick it all apart logically. Write a blog, fill your flickr albums with things that interest you, make a film of something odd that you find really interesting and make sense of it somehow. It's also a lot more fun working with people like that, and for certain studios, it's a real consideration. After all, you spend more time with your workmates than your family.
6. Regarding creative employment, what do you know now that you wished you knew then?
I never thought there would be a place for me. I was always in a mild panic because I couldn't see me in anyone around in the places I worked, and I couldn't see where I might end up. It's part of the challenge for creative people...to feel comfortable with where you're going. Unfortunately, there's no easy answer other than to perhaps try to be sensitive to where you are, what works and doesn't work for you, and what brings the best out of you. Learn from it and use it to work out where the next step is. If you fix on objectives too far ahead you might discount opportunities that arise along the way, openings that could take you somewhere much more interesting and much more "you." This of course can leave you a bit vulnerable to the "what do you want to be when you grow up?" question, but I'm afraid not having a good answer is something we just have to get used to living with.
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