Because that stop sign looks like that stop sign, when we went to see my gran miles away, they still looked the same! That's when I started to notice design. In the UK, I was always enamoured that all signs look the same! I couldn't get over it. It makes everything feel unique to that canton. I remember having weird conversations with my mum because Switzerland is broken up into cantons like English counties, but each canton has its unique look and feel (look up the country's history, and you'll see why!). When you're an eight-year-old, you quickly look around and spot that sort of difference! I went from that to a school just outside Southampton and Portsmouth with about 2,000 kids with my little cowhide leather bag. Back in the '80s, Swiss kids used to wear cowhide leather satchels. I went to a very small kindergarten with about 30 kids in Switzerland. The hilarious thing is that I think it was maybe the first moment I realised what design was. I was born in Switzerland and grew up there until I was eight, when we moved to Bishop's Waltham in the UK. So if ever you wanted insight about where the world of agencies and tech is heading, he's a good person to talk to.Д¬hatting to James from an office that overlooks the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, we discussed his journey so far, what he thinks of Big Tech's current bad press, and what he hopes to achieve at Google. In short, James has worked at some of the highest levels of the design world, starting from the ground up and getting hands-on with client projects along the way.

In 2019 came Pinterest, where he worked as the global creative director until this year, landing his current role at Google. In 2014, he joined DesignStudio, where he spent five years progressing from digital creative director to principal USA. This was followed by senior roles at Figtree, Prophet and Wednesday. James left and started his own design studio (Cure Studio), an illustration agency (HigginsonHurst) and a Type Foundry (The Type Foundry). Next, he went on to work for Emak Mafu in 2008 when the global recession hit. Following graduation from the University of Brighton in graphic design, James got his first creative job in 2005 at Cog Design.

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