The size of the business you work for should be well-considered when you are looking for a job in design. Portfolio, software, salary — those get the attention. How many people sit between you and the actual work is the thing that shapes your week.
Size is part of the job
In a large agency you can learn a lot, quickly, and you can also spend a year polishing other people’s decks. I wanted my name on the identity, not on the file path. I wanted to sit with a founder, hear why the brand exists, and still be the person drawing the thing the next morning.
That is why I chose Northern Digital. A small studio in Leeds, a real table, and a team that still does the work they talk about on the website.
What a small studio feels like
It feels like responsibility. If the type is wrong, there is no brand team two floors up to absorb it. If the colour dies on a product page, I will see it on a phone the same afternoon. That would scare some people. It is the reason I get better.
It also feels like range. One week I am in an identity for a practice that also sells furniture. The next I am making sure a sale still looks like a brand. You do not get siloed into “only social” or “only keylines” unless you ask to be.
- You talk to clients, not only to an account manager.
- You see work ship, not only work presented.
- You get opinions from developers before the file is “final.”
- You are allowed to care about the room as well as the Figma file.
Why I'm still here
I am still here because the people are still here. A small agency only works if the culture is not a performance. Ours is not. We argue about type. We go to the pub. We take the work personally without taking ourselves too seriously.
If you are choosing your next studio, visit the room. Look at who is actually designing. Ask who the client met last week. Then decide. For me, the answer was a small design agency in Leeds — and I would make the same choice again.
