Almost straight after graduation in the early 1980s, I was dragged kicking and screaming (joyfully) into IBM’s design function, soon moving to the marketing side. I shared a small office just behind Selfridges in London.

For seven years I had the privilege of working with some of my generation's most imaginative and influential people, but eventually I reached that first crossroads: it was time to own my path.

And there have been some important milestones and lessons along the way.

‍Hand made

‍I had gained many bold ideas and invaluable insights from my time at IBM, so a small group of like-minded ex-IBMers and I started The Frameworks, initially based in Winchester, south-west England.

We had lived through the rise of personal computing, but our working world was still firmly analogue. Graphic designers were still expected to wield a 10A blade better than any surgeon.

At the time, the design industry operated in silos. Typesetters, writers, typographers and print specialists each had their distinct roles, and successful projects required seamless collaboration between them. The Frameworks' model aimed to unify these disciplines – an approach that felt necessary then, and has since become the norm.

You always remember your first fireman…

The first one I met was breaking his way out of our Winchester studio.

A scanner installed the night before had self-ignited. We lost everything. Our clients were amazingly supportive and sympathetic – but we knew we still only had a few days to get back into production.

That fire became symbolic of the resilience that would see us through many more challenging situations over the next three decades.

What could have spelled the end of The Frameworks instead pushed us to a new home in London. It wasn’t just skills and experience we’d picked up at IBM, it was a network of amazing connections, too, and one of them – a bona fide “design knight” – rode to the rescue by offering us space in a newly converted Islington toy factory. Overnight we had a bright new studio to play in. And we never looked back.

The business and the girl

Our reputation started spreading globally. That’s when I got a call from someone called Sheri at IBM. Our work had caught the eye of her team in the US.

I wanted the business – and after a bit of hoop-jumping, we got added to IBM’s global roster.

It turned out I also wanted the girl. Sheri and I have just celebrated 25 years of marriage, and we have three children – Emily, Madeleine and Ben – so it seems I was successful on all counts.

We set up an office in the US, and we’ve maintained a strong pipeline of work with US businesses ever since.

All about the people‍

At the heart of it all, it has always been about the people. The Frameworks has grown organically, and over 35 years, more than 1,000 Frameworkers have contributed to that growth.

We’re blessed with extraordinary people, many of whom have been with us for two or even three decades. I can’t imagine life without them. The collective talent and dedication have been extraordinary.

The essence of our work has always been about collaboration and the close bonds that emerge from it. Some of my closest friendships have come from professional partnerships, and those connections have profoundly shaped both my personal and professional life.

Building lasting relationships with clients has been a great reward. For me, the ultimate goal is to work with people you admire, who appreciate what you're trying to do, and whose company you enjoy.

A new era

The biggest challenge we face in helping organisations shape their brands is balancing creative integrity with business needs. It’s a tango, one that – when danced well – leads to even more rewarding and substantial outcomes. The industry sometimes prioritises speed and cost over creativity, but we always fight for what we believe in: the role of imaginative thinking and creative energy as a fundamental driver of business success.

So now I face my second career crossroads, the one where I try to imagine what the hell “retirement” might look like. Spoiler alert: it won’t be very “retiring”. I won’t be stepping away from The Frameworks completely and I have lots of other collaborations and projects in mind. But I have been forced to think about how to step away from something I’ve given 35 years of my life to.

It’s helped immensely to look back at that time and realise that what I’m most proud of is not personal triumphs but all the things we Frameworkers have achieved together. The Frameworks was never just a business; it’s a community, a purpose and a promise to create meaningful change for our clients.

That sense of community and collective purpose will be more than just a loose thread through our history from now on: it will be a fundamental part of our model. The decision to transition The Frameworks into employee ownership is both the most natural thing in the world and an incredibly exciting new chapter in our story.

From now on, when we’re fighting for our best ideas, our clients will be in no doubt how seriously we’ve taken their challenge – because their challenge will be our challenge at the most personal level imaginable. Those Frameworkers won’t just be accepting a challenge; they’ll own it.

When I look around me, after a long and sometimes winding journey, I see rather fewer scalpels than we had 35 years ago – but I see an agency that’s as creative, capable and nimble as it’s ever been.

The company’s future is now in the hands of this new generation of Frameworkers. I can’t wait to see where they go next.