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A career built on gut: Wolff Olins’ Thomas Wilder on the Design Next Podcast

Is it possible to build a highly successful creative career on gut instinct?

Well, to cut to the chase, yes. As proof, meet Thomas Wilder: highly strategic in world-class design; highly intuitive in his own career.

“You can talk to your friends, you can talk to your dog. You can talk to your friend at a pub. You could talk to your mom, your great aunt, whoever. At the end of the day, it’s a gut decision that you need to make.”

Thomas is Global Principal at Wolff Olins, who need no introduction but here’s one anyway because of how seriously impressive it is: Wolff Olins is a global brand consultancy that’s ambitious for the work and optimistic for the world. They’re partnered with brands such as Lloyds, Benefit, Patreon, McKinsey, Uber and Tiktok, to create work that is outrageously iconic.

A few of our favourite Wolff Olins projects

Having started his career as an ice cream scooper, Thomas has gone from strength to strength, designing a unique career path from Pokemon trainer to Partner & Creative Director at COLLINS. In that role, he led the design team on client work for companies like Twitch, Ogilvy, ESPN, Facebook, Dropbox, Coca-Cola, Eos Skincare, The Type Directors Club, Target, and AIGA.

As former Executive Creative Director at sweetgreen, we take time to discuss the differences between agency and in-house creative leadership in this episode of Design Next.

But the greatest snippets of wisdom from Thomas comes from his attitude to work, design, and leadership.

“Outworking and pushing your own limits to what you actually think is possible: I think it’s a it’s a good thing. It’s gotten me through a lot of dramatic change, and hard pivots in my life.”

Laced with humour, this conversation hits truths that resonate with us all, punctuated with some heavy leadership direction to take on board.

  • How becoming a father has transformed Thomas’ career, from his leadership qualities to boosting patience and empathy.
  • Not to forget; “design is a fun thing” and we should approach our days with humour and positivity.
  • How to ‘decompress the room’ to maximise everybody’s input.
  • Enthusiasm and hard work will help you through most challenges!

“Working through things with kind of enthusiasm and hard work allows you to navigate the inevitable ups and downs of our industry. And of life. You understand that these things come in waves and you’re able to ride those waves because you’ve seen it before.”