5 Minutes with… Klein Borrill
Klein Borrill has had an adrenaline-packed career in design and photography for social media. Starting his creative journey working as a digital producer on social entertainment projects in the age of Bebo and Facebook, he went on to produce content for some of the biggest entertainment shows in the world, including ‘The Voice’, ‘The X Factor’, ‘Great British Bake Off’ and ‘The Apprentice’.
Having honed his skills in generating buzz on social media through his design and photography talents, Klein is now head of design for Weber Shandwick in the UK. He oversees a team of designers, illustrators and idea creators, pushing their craft and emphasising the importance of producing work that stretches and resonates across different touchpoints and platforms.
LBB’s Alex Reeves caught up with Klein to hear his story and outlook on his craft.
LBB> What first got you interested in design?
Klein> It all started with photography, during my teens I was obsessed with shooting and studying photography. Which then transitioned into retouching and slapping some text over it in Photoshop. From then on, I was hooked with creating in the Adobe suite and basically self-taught myself everything from YouTube tutorials. My free university.
LBB> Early in your career you began managing social feeds for some pretty huge TV titles like 'The X Factor'. What did you enjoy most about that time in your career?
Klein> It was the adrenaline of working in live television, and with some pretty big talent that would either do as you asked or need some persuading, but it was worth the battle for the huge engagement we saw on our content. It was also around the time when social media was still this ‘digital thing’ to most of the talent and crew, so it was fun trying to convince them it was important. There were no real rules or boundaries, which was great for creativity.
LBB> And what were the big lessons that you took from those years working in TV?
Klein> Know your stuff, be prepared and build trust.
Basically, the production schedule meant I had short, unexpected windows to capture content and get exclusive access from talent, meaning I had to be armed with a bucket load of ideas and tight workflow, so I was always ready to design/shoot/create whenever someone told me. Following that, I also had to build trust and foster relationships with talent, thus allowing me to get the behind-the-scenes access and subsequent content I knew our online fans would engage with. After all they’re still just people, and they’re there to do a job just like you… and usually they’re lovely, even Simon Cowell who once gave me a bottle of Bollinger.
LBB> In 2015, you joined The Weber Shandwick Collective (TWSC). What was it like making the transition towards working with those very different brands?
Klein> I feel the biggest transition wasn’t in the work I was producing or the brands I was working with; but in the fact that I was going from being a freelancer for over eight years to suddenly building a new design offering and team in an industry (social) that’s constantly flexing, shifting and flip-flopping between premium and low-fi. Meaning I needed a team of multi-disciplined, idea creators that could tackle any brief for any platform. On reflection, a big positive was also being surrounded by so many talented creatives with unique crafts and disciplines and seeing how they all clash together to shape the work.
LBB> What design principles do you think are most useful to keep in mind when working in the social space? And where do people and brands often get it wrong?
Klein> Firstly, strip back your brand for social, focus on a few key visual elements that are core to the identity of your brand, these are the foundations of how you look on social – memorability on social is born from visual cues and formats – and it’s critical to keep it succinct and distinctive.
Secondly, make sure you always stay in beta; brands that adapt and build on their foundations ensure their output doesn’t go stale or predictable. It’s all about flexing your social identity whilst staying true to your foundations. The social space is so crowded now that output needs to be visually unexpected or pushing boundaries to avoid becoming wallpaper on people’s feeds. This doesn’t mean spending weeks (and money) producing premium TV-style videos or beautifully rendered 3D dreamscapes. It can be as simple as mixing up your formats and/or leaning into a visual or cultural trend but through the lens of your brand foundations – learn from your audience and the content they’re engaging with – that’s the sweet spot.
Me and the team at That Lot have actually just developed a white paper on the importance of brands finding their flex when designing for social and how they need to bend the rules to stay on-trend and in-culture. Hit me up if you want the deets and I’ll share the link.
LBB> What projects/social campaigns have you been most proud of in your career and why?
Klein> That’s a tough one. But there are two that stick in my mind.
First is the work we produced for FOX TV, where we ended up producing key-art worthy designs for ‘The Walking Dead’ that were posted exclusively on social, the response from fans was incredible and people started saving them as their phone wallpapers, that’s when you know you’ve really brought joy to people’s feeds.
Second was winning Greggs as a client just over eight months ago. As someone from the North East, Greggs has always been a huge part of my culture, and a dream brand to work with. Turns out they’re also a lovely creative bunch of people, so it’s a match made in pastry heaven and we’re already cooking up some hot creative (I’ll stop with the puns now).
LBB> What have you learned over your career about people management that's allowed you to make sure your team is delivering the best work they can?
Klein> It’s all about balance and reading the room. We’re not robots who work in the same way and equally, look at things the same way. And with design that’s even more relevant given it’s subjective in nature. So, I’ve learned there are definitely times to push someone, give honest feedback and ask for another pass, but it’s also important to recognise when they’ve hit a block or have gone blind to a design (very common) and need to switch off from it for a bit. It’s similar to what I said before, it’s about building trust and fostering relationships with people and knowing how to get the best out of them based on their personality and not just their skillset.
LBB> Your role changed to UK head of design to raise the bar for the agency's design capabilities. What have been your biggest focuses and what have been the outcomes of those?
Klein> My biggest initial focus was to connect the different studios and ensure there was a feeling of community and accessibility to design across the business. With an incredible array of talent and experience across the network I thought it vital we marry the right brief with the right talent no matter their geographical location, this has resulted in more and more effective and efficient work plus exposure for designers to work on different brands in different sectors, which is great for personal development and their portfolios. For me it’s all about exercising designers skill sets and passions on the right work, which leads to the best work.
LBB> You have to stay up to date with design trends, social trends and culture for your job. What are you loving at the moment?
Klein> Design trend: I’m loving the embrace of unpolished slightly chaotic type and branding we’re seeing at the moment. It feels like there’s a desire to push against the advancements of technology and create in a way that’s undeniably ‘real’ in look and feel, proving it’s been created by someone, somewhere, in their own style and not a piece of AI tech.
Social trend : The ‘man in finance’ song that took over TikTok (my wife’s song of the summer as she reminds me daily) has birthed a new sub-culture of creators singing satirical songs in the hope they get the ‘viral remix’ treatment with a track added by another creator. And I can’t wait to see what comes next…
Culture: Feels very basic, but I was loving the Olympics memes flying round during the games. It’s not often that such a big cultural moment invades all our lives, and there’s so much fun to be had by brands right now wanting to tap into the zeitgeist. Also, the Turkish shooter who turned up looking like someone’s dad at a car boot sale and took home a silver medal is my new hero.
