By Design: Achieving Original Thinking through Experimentation with George Adams

George> Hello! I’m George, Creative Director at Wolff Olins, London. In my role I work with a team of incredible strategists, designers and planners to help businesses at a point of inflection create meaningful brand experiences.

Design may no longer be in my title but it’s inherent in my thinking. There's a misconception that the more senior you get in your role, design then plays less of a role in your day-to-day, replaced by more strategy and management. That's partly true, but to be honest, design has taught me approaches and ways of thinking which influence every aspect of my work.

George> I began my career at a small design studio in London. It was very graphic design focused; typography, image selection, commissioning illustrations and mastering print processes. That detail to craft has been a through line in my career to this day. The clients may have got bigger and the problems to solve have got more complex but the ability to craft storytelling and evoke feelings through design will always be core to my process.

The beauty of my current job is that it spans across a broad selection of disciplines: digital, retail, advertising, employee culture…the list goes on. I get a kick from applying my core design thinking to all these processes and applications.

George> Day to day you’ll find me in Figma, like most people. But I’m in my happy place when trying to solve a brief through experimentation. I'm a proud design nerd! I get a thrill from the constant tinkering and re-iterations to discover new expressions.

Playing around in software like Blender or TouchDesigner and butchering together a prototype - I’m no expert in these tools, but quite often the mistakes are what creates the unique. In a world where everything's been done before and we can doom scroll through perfect designs for days, the only way we'll achieve original thinking is often through experimentation.

I'm embarrassed to admit I don't use pen and paper. It seems like sacrilege but I prefer to sketch straight into Figma or Obsidian with a Wacom. It speeds everything up for me and I find that speed and rhythm essential to my process.

George> The most effective design solutions often appear deceptively simple, but it’s that clarity that allows them to make a genuine impact.

The brand Wolff Olins created for AOL has always been the perfect example of this for me. Simply putting the platform’s content centre stage not only translates the service AOL provides but also felt unique and eye-catching for the time.

George> I'm inspired by people who have great self belief and carve their own path. Anyone from MSCHF the artistic collective of trouble makers carving out a new approach to advertising and marketing, through to more niche studios like Modem Works in Amsterdam who are somewhere between a think tank and design studio.

People blurring the lines between disciplines and have conceptual design at the core of their practice are the people who inspire me the most.

Beyond design, I'm inspired by people like Charlie Bones, ex-NTS radio morning show host who's now going it alone. His approach to life and work really resonates with me and it brings me joy every time I tune in.