“The thought of a person being behind artwork seen by millions was pretty awesome,” Andy reminisced. Fast forward to 2024, he’s behind visual designs for BBC Sport.

Andy works as a UX Designer at the BBC and, much like the designers behind the movie covers he would revel as a child, he designs visual concepts for the channels sports coverage. He’s been working with the British institution for the past two years and has worked on the design of the broadcaster’s coverage of the Superbowl, Six Nations and, most recently, The Euros.

“When I saw the job advert, it was an opportunity I couldn’t really say no to. I didn't really see myself going and working for a big company like the BBC, but I’ve loved it since day one. It’s a fascinating place to work and you get oversight over so much  content and the behind the scenes workings of the BBC itself. It’s definitely my favourite job and favourite role I've had.

“It’s really fun making sport look exciting and being able to work with it on a daily basis is awesome. For example, working on concepts for the Superbowl was great, its location changes every year and working up designs with nods to destination is something you can have a lot of fun with. This year it was in Las Vegas, so there was lots of visual language to play with there.

"Sport is a big passion of mine and I’m a huge NFL fan. Working in this area of work means I can impart a lot of my knowledge of different sports into the concepts and all makes for interesting outcomes. It’s just really cool to be so invested in what I do and enhance the storytelling of my work – it’s really exciting.”

His career today fuses his two passions of design and sport into one creatively fulfilling role, and since a “penny drop” moment in the later stages of secondary school in Keith, a career in design has always been at the fore.

He shared: “I think I was 15 or 16 when I randomly picked up art as an additional subject and then everything fell into place. The penny dropped and I couldn’t see a career in my path that wasn’t centred around design. 

“I just knew I wanted to go to art school and I was pretty sure it was graphic design I wanted to study. I changed all my courses to be geared around design – art, product design and graphic communication, I was doing them all. Everything focused on that area and I was all in. I’m the sort of person that if I’m not into something, I have no energy in it so getting a glimpse at working in a creative space really put a fire in my belly.

“I left school in fifth year and went to study HNC Visual Communication at North East Scotland College and focused on building my portfolio which put me in a good position to apply to Gray’s. It all worked out perfectly for me. Studying at Gray’s was ideal as Aberdeen was familiar to me and felt local, moving all the way to Glasgow and Edinburgh always felt a bit daunting.

“Gray’s felt accepting and an all-round nice vibe – there’s a real sense of pride when you study at the School.”

For students looking to work in creative spaces, the decision to look for roles in agency or in-house can be a weighty one. Before joining BBC, Andy was no stranger to agency life and reflecting on both sides of the coin, each space has its own pros and cons to weigh up.

“I guess there's a couple of different ways of looking at it. In agency you have a broader range of clients, but you find now that more agencies are becoming more specialist in a specific area. You might have a range of clients, but you might actually end up doing the same kind of work but for multiple clients. The other thing with agency is that a lot of the time, the final decision on what you design, write or create is down to the client. You may have more creativity but you can be limited by client decisions.

“In-house however, you can have more influence in dictating the terms of what the creative brief is or what the final outcome should be. Working at the BBC has probably been the most creatively fulfilling role I've had since graduating - I get to define a lot of the parameters for the projects I work on. I was definitely cautious about working in-house, but I’m glad I have the creative freedom I do. Being able to produce work that continually goes in different directions and creating new identities or creative perspective is really fulfilling.”

Earlier this year, Andy returned to deliver a guest talk to Communication Design students where he talked through his role and shared some advice. Securing that first job out of university was the hot topic of course and he shared that it’s important to not be fixated on how you’re going to pin down a job but being open to the process – something he’s learned through his career path over the years.

“I remember being in classes and thinking, ‘what’s the point in this?’ or ‘how is this going to help me get a job?’, but by doing that, I was stifling my creative journey. It’s important to be open to the process and take in new things – you just never know how that will evolve your practice.

“I would definitely tell my younger self to fall in love with the process rather than worrying about the outcome.”