Hey everyone

Time for another meet the team, this time with Lead Designer @tocal.

You might have seen Tom's intro to the Design team a while ago, and we'll be including more like that in the future, but for now you can learn a bit about the man himself!

Don't forget, you can meet the rest of the team here.

What is your role at Just About?

I’m Just About’s Lead Designer which basically means, if you can see it, it’s my responsibility 👀

I work with the product team to help shape how our features look and feel for all of you using the platform. Sometimes that means sketching page layouts and getting into the weeds with how we can make things as simple and intuitive for you all as possible (while still sticking by our values and ensuring we are building healthy, happy, and engaging communities). Other times, it means choosing a nice shade of purple or which icon best represents “respect” ✌️

On the other side, I work with the growth and commercial teams to maintain and improve how Just About looks to people who haven’t heard of us yet - whether they’re prospective users discovering us for the first time on socials, or a games industry big-wig witnessing one of Al’s finely-tuned pitch decks.

My role spans a whole range of design disciplines from brand design, to user-interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, and even illustration and animation. You can read all about our approach to design and what it entails here.

Why did you join JA, and where did you work before?

For most of my career I have worked in design agencies. I’ve worked with the likes of Sony, Warner Bros, Link, Honda, and the NHS to create a whole host of wonderful, dull, practical, inventive, and downright weird projects. I’ve been a Mac monkey doing artwork for community centres and libraries. I’ve been a senior designer making brands and websites for national and international clients. I’ve been a Head of Design building and working with a team of brilliant designers to craft big ad campaigns and complex sites and apps. And I even ran my own studio for a short time.

I came to Just About to build something real. Something to be proud of and to meaningfully invest my time in. Working in design agencies is amazing and taught me a lot of skills and life lessons. But most of what we created had a very short shelf-life and was often subject to the whims of board members and execs who don’t really understand their users. Just About is a different beast and a new and interesting challenge for all of us. Unlike lots of products where the solution is fairly well established, Just About is truly mission-first. We don’t quite know what our solution looks like but we know the problem we’re solving. That challenge-focussed mentality makes every day interesting and filled with motivation - not just to make a better platform for online communities but to discover the what, the who, and the how of making them 💪

How did you get started in this industry?

No juicy stories here I’m afraid. I am one of those rare people who went to school for something and then did that thing. I’ve always been fascinated with visual language and the way we communicate with each another when we’re not in the same room. So, when I was choosing my subjects at school, design was always top of my list. From there I chose to do my bachelor's in Graphic Design and the rest is history 🎓

The non-work stuff

What is your favourite band?

I have a pretty eclectic music taste but I am a huge Radiohead fan. I love every era of their work for one reason or another but especially In Rainbows - which joins Bon Iver's 22 A Million, Frank Ocean's Blonde, and a whole host of classic albums from Revolver to Boy Genius in my ever-changing top 10.

What is your favourite TV show?

I like to use TV to wind down and switch my brain off. I love prestige dramas like Succession, The Bear and The Wire and I’m a sucker for the more obscure gems of British comedy - 15 Storeys High, Spaced, Whites and the like. But my real guilty pleasure is chilled, feel-good (borderline childish) animation. Bee & Puppycat is my current favourite but anything in the Steven Universe, Summer Camp Island, Adventure Time mould is firmly in my wheelhouse!

What is your favourite game?

Bioshock is my all-time favourite but the Halo series has to be the one I’ve revisited most. I adore anything with a proper couch co-op. Shooting aliens and solving mind-bending puzzles with you is my love language ❤️

If you could live anywhere in the world, where and why?

As much as I love the idea of waking up by the beach in glorious sunshine every day, I am a sucker for routine and creature comforts. I don’t thrive in particularly vibrant and stimulating environments and I’m bad enough at holding a conversation in English about anything other than things I’m really passionate about to venture anywhere with another language for more than a fortnight! So that rules out basically anywhere too different from the UK 😂. So, where’s the most far-flung exotic place that’s also basically Wales? New Zealand. It’s New Zealand.

Cons: I don’t like Lamb (4th meat reference anyone?). Pros: Their Taskmaster series is the best.

What did you want to be when you were a kid?

A grown-up. What was I thinking?!

Share a hobby you currently have.

Take your pick! I have two big’uns.

I play korfball with my local club in Leicester, which I recommend to anyone who enjoys running about but finds your classic jock-type footballers, rugby players, netballers etc. ‘a bit much’. Korfball is a mixed-gender sport from the Netherlands meaning a). it has a way better and less monotone social side than most other single-gender sports (IMO) and b). pretty much nobody has played it until they rock up as an adult, meaning it’s super welcoming and accessible to all abilities.

I have played the drums since I was a moody teenager with a classic rock obsession and I've since played (very casually) in a number of bands - the most recent of which you can enjoy (and / or laugh at) here and here.