DIGITAL
Creative – NorthLink Digital ’ s head of design Steven Roberts , left , with CEO Graham Orrell .
WORDS : DAVE ROBSON PICTURE : CHRIS BOOTH
DEVELOPMENT BY DESIGN
Steven Roberts ’ creativity has opened up new opportunities for NorthLink Digital
Another string to NorthLink Digital ’ s bow has seen it target contracts it might not have previously considered .
Founded by Graham Orrell in 2016 , the Middlesbrough-based digital development firm has built up an impressive list of clients .
But without being able to offer a graphic design element , Graham always felt the firm was missing out on lucrative contracts – until now .
The appointment of designer / developer Steven Roberts as head of design is already reaping rich dividends .
And encouraged by the extra business NorthLink can now pitch for , founder and CEO Graham hopes further expansion in that area could be on the cards .
He said : “ With Steven joining the company , it has added a graphic and UI ( User Interface ) design string to our bow .
“ Before Steven ’ s arrival we didn ’ t have an in-house design capability , so we didn ’ t offer it to our clients at all . Therefore we were potentially missing out on projects or , for some projects , we outsourced the design work to local freelancers .
“ But as we grew and started winning higher profile clients and bigger projects , outsourcing wasn ’ t that tenable , so we decided to have an in-house capability and were lucky enough to get Steven in .
“ With his arrival , we ’ re now much more confident in our ability to deliver these large-scale projects and have them looking really first class .” A former Grangefield School and Stockton Sixth Form College student , Steven , 34 , originally embarked on a web design degree at Teesside University , only for the course to change to creative digital media halfway through .
It proved a blessing in disguise , though , allowing Steven to explore and develop the creative side of IT – a move that has served him well in his 14-year career so far .
He only joined NorthLink in April but is already working on major contracts , including designing the front-end application for a London-based hedge fund from scratch and developing a business-to-business e-commerce marketplace .
And at the heart of it all , he says , is a desire to make things easier for clients .
He said : “ It ’ s been great . I hit the ground running , straight into the pretty big finance project .
“ Usually we get given a brand , which could be anything from a logo to a colour palette and fonts . Sometimes it can include imagery too – and then it ’ s my job to take all those ingredients and turn it into a useful product .”
Graham said : “ It ’ s quite unusual for someone in Steven ’ s role to not only come up with the designs and have them look amazing but then also be able to code them up as well .
“ To do the development – not necessarily build the entire system but to build the screens and be able to hand them over to developers – is a big plus for us .”
A keen rock climber , photographer and musician – he owns 14 guitars – Steven admits his music has been put on the back burner recently – “ I needed to concentrate on my career rather than being a rock star ,” he laughs .
He also enjoys working in NorthLink ’ s smart Boho Eight office , saying : “ Being in the building with colleagues makes it a lot easier to communicate what a project needs and to assess where we are .
“ I ’ ve really enjoyed being involved heavily in all the projects and having the say over the design and that sort of thing . “ I guess everyone understands what my role within the business is , so they ’ re not scared to come and ask me questions when it ’ s design related or UI related – I really enjoy that aspect .”
And according to Graham , the firm ’ s relatively new creative arm means it ’ s well placed to expand .
He said : “ We ’ re hoping that if things continue in the direction we ’ re going , we ’ re going to build a design team around Steven . From almost day one , he ’ s had plenty of work on his plate , so if we continue going down that route , we can start hiring .”
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