Design Unpacked: Meet Above Digital’s Design Team Leader, Harry Barlow

2nd October 2026

“Although my title is ‘Head of Design’, I see myself as more of just part of the design team. I try to encourage everyone to bounce off each other, bring ideas to the table, it’s totally an open conversation.“

5 years into working at Above Digital, we’ve sat down with Harry to learn all about his decade-long design career. It’s been a long time coming! So without further ado, let’s get into it.

What first got you into design?

I’ll start at the beginning. At school, I had literally no interest in art or anything like that. I did a product design AS level. I dropped out after my first year because I really disliked sixth form. But I learned I had this interest in being creative.

As I was leaving Farnborough Sixth Form, I saw there was a Graphic Design course at a technology college near me, Farnborough College of Technology. I didn’t really have a passion for it. I just saw this course and thought, I need to be in college for another two years. I had a kind of mini portfolio from my product design stuff, which was made up of product design sketches.

And I didn’t really know anything about graphic design. I didn’t even know what graphic design was. This was before the days of AI. Sadly, I do feel a little bit old when I say that now.

I didn’t even Google what it was. I just applied for it and thought, yeah, that sounds all right.

And that was it. I fell in love with all things design.

What was your first proper design job and what did it teach you?

My first proper design role came out of a work placement that was part of my degree. I landed two weeks at a web design agency in Farnham called Thunderbolt Digital, and I must have made a decent impression, because they offered me a part-time job afterwards.

I was only there for three months, but it opened my eyes to how agencies actually run: the morning meetings, the collaboration, the rhythm of project work. It taught me that design is a team sport, not just something you do alone at a screen.

After that, I joined a local signage company, GR8 Signs, where I stayed for just over a year. It was a very different experience. Instead of sitting in an office designing all day, I was hands-on and out on the road, travelling all over the country to see the work through. Seeing my designs become physical, real-world products taught me to think about practicality, materials and how people actually experience design in context.

Alongside all of this, I did freelance work for friends and contacts who were running their own start-ups and small businesses. That gave me early experience of working directly with clients, managing expectations and turning small, scrappy briefs into something polished.

What does your day-to-day actually look like for you at your role?

I’m coming up on five years at Above Digital, and I’m now Head of Design, which I’m really enjoying. I have a great team around me, and we do a lot of good work together.

Even with the title, I see myself as part of the design team rather than above it. I encourage everyone to bounce ideas off each other and bring their thoughts to the table, so it’s always an open conversation. If there’s one thing working here taught me early on, it’s that the work is always better when you do it as a team.

A big part of my role is client management. I’m speaking to whoever I can: kicking off projects, running scope calls and design calls, and liaising with our dev team. It’s a lot, but it works because we’re such a close-knit team. We have to be, to keep projects running smoothly.

What part of the design process do you enjoy the most? 

My opinion has definitely changed over the years. Early on, it always felt like the goal was to get to the end as fast as possible. “What’s the end goal?” I think university pulls you that way: you get the brief, you know what you need to do, and you go.

Now that I’m working in an agency, I see how much value there is in the discovery, research and scoping phases. I actually really enjoy that side of things. When I first joined Above, I got stuck into sitemaps and wireframing early on, and I still love thinking about how to keep the user moving through a site.

But there’s nothing better than nailing a design and thinking, “Yeah, this is 100% it.”

Is there a project you’ve worked on recently that you’re particularly proud of? 

I’d say our project with Behave, the Behavioural Consultancy, was really strong for us.

We were handed a 100-page brand guide, and the challenge was to turn that into a website. It wasn’t easy, and we explored all sorts of different directions along the way. One particular line motif was central to the brand, so we had to think carefully about how it would work and function on the web.

A lot of thought went into it, and it paid off. The end result was absolutely brilliant, and it won us multiple awards. They were also brilliant clients, which made it even better to work on.

Is there a particular tool, technique, or way of working that you couldn’t live without?

Since we switched to Figma, I wouldn’t go back to anything else. We brought it in about a year ago, and it’s just such a versatile tool. It does pretty much everything we need, especially with the full web design and build process in mind. I’d recommend it 100%.

Do you sketch on paper, or go straight to Figma when starting-off an idea?

I’ve never been a sketcher. In my early college days, I was always trying to sketch, because that’s what you think you need to do as a designer. My friends still seem to think I draw for a living, but I don’t, and I’ve been absolutely fine without it. If I’ve got an idea in my head, I can usually whip up a wireframe or a design straight away.

What’s something else that a non-designer might not fully appreciate?

There’s so much behind a website that people don’t see. We were pitching to a new client the other day, doing our first scope call, and it really hit me how much goes on before anything is designed.

We do a lot of research in the mood boarding phase. Then we work out a sitemap for the whole site before we even touch a wireframe. While we’re wireframing, we’re also working out how the brand will apply to those layouts, and how everything will work on mobile. Only then do we get to the design phase, where we can bring in our industry knowledge and best-practice experience in a way we know will work for that client.

And that’s just the design side. We haven’t even touched on the developers, who then go away and build it all. By the end, it’s usually at least three or four months of work that no one sees until it goes live on that URL.

What’s a design trend happening right now that you’re genuinely excited about?

I really like brands that stay true to their heritage when they rebrand. Websites are forever changing, but I think more brands are now reviewing who they are while still using their heritage and legacy as part of the brand. That’s what sometimes gets lost in translation when a brand does a big refresh, and no one really understands it.

McLaren has just launched their new logo, and it’s a really nice-looking one. It does need some context, but that’s just part of the brand story.

Another example is Guinness and their “It’s LoVely” slogan, which comes from the classic “It’s a Lovely Day for Guinness.” They’ve taken an old campaign that worked well and brought the harp logo in as the “V” in a really refreshing way. It’s a great campaign.

For me, a brand refresh has more impact than a full redesign, because you get to look at everything that built the brand into what it was. Why would you wipe that out overnight just because the logo is 10 or 20 years old?

Any designers or studios in particular you’re always keeping an eye on?

I’m always looking at Earthling Studio. They were behind the Jubel Beer and Jaffa Fruit rebrands, and I think they’re really good because they’re so bold with it. That’s something we strive for at Above Digital, pushing the clients we work with.

Just because you’re a traditional business, say a UK manufacturer, doesn’t mean you have to be a minimal blue brand. You can be something really bold if you want to, and I really like the way the team at Earthling does that.

They deliver it so well, too. Their case studies look awesome, and there’s never any argument about why they’ve done what they’ve done. Look at some other recent rebrands, and everyone has an opinion, even brands like McLaren, which I mentioned earlier. I’ve never seen anyone really pick apart anything Earthling has done.

Is there a type of project that you’d love to get your hands on that you haven’t yet? 

I’d love to do a full-blown, hardcore branding project from scratch. Most of our branding work comes from a client who’s after a new website, where we suggest their brand could use a bit of work as well. That’s our USP here: we can shape a brand around a new website, and I think that’s why we do so well with clients.

But I’d love to take on a branding project for a startup. I’d like to work closely with them, learn their story, see where they want to go, and have an influence from day one. Coming up with something original that looks brilliant, with no existing starting point, would be a dream.

What do you get up to outside of work?

Outside of work, I’ve got two small children, aged four and a year and a half, so they take up a lot of my time. At the weekend we’ll usually go out for a nice coffee and a pastry, then go for a walk and get outdoors.

I’m also a big football fan. I support Chelsea and my local team, Farnham, so I try to get to as much football as I can, and I play fantasy football with all my friends. I still play when I can too, though the ankles aren’t what they were when I was 20. These days I’ve also picked up padel.

And I do love a beer, so if there’s a chance to go out for a heavy or a light night, I’m always up for it.

Coffee or tea? 

I think I’ve become a bit of a coffee snob since I started at Above. I was never a big coffee drinker before, and it was always instant. Now we’re lucky enough to work in Reading, so there are plenty of good coffee shops around us, and I’ve got a nice coffee machine at home so I can make my own.

So yeah, coffee always. I’m partial to a mint tea too, though. I’d probably choose it over a standard English tea.

What’s a personal goal of yours?

I’ve tried so many times to learn Spanish. Last year I said I’d learn it in my 30s, but I’m about two months away from turning 31 and I can still only ask a Spanish person if they speak English. So it’s still the goal.

What’s your favourite app to waste time on?

I love a bit of TikTok, and I love a doom scroll. Work is part of that, because I have to have access to all of it all the time. It’s how you see the latest trends and what’s going on in the world, and you’re not going to see any of that if you live in a dark room with the windows and doors closed.

I actually hated TikTok at first, then lockdown came along and clawed me in, and I’ve never got away since.

What is your most used emoji?

Oh, it’s got to be the crying laughing face, but that’s a bit basic. I don’t know what it’s called… the one where the eyes are like pushing out. That one.

What piece of advice you’d like to give someone starting out in design

The best piece of advice I could give is to never stop designing. One thing that’s really helped me with that is passion projects. If you’re interested in branding, do it. If you’re interested in web, try it. Try everything.

I’d also say don’t rely too much on AI for your creative ideas. Those come from designing and from being part of a team, so look online and see what’s out there.

Thanks for talking to us, Harry! Can’t wait to see what we come up with next…