Adam Robbins

We speak to a design director with a portfolio full of luxury brands, who’s just left the studio he co-founded to explore opportunities abroad.

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Adam Robbins is a design director currently living and working in London who co-founded his own digital studio, Rotate°, in 2014, primarily designing and building ecommerce websites for luxury and lifestyle brands. With a nine-year career spent working in digital roles at a range of London-based studios across numerous clients, he’s recently said goodbye to Rotate° in order to pursue new ventures. We caught up with him to find out more.

How did you get started in web design?

My post-uni plan was always to move to London. I graduated in graphic design in July 2009, then spent a week at a music festival in Spain. After that I flew home and applied for a handful of junior roles. My final major project at uni had quite a digital spin: I did a series of experiments with an eye-tracker, including drawing a typeface with just my eyes. The guys at Zone were really positive about my postuni portfolio and they happened to be doing some good-looking digital work, so when they offered me a position I went for it. Given the fact I’d only designed one site before joining them (my own), you could say I pretty much stumbled into web design.

You’ve just left Rotate° after four years. How would you describe your time there?

It was an incredible learning experience. I’d previously worked as a designer at studios ranging in size from more than 100 people right down to just 10. In all instances my day-to-day role was solely about design. When I got to 26, an opportunity presented itself to me to start my own studio with an associate (Jim Tattersall, a super talented developer). I saw this as the perfect way to learn about how the other side of a creative agency works, including disciplines like pitching, quoting, scheduling, hiring and managing.