From design to beautiful data

In two weeks I’ll be leaving the team here at Grain to go to M&C Saatchi. Although there’s a great deal of excitement, anticipation and enthusiasm coursing through my creative synapses, I can’t help but feel a little sad to be leaving the Grain family behind.

Other than working as a designer, I’m currently completing a Masters Degree in ‘Design: Critical Practice’ at Goldsmiths, which is where the Saatchi team discovered my data visualisation work. M&C Saatchi offered me a position as data visualiser within their Central Strategy Unit. I’ll be working internally, receiving data and information from their Intelligence Team and applying design and research skills to develop ‘beautiful data’ — which will then be used to fuel the creative direction of the company.

My motivations for such a move are as follows: The new position offers a more specialised career pathway, working as a data visualiser rather than an all-round designer, which fits in with my personal and academic research routes which will help develop my positioning towards a PhD. I’m a true believer in Data Divinity which futurologists WGSN describe: “The future will be driven by data but powered by intuition. […] There is a growing move to introduce a more instinctive method of knowledge-gathering. At the same time, artists are investigating a new world of tech-enhanced sensory perception.”

Furthermore at this point in my professional life, working for a global giant like M&C Saatchi feels very much like a natural and progressive move. Their ‘brutal simplicity of thought’ philosophy is one which I feel a strong affinity for and their recent acquisition of the studio Lean Mean Fighting Machine fills me with confidence that I’ll be working alongside some of the best creative minds in the country. However, my departure from Grain wasn’t an easy decision to make. The Grain family is warm, caring and kind. I couldn’t have hoped for better colleagues over the past 7 months, which I’m wholeheartedly thankful for. I’ll be sure to keep in touch when I leave and wish all the best to Grain as a company, which is certainly destined for continued success and a fruitful and rewarding future.
— Jacob Armitage