Interview with Steve Roberts
Busy designing and building beautiful digital products, brands, and experiences.
Design Legend Interview
28 August 2019
After working for a London design agency for a number of years, I was getting tired of the hectic schedule, which is when I thought it would be a good idea to specialise and ended up landing in product design. Since then I've been working with various start ups around the UK and national corporation like Nationwide and Gumtree.
In short, to have people use it, and hopefully make their lives easier or better.
When I was a young boy, I painted small army figures and always had my head in a paint by numbers but I was quite into sports and wanted to be a p.e teacher but fortune had it that my school dropped physical education due to lack of popularity, so choose product design in its place and from there I haven’t looked back.
It ranges from branding projects, product design - responsive websites, mobile apps (user experience and user interface design), style guides, iconography, illustration. The designs I'd like to work with more is anything that brings a challenge, maybe new innovative technology.
Get your work out there, whether it's a website portfolio or uploading works to inspiration sites much as Dribbble or Behance, these don't have to be projects for clients, they can be self initiated.
A good designer will give a client what they "want", a great designer will give a client what they "need"
Has it accomplished the brief? In short, people are using it, and hopefully making their life easier or better.
Well design is the whole thing. It's the way it looks, way it works, way it smells...it's the whole thing.
Listen and collaboration. To pass all that knowledge along we need to talk. And talk. And talk and talk and talk. We need to be in the same space, we need to share stupid ideas before we get to the good ideas.
Design is a tricky word. It means different things to different people. For myself, design is the whole thing. It's the way it looks, way it works, way it smells...it's the whole thing.
Get your work out there, whether it's a website portfolio or uploading works to inspiration sites much as Dribbble or Behance.
An app I designed in my spare time called smalltalk. It organically has grown to 40k+ users, showing me that users like and want to use the app without the influence by any marketing.
I can see user interfaces becoming more and more minimal, touch specific and voice activated. I can see there always be a place for branding and marketing.
Couldn’t say an accurate time frame as all clients have different objectives and goals, but broadly I would say longer than you'd think.
I work with the client to understand their needs. It always beings with getting to know the client.
Designer Interview
27 August 2019
After working for a London design agency for a number of years, I was getting tired of the hectic schedule, which is when I thought it would be a good idea to specialise and ended up landing in app design. Since then I've been working with various start ups around the UK and national corporation like Nationwide and Gumtree. When I was a young boy, I painted small army figures and always had my head in a paint by numbers but I was quite into sports and wanted to be a p.e teacher but fortune had it that my school dropped physical education due to lack of popularity, so choose product design in its place and from there I haven’t looked back.
7robots is the name of the company (Steven Roberts, minus the "t" in Steven, minus the second "r" in Roberts and change the "e" to an "o" and thats how the name came about). The only staff member is myself (and occasional contractor) busy designing and building beautiful digital products, brands, and experiences.
Design is a tricky word. It means different things to different people. For myself, design is the whole thing. It's the way it looks, way it works, way it smells...it's the whole thing.
In terms of product design, I have to say I take more joy in visual design over user experience design. Mostly due to the reaction of the clients. Outside of the product sphere branding would top the list.
An app I designed in my spare time called smalltalk. It provides 6 stimulating subjects each day (a inspirational quote, a fact, a joke, on this day, word of the day and tip of the day), which has organically grown to 40k+ users, showing me that users like and want to use the app without the influence by any marketing.
Illustrations for marmite that were featured in the “bumper book of marmite”.
Digital, online, interactive.
In the office surrounded by other creatives.
Always the "need" of the client, rather than the "want", and remembering if an aspect doesn’t enhance the user experience or the brand then it's not required.
That's a tough one as it depends how the project is going, it can range from frustration to elation.
If it's been a long time coming then a cool satisfaction.
In short, people are using it, and hopefully making their life easier or better
Has it accomplished the brief.
Making peoples lives easier and/or better
I can see user interfaces becoming more and more minimal, touch specific and voice activated. I can see there always be a place for branding and marketing.
I entered a competition in 2013, to design a "beermat". My submission of "bearmat" got exhibited but I haven't held my own exhibition.
Mostly online resources like dribbble, pinterest, medium or simply going for a walk to get some fresh air and reset.
I wouldn’t class “clean” as i style but I’m a big fan of minimal, simple, clever products
Currently living in the green, green grass of Wales, Cardiff.
It's is split quite evenly between companies wanting a body in-house with their team and one's that are happy for me to work remotely.
Listen and collaboration, make sure you build a relationship with the designer. No one knows more about your company than you do. Designers know their stuff, you know your stuff, put it together and that's a whole lot of stuff we know. But there are no short cuts. To pass all that knowledge along we need to talk. And talk. And talk and talk and talk. We need to be in the same space, we need to share stupid ideas before we get to the good ideas.
The process starts with the proposal. Work with the client to understand their needs. It always beings with getting to know the client, then if we take a usual product design product for example... research, strategy, user experience, visual design, development, QA, analytics and testing.
Macbook pro, iPad pro, magic mouse, sketch pad and pencil
Wake at 5:30am, 6:00am gym class, home for a coffee and toast before walking to the office for 9:00am, where I like to stay till 5-5:30pm.
Get your work out there, whether it's a website portfolio or uploading works to inspiration sites much as Dribbble or Behance. When designing a product, don’t be fixated on a single screen, people don’t think wow look at that one screen…
It's great to get paid for something that you love to do but on the flip side, the work never stops, there is always something you can be designing, whether its for a client or simply promoting yourself.
If its useful it’ll always be used.
Communication, problem solving, aesthetic talent.
Adobe creative suite, Sketch, Invision
Routine, I try to keep to a 9-5 schedule.
Couldn’t say an accurate time frame as all clients have different objectives and goals but broadly I would say longer than you'd think.
Can you quickly knock-up something? shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes
I would have to say working in a London design agency. The fast pace and tight deadlines meant you had to learn and develop quickly or you had to get out of the way.
Nationwide, Gumtree, Marmite, NHS, Hodge bank, Paperclip, Dell EMC, Fling
I enjoy all the work that I do but working with clients that are full of energy, enthusiasm and ambitious is the best
My future plans for now is to keep expanding my client base. I would love to start working with more clients outside of the UK.
My work patterns range from working on my own (with obviously collaboration with client feedback), working with other contractors/agencies and working in-house with a client's team.
howdy@7robots.co.uk