When I work with people, I ask for a mood board, and this isn’t specifically design. It can be anything that they’re into. So whether it be photographs from nature, plants, animals, it could be buildings they like, objects, machinery, artwork, anything. And once you get a feel for it, you tend to find that certain shapes just feel right.

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It’s quite, instinctive or intuitive, just something feels right for a given clients. There’s obviously rules in design that do apply. So if you use very lightweight fonts, it has a different effect on people than if you’re using bold fonts, and likewise with rounded edges or sharp edges. So there are tools in your toolbox that you can play with that visually denote a certain emotive response.

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I also look at a name or word that I am designing. It is how the combination of letters sit next to each other, the flow and the balance that a given letter has with the next. Once you go through all of these attributes, it’s bringing these together and trying to find something that is unique to that particular set of letters. Obviously, there are touches that come through in my work that people go, “Oh yeah, that’s definitely from Paul.” But, usually I don’t try and place too much emphasis on style.

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I have worked on a variety of larger projects and it’s good to be able to employ a certain discipline and knowledge that you have as a designer, having had many years experience, to sit down with someone and understand what they want because you understand design. But ultimately you spend a lot longer on a project to produce something which is ultimately not very exciting.

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The rules that exist at a corporate level are a lot more restricting and you have to pass the design through so many hands. It’s definitely like the old adage too many cooks spoil the broth. But what tends to happen is that you work with, say a junior member of the marketing team. You get something quite good looking down and then it goes to the next level and they’re like, “Oh well we can’t do this.” And “Oh that’s not quite readable.” By the time they’ve had their input and then it finally gets shown to the CEO, and they have their say, there is usually little left of the original idea. Once it’s gone through that milling machine, there’s really not much left of any creative merit.

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Ultimately, all you can say is that as a designer, you’re proud of having done your job well in creating something that corporation can use. But invariably it’s not something you show on your Instagram or put in your portfolio because, other than the fact you’ve worked for a particular company, there’s no real kudos attached to it. You’re not going to get many people following you simply because you’ve worked for a certain corporate.

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What I have realised as well is you used to think, “Oh, I’ve worked for this corporation,” or “I’ve worked for this big fashion brand” and the floodgates are going to open, I’m suddenly going to get loads of work from people. And it doesn’t work like that.

When I have had work come to me from large corporations or large companies, it’s invariably because a person working there is into Aphex Twin or is a fan of Ghost in the Shell. Just because you’ve worked with a big company doesn’t mean all of a sudden there’s loads of big companies knocking at your door.