SHOWCASE
SurĽoh
TIMELINEKey dates for
Dan Davies
MAY 2000
Builds first website using
Dreamweaver.
JUNE 2004
Starts first web design job.
AUGUST 2005
Starts work for London Marathon
online partner.
JANUARY 2007
Becomes a senior designer at the
same company.
APRIL 2009
Helps rebrand the London Marathon
from Flora to Virgin Money.
SEPTEMBER 2010
Starts up a freelance business, Little
Black Cloud.
OCTOBER 2011
Works with Stuff and Nonsense as
a freelancer.
AUGUST 2012
Joins McCann Manchester as a front-
end developer.
SEPTEMBER 2015
Joins ecommerce agency Space48 as
lead front-end developer.
DECEMBER 2019
Switches roles to interaction designer.Davies believes there’s a lot we can take from print into the web, including innovative layouts and really
striking typographyminutes. If you’re looking for a job in the
city, there are many choices. We also
have lots of meetups and events, so
there’s something for everyone.But you’re still living in Wales, right?
Yes. I’ve always found Manchester to feel
like a second home but North Wales is
still my first choice. Nothing will make
me move away from there, even if my
commute is two hours each way.
Sadly the web scene in North Wales is
on the quieter side and there isn’t the
money there like is in Manchester. So the
commute is a necessary evil and I see
more and more devs and designers
commuting in these days. That said, I’m
very lucky in that I can work from home.
So I tend to only do three days a week in
the office, which means I get to see my
kids more.In what ways do you think what you do
will change over the next 10 years?
I keep reading that CSS and HTML are
obsolete now and that AI can do my job.
Maybe that will be the case in 10 years or
so, I have no idea. But either way,
ecommerce is changing a lot. I expect
virtual reality to become more
mainstream, which means we have to
think of new ways to work. We’ll still be
supporting IE11 though.More broadly, I do wonder what the
future holds for digital agencies. Maybe
we’ll become more consultancy minded.
Even thinking that far ahead makes me
worry a bit. The way the web industry
changes, we have to be constantly
learning all the time to keep up.What ambitions do you have?
I’ve always fancied moving into a project
management role; I’ve worked in every
other department so why not make use of
all that knowledge? Essentially though,
my passion is designing web pages and
my ambition right now is to keep on
doing that and ensuring the work I’ve
been doing in my side projects is reflected
in my client work. I just want to be
making a difference.What do people not know about you?
I threw a sausage roll at David Beckham
during a game and the event was captured
on live TV. Also, I once freelanced for a
company who believed I was someone
else. On my first day, I was informed that
the senior dev loved my talks and was
really excited I was coming in to help out.
When they realised I was not Dan Donald,
a look of disappointment spread across
their faces. I ended up staying there for
two years, though, and Dan Donald joined
himself a year or so later.