Empowerment through education with James Barnard
James Barnard’s entrance into design was rather wayward. Originally from the Lincolnshire area of England, he wanted to pursue a career as a record producer, having studied music, multimedia, and electronics at the University of Leeds. The cave-like isolation of music studios, however, was one of several factors that saw him shift his focus. While working as a researcher in London, he began to cultivate his design skills. Adobe Photoshop was a gateway into the design world that piqued his curiosity.
Barnard learned the basics with YouTube tutorials that supplemented the skills he learned in school. Finding he was enjoying the ride, he pursued design, securing a digital junior designer position at Runner’s World, a job for which he admits he wasn’t entirely qualified. “I wasn’t a great designer, and they could see that,” he allows. “The reason I got that job was because I was totally into running.” Training for the London Marathon ended up being a key that would enable his entrance into the publishing world and a hefty amount of on-the-job training.
He moved on to become a digital designer, making online advertorials for the digital arms of publications like FHM, Grazia, and Empire. He rose to a senior position for the Daily Telegraph in-house marketing team. Next came working for The Times and The Sun newspapers, but they weren’t a fit. “I absolutely hated it. It was like six weeks of putting out fires, not doing any design, [focusing on] the client management side of things,” he said. “It was good that I got to train with a small team, but there were just too many issues, and I wasn’t doing the design work that I loved, so I ended up leaving.”
Afterward, Barnard began working freelance gigs to pay the bills while looking for a new role, realizing the perks of the flexible schedule, which frequently allowed for a midday nap. That level of freedom stuck, and he’s now approaching nine years of doing it on his own. His specialty has come to be logo design, a form he calls “the purest form of design.” This, he says, is because it begins with a blank canvas — combining practices like color theory, typography, user experience, and others to distill a brand into a single versatile symbol. As he describes it, you can almost feel the funneling of energy into the hypothetical focal point. There’s a passion in his voice and the way he holds himself, which is probably why he’s segued into content creation that puts him in front of the camera. It wasn’t an especially intentional development on Barnard’s part. He had previously published TikToks that primarily showed the active workspaces of page or screen, but one Stitch, which featured his face and a crying baby, saw more business leads result during its viral arch than in the previous six-month period. The Stitch, which asked for a niche flex that means nothing to a majority audience, showcased Barnard’s achievement of having three logos published in the 13th edition of LogoLounge. It now has 3.1 million views.
His regular sharing of design tips has placed him in an educator role, which has expanded beyond his social media channels and led him to Adobe MAX and Adobe Live appearances. Being a freelancer, especially among the social and connective aspects of design community — whether virtual or at a conference like Adobe MAX — is a side of Barnard’s work that energizes him. He actively engages with the community, which sees him not only in the role of educator, but encourages his own learning as well. One video on his TikTok channel starts with the banner, “I was wrong.” Essentially, he was editing a logo in Adobe Illustrator in a roundabout way and had a chorus of commenters pushing the single stroke “offset path” function. He acknowledges the lesson with grace and humor, calling himself a designer “with a little seasoning,” nodding to his length of experience. This creates a web of interactivity — a sense of give and take — rather than a hierarchy sure to include condescension and mismanagement.
“Within the graphic design space, people have realized that gatekeeping knowledge doesn’t work. It’s better for everybody to grow, rather than hold back knowledge and think that helps you sell better to clients, because you’re suddenly an expert and nobody else is,” Barnard asserts. “Everyone rises together when we all share the knowledge. I’ve got loads of Instagram buds now who teach me things on a daily basis, and I’ve been in the industry for nearly fifteen years. I’m still learning.”
It's a refreshing perspective in a world where so often our teachers, especially those who are white men, hold knowledge and power with a clenched first. “The old ways aren’t necessarily the best way[s] to do things,” Barnard says. Veterans across industries and disciplines might take note. Beyond his active work life and commitment to learning, he calls himself a “full-time dad” to two kids (four years old and two years old, respectively) along with his wife Laura (also a business owner) in Gold Coast, Australia. No longer having the time for the full version, he ran his last half marathon in 2023.
“When you say to your wife in the morning, ‘I’m just going out for a four-hour training run,’ that doesn’t go down so well,” Barnard jokes. Being so active on social media, it’s important for him to have a place to shed the noise. He agrees that running offers some level of mental clarity, but it’s the shower that is the ideal setting for a clear mind. “I find the best place to reset, as short as it is, the shower, because there are literally no distractions. That’s actually one of the weird places where I get my ideas,” he said. “I need to get one of those white boards.” Waterproof white board or no, Barnard’s interactions with the online design community keep him pulling from a seemingly endless well of content, ever sharpening his skills with humor and a smile.
Are you ready to start learning? Click here to explore James’ course on his ultimate logo guide and start creating with his templates made in partnership with Adobe Express!