Abb-d Taiyo is co-founder and CCO of Driftime® – a design and impact agency helping progressive brands, established companies and sustainable initiatives, achieve long term impact through design and digital empowerment.
What led you into design?
I grew up with video games, anime and 90’s cartoons which gave me a visual basis for things I found appealing. From traditionally studying fine arts up to a UK A-Level, and after a brief stint playing basketball in the UK and US, I came to a conclusion that there wasn’t much of a career choice in fine arts or the narrow path of professional sports. At that point, I made a natural decision, transitioning to design as a way of applying my creative skills and understanding for a career that felt a little more viable. That was my logical brain speaking then.
I struggled to find my place in the creative industry, and so in some ways forced myself in without a degree and put myself through a process of blood, sweat, and tears in teaching myself everything I needed to know. At the time, I was making music as a hobby and taught myself design by making album sleeves and covers for all my music friends. Eventually, I got to a position where I was being commissioned and felt good enough to start charging a rate. When I spoke from the heart, and rather than pursuing music, it felt like design and creativity were something I could indefinitely do and be happy with. And so here I am…
“The biggest challenge we face is helping our client partners understand the value of taking risks.”
Abb-d TaiyoWhat product have you recently seen that made you think this is great design?
From a digital perspective, it’s the products I don’t see which to me personally are great designs. I’m a strong believer that design should be ‘invisible’ so that it empowers people without the need for constant attention, engagement and screen time. I’ve recently been enjoying Dot by New Computer, a personal AI designed to truly understand people. It’s somewhere between an assistant and therapist, as it asks thoughtful questions based on your data (like your upcoming calendar events) that help you discuss and work through thoughts.
What pieces of work are you most proud of?
I’m extremely proud of all the projects we work on, as each contributes towards people and planet-centric goals that we align to. One project would be our work with Only One, an ocean conservation platform tackling the climate crises head-on. Our work with them has led to a growing movement of over 2 million activists and advanced over 40 advocacy campaigns with 65 global partners. In 2022 Only One was listed as the most innovative not-for-profit by Fast Company. In the last year alone, we've collaboratively empowered 3.4 million actions taken to win crucial ocean campaigns and encouraged decision-makers to act at pivotal moments for a healthier planet. In 2023, Only One was able to raise over $7 million in funds alongside our creative support, driving further action towards the climate crisis.
What design challenges do you face at your company?
The biggest challenge we face is helping our client partners understand the value of taking risks. We operate exclusively in the pillars of sustainability, and to create real long-term impact demands a degree of risk. In almost every case, we share that risk through the work being done, as the impact itself can take time. We see our work more like experiments, with an understanding that there will likely be a hundred failures before a success. That alone is a hard sell for anyone. With predictable processes comes predictable outcomes, and so to truly do something impactful we must be unconventional, try something radical, and see that risk as an opportunity.
Any advice for ambitious designers?
Find the overlap of what you love and care deeply about, and what you’re naturally good at in the field of design. If you could ‘own’ those things and persevere through the friction of lived experience and figuring things out, you’ll be absolutely fine. For more practical advice perhaps, get yourself off social media and the bandwagon of what is popular. Trends tend to breed a homogeneous approach, and with everything that’s going on in the world, we need to think more radically about design as a whole – going beyond aesthetics and truly solving challenges without the distraction of it being award-winning.
Anything you want to promote or plug?
If you haven’t seen our website or come across Driftime®, come check us out here. If you’re a creative working in the design industry, take a look at our Kits – a collection of creative processes carefully crafted over years of failing, learning, improving, crafting and running a creative design practice.
These processes have given us the opportunity to tighten our operations and avoid many of the pitfalls freelancers and small agencies fall into. These tightened processes have helped us win high-profile partners and come toe-to-toe with global agencies. We've continued to sharpen each process with every hurdle and lesson we face. Each comes with free lifetime updates, and a 100% money-back guarantee within 7 days so there is honestly nothing to lose. We have new kits and big updates we’re excited to share with our network very soon!
