After almost 20 years in Melbourne, and starting a family, we've decided to make the move to Adelaide in December; and I'm looking for my next design leadership role there.
Packing up our Melbourne life.
At the end of this year, we're packing up our Melbourne life for a change of scenery to Adelaide. This isn't a sudden decision and has been on the cards since the birth of our daughter. Melbourne has given me a lot over the years.
Initially it was an escape from Wodonga, where I grew up, to find bigger things and head to university. It became a place to find my feet in freelance and build up great working relationships, that are still going after almost a decade, and work in some great corporate positions and properly understand design leadership. Not to mention I've made some incredible friendships over the years that make leaving hard.
It takes a village.
As the saying goes; it takes a village to raise a child, and I totally feel that. While I've never lived in Adelaide before, my partner grew up in the Adelaide Hills, and all her family is still living there. With our daughter getting a bit older and after some holiday time in Adelaide; it's become clear our daughter having some more family around is great not just for her, but for my partner and me too. On that note, we're pretty excited for some babysitting help for date nights at some of Adelaide's excellent dining spots.
Professional Steps.
While Adelaide is a much smaller pool when it comes to design roles, I'm not looking at this move as stepping back or coasting into something easier. I've spent the last few years leading design across a genuinely complex, enterprise-scale product suite; setting design system strategy, running research and mentoring designers. I want to continue doing work that challenges and inspires me, just from Adelaide.
So, if you're building a design team in Adelaide, or know someone who is, I'd love to talk. I'm looking for a design leadership role where I can bring my system thinking, research decisions, hands-on craft and creativity to a team or business that is ready to grow.