Who the hell is Tom Pelling?

We only work with cool people. And we thought it was time to share some of their thoughts with the world, so we’re chatting with members of the DixonBaxi studio about what makes them who they are. We caught up with Tom, an East-Londoner who’s keen on psychology and father to a dachshund named Jarvis. He’s also one of our senior UI designers.

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Who are you and what do you do?
Hello there – I’m Tom Pelling, a senior UI designer at DixonBaxi. I collaboratively help bring brands to life through digital experiences.

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What’s your story?
I have always been obsessed with design and innovative technology, which led me to digital design early on in my career, folding this in with my interest in the psyche of humans that comes with having a psychologist for a mum. With all that in mind, designing crafted intuitive experiences for people is the perfect role for me.

Throughout my career, I have sharpened my skills in big advertising agencies, small start ups and in-house tech companies and I’ve discovered that I’m most fulfilled in the branding world. It enables me to think about experience principles from the user perspective at the first inception of the core brand idea and this vision is instilled in every user interaction.

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What are you working on right now?
If I told you, I’d have to kill you.

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“Our opinions, thoughts and ideas are all informed by invisible decisions made by people. The world is constantly changing based on design decisions. Hopefully, if we all design with humans at the heart of our ideas, this world can become a better place.”

Describe your working style in 3 words.
Insightful, intuitive and compassionate.

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Tell us about some of your interests. What are you into?
Outside of work you’ll  find me running around East London at silly o’clock in the morning before catching the sunrise with a coffee, pastry and my Dachshund Jarvis – this is my happy place.

I’m currently making my way through all of Ottelnghi’s cook books using obscene amounts of Rose Harissa on a daily basis, and constantly rewatching The Sopranos.

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Do you think design can change the world? How?
Everything we interact with has been designed by someone, this informs and shapes how we all move through this world. Our opinions, thoughts and ideas are all informed by invisible decisions made by people. The world is constantly changing based on design decisions. Hopefully, if we all design with humans at the heart of our ideas, this world can become a better place.

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If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
Remove all opinion and narrative from the news and allow people to form their own opinions from cited sources.

Remove the ‘Are you still watching?’ message from Netflix on a Sunday.

What’s the last song you listened to?
Free years later – Kano.

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Why do you do what you do? What motivates you?
Work is such big part of life. I couldn’t imagine spending every day not being a creative problem solver surrounded by other brilliant creative people. Our clients have global reach and our work really does shape people’s lives.

The idea of improving people’s lives is what drives me every day.

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What’s your definition of good design?
Based on truth.

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