To the people who opened the door for me…

I’ve been tasked to write for three consecutive days. To help me I had some prompts I could choose to write about. Today, I chose this one: Who opened a door for you and how did they do it?

These are some words that have been with me for a long time. Words I have been meaning to write down in a card, or words to tell, beer in hand, in a pub just before close, at the time when it is okay to open up and be sentimental in a way you wouldn’t when you’re sober.

I didn’t always know about the etiquette of drinking in pubs. When I arrived in London at 24, I knew a bit of English, but absolutely nothing about the culture, the norms, the unspoken rules of Englishness. I knew even less about what it meant to design in England or how to go about getting a job in the competitive London design industry. To the people who opened the door for me then I owe much more than my first job and I don’t think I’ve ever told them.

It took me a long while to get my foot in the door… I landed in London in 2008 with one backpack full of stuff and 200€ in my pocket. I was living with a couple who were in an underground prog-rock band and their parrot, there were also 7 koreans living in the other rooms. The parrot didn’t like me and I wasn’t into prog-rock. The koreans kept themselves to themselves, they were busy studying. It was 2008, there was a recession going on. So I took the first job I could find. It wasn’t what I had studied, but I needed to pay rent.

Over the next three years I tried everything I could think of to get my foot in the door. I contacted every studio I had ever heard of – as you can imagine, the ones I had heard of from abroad were the ones everyone here had heard of millions of times, my chances to get in were slim but I had no idea… I went to every design talk – but was always too shy to approach the speakers at the end. I worked for free. I sent wacky postcards, made videos, did everything I could think of to get noticed. I worked for free. I took classes in the evenings and weekends. I worked for free. I would have even paid to work, if it meant I could get my foot in the door… Every time I hoped, maybe this time would be the one. Every time I got rejected. No explanation. It was soul destroying. I wanted to give up… Until one day, I got an email back that wasn’t a «thank you but no thank you».

I got an email that said: « we like your portfolio and we’d love to meet you.»

So I went. I was nervous and hopeful. But I didn’t want to get my hopes up, I had been there before. The interview went well, and I got offered an internship. It was not a job yet, but it was a foot in the door (and it was paid!)

I had no experience of working in an English studio, so over the next 6 months, year, few years, the two designers who had interviewed me had a lot to teach me. One of them had me completely lost, he had a Sheffield accent and dry sense of humour – there is only so many times you can ask someone to repeat what they have said without sounding rude, as for the jokes… The cultural divide between us was wide, and understanding each other a real challenge. To his merit he always delt with it patiently and with grace. I was keen to learn and to impress. How to fit-in wasn’t the only thing they had to teach me, my knowledge of photoshop was ropey at best… but they took me in and stuck by me. They mentored me with patience and good humour. They taught me about designing the English way: it was a lot more client centered, more commercial and a lot less arty than anything I had done before. They taught me how to turn a boring brief into an exciting challenge. They taught me about team work, and about emulation and good rivalry. It was an exciting place to work at, they were exciting people to work with.

They also taught me how to drink in a pub, the etiquette, what people talk about. They taught me how to relate and understand the English. They were, they still are, some of the most patient, kind hearted people I have met. It was a foot in the door to a job, but it was also a foot in the door to belonging somewhere. Their openness allowed me to lay down roots in England, the place where I later found love and built a family.

Andy, Luke, Stu, Ed, Danny, (and the whole SAS team) you weren’t thinking of it when you opened that door for me, and neither was I, but you were the little stone that started the avalanche. You were enablers at a crucial point in my life, I can never thank you enough for this.