Some people specialise. Gareth does everything.
Gareth Jones is a freelance designer and one of Nonconform’s most regular collaborators. He’s versatile, precise, and really invested in the work, always turning his hand to whatever a project needs – which is something he’s been doing alongside the Nonconform team long enough to feel like a natural extension of it.
What’s the first thing you look for when a new project lands?
Understanding what the project is actually trying to achieve, and how I can help get it there.
For Gareth, that means looking at how he can work within an existing brand to maintain consistency, while still bringing something of his own to the designs. It’s a balance between respecting what’s already there and making sure the work moves forward naturally.
What do clients usually underestimate about good design?
That a brand is shaped by a team, not an individual.
Bouncing ideas back and forth can take a brand in directions that nobody would have anticipated at the start. For Gareth, that’s where something truly unique comes from. It’s not from one person working in isolation, but from the kind of creative friction that only happens when people engage with each other’s thinking, opening their eyes, both creatively and commercially, to different perspectives.
What’s something you regularly push back on?
Campaigns that don’t fit the brand they’re supposed to represent.
A rushed or thrown-together piece of work can do more damage than good, and that understanding has stood the test of time, regardless of any project deadlines there may be. If something needed to go to print yesterday, the right piece of design still needs to go to print.
What part of the process do you care most about getting right?
The overall look and feel as it develops, but never at the expense of the detail.
Gareth checks once, twice, and three times if needed, alongside checking in with another member of the team, as a fresh pair of eyes for proofing is something he considers invaluable – it is the small things that matter just as much as the big picture. The potential to miss information is still a mistake, however good the design looks around it.
What makes a collaboration work properly?
Hearing every voice in the room.
As mentioned throughout this blog, the different perspectives that make a collaboration genuinely interesting cannot be replicated or manufactured, they have to come from a real place. We all have our own perspective, opinion, way of doing things, and bringing that all together and balancing each other out… That’s what makes the outcome something to be proud of.
What does “good” look like when a project is finished?
A concept or brand that people are proud to represent.
But Gareth is also clear that a design job is never truly finished, not really. Looking back on work six months later and spotting things that could be improved is a sign of someone still developing, it’s absolutely not failure. That ongoing self-critique is, in his view, integral to growth.
What should people know about Nonconform that isn’t obvious?
That it’s one big creative melting pot.
Individuals bring a wide variety of skills, but what matters most is developing together. The sum is always greater than individual parts.
“Nonconform has become part of my design family. They continue to challenge me, and that helps me grow with every project we work on together. Their support and influence are reflected in every job I approach as a designer, and I hope to continue challenging the norm and growing alongside them for many years to come.”
— Gareth Jones