Hi, I’m Jimbo, a Creative Director & Design Leader working at the intersection of brand, creative, product, and technology.

At Skyscanner, I drove the evolution of the Brand Design System used across marketing and product-adjacent experiences, reaching 170M+ travellers globally each month. Alongside this, I lead how the system is translated into creative outcomes across multiple workflows, managing key initiatives spanning campaigns, paid, landing pages, OOH, experiential and more to deliver key metrics.

Over the past 8 years, I’ve helped scale and evolve design systems through multiple stages of business growth; from scale-up to globally established brand across 47 markets. My work spans brand governance, creative direction, system transformation, and scalable design frameworks across high-profile campaigns, partnerships, product experiences, and experiential design.

Awards

• The Drum DADI Award

• The Lovie Awards

• W³ - Gold

• Weeby Awards – Nominee

• 3x Marketing Society Star Awards

• Rising Creative Star Finalist, Marketing Society

• Awards MISTD

• Young Glory Advertising Awards – Bronze & Finalist
  

Core Skills

• Design and Creative Leadership

• Principal Designer

• Design Systems

• Creative Design & Art Direction

• Product Design & CX

• Strategic Thinking

• Team Coaching

Location

Daily reach into Edinburgh and Newcastle. Monthly reach into London.

Ross Mawdsley,
Global Head of Visual Design – Skyscanner.
Ex BBH, AKQA, Portas, AmazeRealise.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”

Since joining Skyscanner nearly six years ago, James has naturally become an ‘unofficial’ leader of the Brand Design team. He has consistently embodied our core values—simplicity, collaboration, and genuine care. His empathetic, thoughtful approach has been the cornerstone of our team's dynamic. After being promoted to Creative Director (Design), James seamlessly transitioned into a formal leadership role, maintaining the same values while adapting to the company’s rapid growth. As Skyscanner has expanded, the design team has had to move at an accelerated pace to deliver high-quality projects, and under James’ leadership, they’ve consistently exceeded expectations. His compassionate leadership style has enabled the team to elevate their craft and manage an increased workload without feeling overwhelmed.

Over the past four years, Skyscanner’s demand for Brand Design has skyrocketed, necessitating a modern, consistent, and user-friendly brand identity. James played a central role not only in shaping and defining this aesthetic, but also in ensuring its effective implementation across all touchpoints. He led numerous workshops and training sessions, while also introducing systematic templates that significantly accelerated delivery times. His approach allowed the team to handle the surge in output with confidence and maintain a consistently high level of craftsmanship.

James is a remarkable design leader and mentor who lives by the belief that it’s not just about what you do, but how you do it.

Matt Stueland,
Head of Content Skyscanner.
Ex Vice, WarnerBros, Paramount.

I had the pleasure to work with James over several years at Skyscanner, where I watched him consistently push for new and innovative ideas and ways of working and inspire those around him to do their best work.

He has the rare ability to connect bold creative vision to business priorities, clearly explaining the idea and purpose behind a project to company stakeholders and executives, as well as providing success metrics that make it easy to understand the value and impact of his initiatives.

James is easily one of the best collaborators I've ever worked with at any company. He independently brings ideas and solutions for shared challenges and gives poignant feedback that immediately raises the quality and impact of your idea. He's a thoughtful listener who's always thinking how target audiences will see and interact with the end product, as well as how a creative idea will drive business impact.

He's a leader and motivator of teams and widely respected for his positive attitude, creative energy, and practical approach that simplifies complex projects in ways that are easy to understand for the business with clear roadmaps to follow for collaborators and stakeholders.

Andre LeMasurier,
Sr Director, Global Head of Brand & Creative at Skyscanner.
Ex Google, R/GA, 72andSunny, AKQA, Saatchi.

Jimbo does a brilliant job at pulling teams together and leading from the front on really significant and important projects. Projects with loads of moving parts and required a strong work ethic, craft, passion, dedication and seeing through ambiguity. He rallies the team, works hands-on and really stepped up to the plate.

Fantastic work Jimbo! Keep killing it.

Remco Graham,
Global Head of Concept, Skyscanner.
Ex BBH, Denstu, Crispin.

I've seen and worked with many brilliant creative people in my time in the industry. James is a brilliantly rare creative person. A creative leader that leads with compassion. A creative leader that isn't afraid to get his hands dirty in a Figma deck when everyone else has signed off for the night. A creative leader that has the total and utter trust of his team and a creative leader that refreshingly is without ego.

If you ever get to work with James you'll see just how rare his talent is.

Julia Doogan
Senior Designer, Skyscanner.

I’ve had the privilege of working alongside Jimbo at Skyscanner, as my manager and mentor, and have watched him grow from a talented designer into one of the most influential design leaders in the company.

What sets Jimbo apart is his rare ability to operate at every level of design. He combines exceptional creative judgement and design craft with a deep understanding of business strategy, user needs and organisational goals. He consistently brings clarity, confidence and solutions where others see ambiguity.

Jimbo has been a driving force behind some of Skyscanner’s most significant design work, developing our brand design system, evolving our visual language, and creating scalable systems that empower teams and freelancers around the world to produce high-quality, consistent work. His influence extends far beyond brand design – bridging the gap between product and brand, helping shape everything from landing page experiences to the way our brand shows up throughout the customer journey.

While his design expertise is exceptional, it’s his leadership that leaves the greatest impact. People trust him. They look to him for guidance, support and direction. He has a remarkable ability to bring out the best in those around him, challenging people to push further while always making them feel supported. He is generous with his time, celebrates the success of others, and creates an environment where people feel confident doing their best work.

Jimbo is that rare combination of strategic thinker, exceptional designer and inspiring leader, who will undoubtedly continue to shape the future of design.

Neil Gilchris
Senior Designer, Skyscanner.

Jimbo is a rare type of creative director, passionate and pioneering and strives to champion the individuals in his team.

Over my time at Skyscanner, I was lucky enough to work with Jimbo across a range of projects, from global campaigns to the art direction and digital experience of the annual campaign Travel Trends and many design system elements. Throughout this time, Jimbo led with a unique care for the craft, while balancing and identifying business needs and impact. His expert management of these situations has helped the team around him grow as designers, but also level up their business thinking and strategic knowledge.

Jimbo has an amazing ability to take an initial brief and identify hidden opportunities and unlock creative possibilities. This energy is infectious and makes those around him level up their approach and want to be part of the process. Throughout this, he is sure to take everyone along on the journey, demonstrating how what we are doing is important not only from a design perspective in raising the bar but also for shareholders. Showing them the vision, gets immersed in their world and showing them the potential impact. It’s this 360 approach that makes being part of Jimbo’s team such a rewarding place to be.

Jimbo's skills continue to be razor sharp, and to add to his leadership ability, he is a deft hand on the tools. Crafting, interrogating, and fine-tuning any design output, from global OOH rollouts to digital platforms, always benefits from having Jimbo’s involvement. He isn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty and is great at identifying new approaches to turn the mundane into magic. His design legacy and impact will continue to influence the Skyscanner brand for years to come.

To add to all of this, Jimbo is a great person to be around on a personal level. Kind, considerate, and so much care of those around him. He makes sure we celebrate the small wins, and the individuals in his team are spotlighted in moments of success. He is an epic addition to any team, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working alongside him.

Pamela O’Neil
Senior Producer, Skyscanner.
Ex Oliver Agency, Sainsbury Bank.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with James at Skyscanner and he’s one of those creative leaders who raises the bar for everyone around him.

He has a sharp instinct for visual design that balances brand and usability brilliantly. His work is rooted in craft and looks beautiful, but more importantly it’s functional and purposeful for real travellers.

From a production perspective, James is a fantastic collaborator. Clear thinking, thoughtful direction, and the ability to cut through complexity without losing the spark of the idea. Projects simply run better with James involved.

Dee Woods,
Head of Creative Technology at Twitter (X).
Ex Digitas and Critical Mass.

Recently, I worked with James directly on a very complicated, tedious and challenging piece of digital work, and I'm glad to have had the pleasure.

James is a passionate designer with an eye for craft, a collaborative spirit, and an unending capacity to learn.

His acuity in design, ability to communicate the details and his drive to always push the work further makes him a valuable person on any team.