On leadership in design: Lessons from a career of learning and leading

Reflections from a journey of growth led by curiosity, experimentation, and personal experiences as a designer and how it can help others

Luis Hermosilla
8 min readAug 31, 2023

I’ve been designing my whole life, what started as a passion and a side hustle while studying then became my full-time job, and from that, it’s been more than ten years. As a disclaimer to those reading this post, this is not meant to be a set of principles or guidelines for others trying to reach my position to follow, but more of a compilation of thoughts on leadership in design and how those experiences have shaped my leadership style into what I consider is my best personal approach to it.

Landing my first lead position meant that I was no longer only the owner of my work but also in charge of ensuring others, often with less experience than me, had everything they needed to grow and have opportunities that could put them, in the future, in the same position as I was at the time.

Embracing growth and learning as you go along is one of the mottos that I’ve tried to apply to my career and have played an important part in shaping the path I’ve followed, with the points that follow I just hope I can help others follow their path as well.

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Luis Hermosilla

Lead Experience Designer. Digital wanderer. Based in London. Passionate about all things design. Music, art and photography enthusiast. www.luigiht.com