and now… Opera

09 Oct 2008

Finally, I can announce my big news, that I’ve keeping quiet about for what seems like ages.

From the end of this month, I will be Senior Designer at Opera Software! Like fellow UK members of the Opera team Chris Mills, Bruce Lawson and Henny Swann I’ll be working remotely.

Opera has been a browser vendor whose ideals and feature list I’ve applauded, but whose Mac interface design I’ve been, well, critical of to be honest. Now I’ve got a chance to ‘put my money where my mouth is’. I’ll primarily be responsible for Opera desktop, Widgets and Mobile/Mini browsers, but general design too. I’ll hopefully get to implement the ideas I have for the logo and branding too. I can’t wait to get my teeth into it!

My ego would love to say that I was ‘head-hunted’ for the job, but that wasn’t the case. Neither was the business failing - forcing me to look for a job. I was doing more work than ever. I simply saw the job advert, and an opportunity to do the kind of work that I really wanted to do, so I took it! I went up to Oslo in early August, and found them open, flexible, and jolly lovely fellows to talk to, with exciting projects. After all getting to work full-time on a browser? It’s a dream!

Finally, some folks might be wondering what’s happening to Hicksdesign as a company? Without going into too much detail, it’s still here. While I’m full-time with Opera, Leigh will continue to steer the ship - she tells me that she’ll be recruiting a replacement for me soon (as well as building up Hicksmade). I’ll be what is possibly called a sleeping partner. ;o)

For posterity, this news has been covered on: