Now · Now
VP & Global Executive Creative Director — HelloFresh
Leading creative globally for one of the world's largest food companies. Bringing craft, conviction, and a bit of chaos to a brand that reaches millions of kitchens.
James Hurst
VP & Global Executive Creative Director at HelloFresh. Previously Global Creative Director at Pinterest, Head of Brand Design at Google, and Creative Director at Tinder.
Career and work
Now
2026 · Now
Great British Business Show — London
Speaking on a stage shared with Dragons' Den heavyweights, the founder of The Big Issue, Mike Soutar (The Apprentice) and the co-founder of Shazam. Design carving out a slot at a traditional business show — proof that creative thinking is the unfair advantage. Free to attend.
Images: Great British Business Show speaker card
2026 · Now
In-House In-Focus: In·2026 — Chicago
Spoke at In-House In-Focus In·2026 in Chicago about the role of weird the normal — and normaling the weird — sharing the poem at the spine of my book. A room full of people who get it.
Watch the talks · The book · Speaker bio
Images: James Hurst speaking at In-House In-Focus In·2026; James on stage at In-House In-Focus; Audience at In-House In-Focus; Crowd at In-House In-Focus; Group photo at the event; Weird the normal — talk slide
2026 · Now
Shift Summit: From AI Uncertainty to Creative Superpower — Superside
AI is a tool — what matters is when in the process you use it. As execution gets easier, strategic thinking becomes the real competitive advantage. Creativity isn't changing; how we work is.
Images: Shift Summit speaker card — James Hurst
2026 · Now
NeueHaus Berlin: 20 slides — Berlin
Twenty slides on creativity, AI, design, making, oscillation, risk, craft, and weirdness — to a generous, wildly talented room curated by Lena Pia Hammerstingl and Alessandro Amato. The reminder: making matters. Not talking about making. Making.
Images: James speaking at NeueHaus Berlin
2026 · Now
Creative Wellbeing — St Bride Foundation — London
Panel with Emmi Salonen, Emily Forgot and Laura Hunter on building sustainable creative lives. Four reminders worth keeping: wonder isn't a luxury, it's a practice; time poverty is real, not a personal failure; perfection is often just fear in a tuxedo; creative wellbeing is built in tiny, repeatable ways.
The Creative Wellbeing Handbook
Images: Creative Wellbeing panel at St Bride Foundation
2025 · Now
The Tension of Design — Between the Familiar and the Unfamiliar — SF Design Week
A talk on the tension every designer learns to hold — between what's recognisable and what's not yet known. The familiar gets you in the door; the unfamiliar is what makes the work worth remembering. Spent the hour unpacking how to move between the two without losing your footing.
Images: SF Design Week — The Tension of Design
Proving grounds
2026 · Proving grounds
Weird the Normal / Normal the Weird — Rogue School
A new book — one volume, two front covers. One side a manifesto for breaking patterns, the other a handbook for making sense of strange ideas. Two ways in, depending on what you need.
Images: Weird the Normal cover; Normal the Weird cover
2024–25 · Proving grounds
Educator & Advisor — Rogue School / Various
Co-taught AI → Aesthetic Intelligence with GP — exploring how artificial intelligence reshapes creative practice without erasing the human at the centre of it. Also supporting startup and scale-up cohorts with brand and strategy.
Images: James teaching a cohort session
2024 · Proving grounds
Back to London — Home
After years across the US and Europe, moved back to London. Closed one chapter, opened space for the next. Got some good distance — and the headroom to reflect on patterns I'd been circling for a long time.
Images: Moving back to London with the family
2022–23 · Proving grounds
Head of Brand Design — Google
Focused on brand systems, craft, and helping teams build work that scales without losing its soul. Complex organisation, brilliant people — learned a lot about keeping clarity when everything is pulling in different directions.
2022–23 · Proving grounds
Advisor — Brand & Product
Supported a handful of teams building what's next — usually at the intersection of brand, product, and storytelling. Enjoyed the intimacy and speed of smaller organisations after the scale of Pinterest.
2023 · Proving grounds
Use Design To Design Change — Rogue School
Published the book I'd been promising to write for years. A practical, personal take on design as a force for meaningful change — drawn from two decades of work across studios, startups, and global brands.
Images: Use Design To Design Change cover
2020–21 · Proving grounds
Global Creative Director — Pinterest
Led global creative and learned how to keep clarity — and optimism — inside genuinely complex organisations. Also started writing Use Design To Design Change. The thing I kept saying I'd write 'one day' finally got going.
Building the craft
2019 · Building the craft
First Things Club expands — SF → Global
What started as a small ritual in San Francisco quietly became something distributed — carried forward by trust rather than structure. Events in London, San Francisco, Berlin, and Chicago. No agenda, no hierarchy, just creative people showing up.
Images: First Things Club event
2017 · Building the craft
DesignStudio New York opens — DesignStudio (now Further)
The day we cut the ribbon on the New York studio. Myself, Ben Wright, Paul Stafford and Andrea Trabucco-Campos — four laptops, one brick wall, and a screen letting the neighbourhood know we'd arrived. The bookend to a 2014–19 arc through Creative Director, ECD and Principal — work for Deliveroo, Treatwell, Typeform, Drivy and others.
Images: DesignStudio New York opens — Ben Wright, Paul Stafford, Andrea Trabucco-Campos and James in the new studio
2014 · Building the craft
San Francisco — New chapter
Moved from London to SF. Started First Things Club — a simple ritual for designers to meet, share, and help each other do better work. Didn't know it would outlast everything else.
Images: San Francisco Design Week
2010–13 · Building the craft
Co-Founder & Illustrator Agent — HigginsonHurst
Built a business representing illustrators. Grew a real roster. Learned how much culture matters — and that the work behind the work is often what makes the work. Thank you Chrissie, Daisy, Damien, Esra, Han, Mike, and Paul.
Images: Illustration from HigginsonHurst roster
2010–13 · Building the craft
Founder — The Type Foundry
An ambitious side business: a library of original display typefaces for the emerging era of website design. To launch the foundry I built a 3D printer and planned to ship out the full glyph set so people could print and assemble their own characters. (Turns out it was quite fiddly.) Learned a lot about letterforms, commercial viability, and when to shut something down gracefully.
Images: Block-letter alphabet specimen from The Type Foundry
Where it started
2008–09 · Where it started
Senior Designer — Emak Mafu
Shaped early digital and brand work — and slowly learned how to talk about what I was making, not just make it.
2008–09 · Where it started
Founder — Cure Studio
Work for DJ Sasha, Busaba, Vans and others. Got featured by Ala Champ. Also released a collection of eclectic electronic noises that captured a story. My story.
Images: Weather Report vinyl record
2004–07 · Where it started
Graphic Designer — Cog Design
Where it all started. Cut my teeth in a proper learn-by-doing studio. Made work, learned craft, and started figuring out what good taste actually means in the real world. Helped friends open their first shop along the way.
Images: Graphic Designer for Hire at a market stall
Side projects
Bland Land — A slow shop in a fast internet. I'm a maker, and Bland Land is where I share (some of) the things my friends and I have made — objects for the days when everything is a lot.
The Type Foundry — A really old project getting new life. The Type Foundry is where the few fonts I've helped shape can be bought — and where I'll be inviting friends to jump in with faces of their own.
Assembly Sessions — Get new perspectives on your thinking. Assembly Sessions brings together creative people for conversations that matter — exploring ideas at the intersection of design, culture, and technology.
Rogue School — A creative hub exploring the evolving role of design in an AI-driven world. Home to my book Use Design to Design Change alongside a growing reference library of tools, resources, and courses.
Gold Coin Club — A private community built around creative ambition. Gold Coin Club brings together founders, designers, and builders who believe in doing meaningful work.
Future Cards — An AI-powered platform designed to revolutionize brand building — giving businesses, consultants, and agencies the tools to define, develop, and refine their branding strategies.
First Things Club — A simple ritual for designers to meet, share, and help each other do better work. What started in San Francisco quietly became something distributed — events in London, SF, Berlin, and Chicago.