Alan Ainsley

Meandering with purpose

Alan is a designer, writer and advisor who's career began at 9.00am on Monday 4th September 1990. Since then he has designed for everything from finance and football to telecoms and teabags, civic and public, sports, education, not for profit. Some of the work has appeared in the D&AD annual, New York Festivals, Mobius, Design Week, and Clio awards and been recognised with many Design Effectiveness and Marketing Society Effectiveness awards. None of this would have been possible without being fortunate enough to have worked with some incredible people, first as a partner at Elmwood, then Creative Director at the Leith Agency, co-founder of its brand and strategy arm Leithal Thinking, a partner at service design business Snook, and now in his role as Creative Lead at FreeAgent. Since 2013 Alan has sat on several boards including Macmillan Cancer, the Improving the Cancer Journey with Glasgow City Council as well as working as a strategy and creative consultant for both SAMH and SeeMe.

Alan's talk is going to explore how purpose has a unique meaning to each of us. Why he believes it’s important in each of our lives, what can happen when it’s there, what can happen when it is lost. How it can unite and bind people together. Alan will share what Purpose means to him, how it’s been present through his life and work, and how it’s changed and grown over time.