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鈥淭hings are much different from the days of searching for opportunities in the Yellow Pages鈥�, the 1996 Gray鈥檚 graduate shared. Looking back at his two decades working in the industry, Mark notes that the power of people is crucial in keeping ahead of the shift.

From placement opportunities to mentoring and talks, working closely with education providers is at the core his work at FortyTwo Studio and something he believes should be at the core of the industry too.

He said, 鈥淭imes change, the needs of clients change, the needs of the economy and the communities we work in all change. Those changes need to be reflected in education, in the courses and in the industry they align to. And it can鈥檛 happen independently, we have to work together in some capacity.

鈥淲e need to do our upmost to make sure we鈥檙e communicating together and working together to marry up development stages.

鈥淚鈥檝e been in this industry 20 odd years now and if I want FortyTwo to carry on for the next 20 years, there has to be generations of new designers and digital marketeers coming through the door. Continuing to work with new talent is key and evolving our practice within the industry will ultimately help grow the economy. 

鈥淭he creative sector in Scotland is huge and generates 拢6billion a year. It鈥檚 a massive economy. It offers a huge potential for talented people with a variety of skills to flourish but as an industry, we have to make sure that we play our part in making that happen. You can鈥檛 just stand back and wait for things to happen, you鈥檙e in it and you have to do your part.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always been a huge motivation for me to stay in touch with students at college and university, because if the industry isn鈥檛 going to do it, who else is?

鈥淲orking with the future generation of creatives ahead of entering the industry gives us a sneak peek into what they鈥檙e doing, how they鈥檙e working and what they want to learn. That鈥檚 great for us in our learning of how we grow and develop as a business to align with them.鈥�

Something becoming more prevalent in the industry is the fast pace of AI developments and its potential impacts. Despite AI advances causing concern for job redundancies and security, Mark believes AI is not to be feared but welcomed.

鈥淲hether it鈥檚 a positive or negative, it doesn鈥檛 matter, AI advances are here and there will be more to come. Like any technological advance, we have to look for the benefits and how we can work with it.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 know where AI is ultimately going to take us but it definitely provides huge opportunity. Whenever there is a technology advance, there鈥檚 always talk of how it鈥檚 going to kill one industry. When desktop publishing became a thing in the 90s, it was going to be the death of print 鈥� yes, newspaper print has suffered but outside of that, there鈥檚 never been more books printed than there are now. It鈥檚 all about moving with change.

鈥淚n terms of Chat GPT, we鈥檙e only seeing a small part of its capabilities and for us it can speed up processes significantly and free up more time to be more creative and strategic. And that time is gold dust. So, we鈥檙e asking the question 鈥榟ow can we utilise apps like these to improve the service to our clients?鈥�

鈥淲ho knows what else will come but AI is certainly something that we can鈥檛 be scared of. We need to learn how to work with it, not against it.鈥�

The conversation soon moved from advances in technology to advancing opportunities for creatives in Aberdeen. The lack of creative spirit in the city is a common perception Aberdeen faces and something Mark puts down to 鈥渟hort sightedness鈥�.

鈥淲e鈥檙e all guilty of it, we can diminish all the good things we have going on in the city. People make quick judgements on what they see but it鈥檚 down to us to better communicate and say 鈥榳e do actually have a creative culture here in the city鈥�.

鈥淟ike any city, things could be better of course. We need more people being creative and more of our work being recognised across the country. To do that though, we need to be talking about the things that are happening. Because if we don鈥檛, no one else will.

鈥淚f we have something to shout about, it鈥檚 up to us to shout about it, share it and not be too scared to do so. Our new creative hub is to shine a light on the creative community in Aberdeen and say 鈥榮ee, things are happening鈥�. It's a small part, but an important part.鈥�

To find out more about the creative hub at FortyTwo Studio and Mark鈥檚 career journey, watch his Alumni in Focus interview: