The Clearleft bits
It has been a busy and proud year of projects for us. We've collaborated with fantastic clients, some for the first time and others returning as part of a long-standing partnership.
- We worked with Anglia Ruskin University to continue iterating their website experience and collaborated with Resolve to Save Lives on content strategy and brand positioing. We launched a new website for fintech start-up ERMI, created a visual identity and design language for The Klezmer Institute, laid the foundations for a design system with University of the Arts London, supported Goodwood with in-depth research, and continued our design partnership with University College London and Imperial College London.
- As part of our training services, we ran design and research workshops with BUPA, University of Greenwich, Research by the Sea and Brighton SEO.
- We recently voted in new EOT trustees to ensure Clearleft continues to be run with our best interests in mind, and that our teams are happy and supported to do their best work of their careers. Plans for the inauguration ceremony are with the events team...
We've had a year jam-packed full of events. Aside from our flagship UX London and Leading Design events, we hosted Research by the Sea, a one-day conference in Brighton focused on design and UX research, and brought forty design leaders together at Leading Design New York to explore the future of design leadership in an AI-driven world. We also ran an online panel on neurodiversity and accessibility, continued our service design breakfast club, and launched Web Day Out — a one-off Brighton event exploring what modern browsers can do without libraries or frameworks.
Richard Rutter
2025 was the year Clearleft turned 20. As I wrote in January, it’s testament to the fantastic people who have worked at Clearleft over the years that we’re still going strong while others have fallen by the wayside or been absorbed and diminished in buyouts. We’re fiercely independent, employee-owned, and I love that.
As part of turning 20, we refined the way we describe ourselves: as ‘strategic design partners’ we bring our craft of user-centred design to clients, shaping the way their in-house teams do design, and helping the organisation use design to its strategic advantage.
Not all our clients this year were big organisations. In Ermi and the Klezmer Archive, we worked with a bootstrapped fintech startup and a small cultural institution. Whilst very different, both clients were hugely enjoyable to work with, thanks to their enthusiasm and deep knowledge, allowing us to flex our creative muscles and deliver a lot very quickly.
Finally the service design breakfast we host goes from strength to strength, with six meet-ups in 2025 and guest talks covering topics as varied as bringing humanity back into the Government digital service; resilience, change and disruption; and storytelling as a way mapping systems.
Long-term thinking and lasting partnerships
Chris How
Working in an agency suits my thirst for learning new things. The challenge of quickly getting under the skin of an organisation that I’m unfamiliar with appeals to my curiosity. Being guided into a new world by a client expert in their sector, I find energising. However, the downside is that you don’t always get to see the impact of your work or build upon it.
That’s changed for me this year with a slew of projects with previous clients I’ve worked with. Continuing our work with Imperial College London, Anglia Ruskin University, and University of the Arts London has provided the excitement of tackling new challenges whilst also building on previous work. Expect to see some exciting product launches in the early part of 2026.
Sophie Count
It’s been the year of working with outstanding university clients. Diving into one particular industry has been really fascinating, understanding where challenges cross-over between clients, and how large and complex educational institutions operate day-to-day.
I’ve had the opportunity to dive headlong (back) into data. This can be a powerful tool when used as part of discovery and planning work to help give clients a truer picture of the performance of their website.
James Gilyead
In addition to keeping up with some of our brilliant university partners to help them establish and continue systematic design practices, this year I also had the pleasure of working on fresh digital branding with new clients. One of the best things about agency life is the variety – both in the work we get to do and in the people we have the pleasure to work with.
Rhian Evans
For me, working closely with some of our brilliant clients were the moments that stood out.
Getting to meet lots of new people at The University of Manchester, and supporting them to start rolling out the design and website changes that better reflect their personality, their offer and their ambitions.
Working side by side with UAL colleagues on sprints to evolve their design system – it really was a roll-up-your sleeves, hands on project that was able to achieve an awful lot over an initial discovery phase and three sprints, thanks in no small part to everyone’s commitment.
The infectious enthusiasm of the ERMI team as we supported them to create their new website, and the magic that happens when everyone brings their expertise. Who knew transaction monitoring was so exciting? And we loved Jamie's screen reader workshop that he ran for the team.
As well as the consistent thoughtfulness and commitment to quality, great design and user experience from my super smart colleagues, of course.
Research near and far
Luke Hay
It’s been a busy year for research. I’m ending the year talking to people across four continents for two very different projects. Closer to home and earlier in the year, another interesting project saw me getting away from the screen and undertaking some observational fieldwork on the train from King’s Cross to Newcastle.
I’ve also had the pleasure of running workshops at The UXPA annual conference, World Usability Congress and Web Wey Web.
Finally, it was great to put together the second edition of our annual report on bridging the gap between research and design.
Design systems, speed and collaboration
Alex Edwards
The UAL design system project was a standout piece for me this year. It had a mix of everything: a great institution, an interesting brand, a real problem to tackle, and a fantastic team who all worked together to solve it.
Another highlight for me was presenting our process and thinking at TalkUX, following the project's success.
Sam O’Neill
I've been lucky to work across a range of projects this year. I've most enjoyed those where we've been tasked with delivering value in a small amount of time. Collaborating with the developer at ERMI to solve some juicy accessibility challenges was particularly rewarding.
The people I get to work alongside always stand out as a highlight when looking back on the year. Getting together with clients to co-work – for instance, our fortnightly days with the UAL team while working on their new design system has been great fun, and days with my Clearleft colleagues in the studio continue to inspire and motivate me. I feel lucky to get to work with such a passionate and talented group of people.
Events and the wider design community
Louise Ash
As Head of Events my role is to plan and execute our event programme across the year. In reality that means spending an enormous amount of time with my head in an event spreadsheet. So when the big day finally comes and I get to roll up my sleeves and orchestrate the live event it really is a buzz.
This year's UX London was three days of team work to make the dream work and a brilliant highlight of the summer... thank you to all the speakers and workshop hosts who made the concepts and learning come alive. To the Clearleft gang who do everything from van loading to affinity mapping. And to all the participants who create such a fun atmosphere. It's only six months until we get to do it all over again!
Rebecca Groves
It’s been another big year for Leading Design as we have continued to support global design leaders.
I was so grateful to be trusted to hold space in New York. It was such an important topic and I was energised and inspired by the manifesto the design leaders created.
We continued the conversation at our annual Leading Design London conference. It was another incredible gathering of design leaders. We covered topics including trust in an AI world and how design can solve some of the world’s hardest problems as well as practical things like managing stakeholders and leading inherited teams.
The moments in between
Tessa Watson
My favourite Clearleft moments over the last year have been all the fun, social things we’ve done together. They are often unplanned and slightly chaotic, but really enjoyable.
We’ve had storytelling, screen printing, litter picking and cross stitch sessions as part of our quarterly partners days. Alongside Cornhole contests in the office, impromptu cocktail sessions, barbecues, and lots of luxury munchettes – think crisps of EVERY flavour. (Top tip – Seaweed flavour crisps are an acquired taste)
One of the best evenings, ironically, was a leaving do – obviously we were sad to see a team member go – but we ended up having a hysterically funny time playing the categories game 'Tension' in the office. I’m not sure why, because a lot of us were stone cold sober, but some of our very questionable answers had us crying with laughter, and confirmed our general knowledge has some serious gaps in it.
Frances Ulph
A personal highlight for me this year was returning from maternity leave — not the part where I handed a tiny human and all of my money over to a nursery and tried to remember how to be a functioning adult again (that bit was…a lot), but the way in which a daunting transition was made to feel easy, flexible and incredibly welcoming.
From the moment I stepped away, I never felt out of the loop like I feared I would. I was worried returning and playing catch-up was going to be a real struggle, but I stayed in regular contact with colleagues I’m lucky enough to call friends, and often found myself spending afternoons in the office with my new plus-one in tow, while said colleagues happily doubled as unofficial childcare.
One of Clearleft’s core values is to be as flexible as possible in accommodating our work-life balance, and this has been put in to practice and played an invaluable part in my experience of returning to work while juggling a new schedule at home and a never-ending attack of nursery germs.
A year in writing
We dug into the numbers to see which blog posts you loved most this year. The ones that were read, shared, and featured the most:
- Why use React?
- Critical questions for design leaders working with AI
- Deepening UX insights with longitudinal research
- Reimagining the employee experience for LNER
- How to elevate your employee experience
As we brace ourselves for what 2026 has in store, we really need to thank everyone who was part of our year — clients, collaborators, speakers, partners, and colleagues alike. We’ll see you on the other side of the out-of-office.
