To get to know Oli a little better, we thought we’d break the ice with a few questions.

What’s interesting you in design for the web right now?
I would say modern typography, CSS Grid, and responsive image techniques. How you can create designs that are more fluid and expand a bit further than just being blocks of information on a page. Modern interaction and animation techniques too, although I’ve not had much time to venture down that wormhole just yet.
Who or what are your design influences?
The main places for influences these days are mostly websites and newsfeeds or blog posts on new design techniques and tools. Also galleries, friends’ artwork or even a random book you come across. I have never been too strict on following just one direction or style or only looking at certain magazines and publications. I generally prefer more of an organic fumble around.
You’ve just been in China for the last year or so – how did design for the web look there?
Almost everyone in China uses Wechat as it’s connected to your bank account and your whole world goes through it, including shopping and paying your bills. So a lot of web design is made to work with Wechat in some way and almost everything is mobile first. My clients there focused more on Visual Identity and logo/illustration work and then used Wechat´s tools to integrate their designs into Wechat. There is a lot of amazing Chinese design and I quite liked working with Chinese typography. Definitely a bit of a challenge and a big help having a Chinese wife who tells me what is good or bad. Something I consider ”good design” – font sizes, line-height etc – might have totally different rules and might seem totally wrong to Chinese people for all sorts of cultural and historical reasons I don’t know about.
Like a few others at Greenhill, you make music. What are you into?
I have my roots in hiphop and experimental electronica so I always have a soft spot for those elements. House, techno and old school rave music has also been a big part of my life so I tend to follow what’s going on in those circles. Jazz, classical music, experimental African music often gets on the home stereo these days.
Has album artwork had an influence on your tastes? Which are your favourites?
I started my design work in a music studio in Iceland, actually. I worked there for about 3 years doing album artwork and vinyl record labels alongside producing music there as well. I’d say it has definitely had a big influence as it’s a very open platform. A lot of ideas you can make happen that would be very difficult for a big client or when there is a lot of money involved. I have too many favourites but I would say I gravitate towards labels/artists that have a consistent look and feel like Kraftwerk, Björk, GAS etc.
Are you a ”headphones on” kind of guy or a talker? D’you like to chat about work regularly or be left in peace?
I think a bit of both; sometimes it’s good to zone out a bit and get lost in what you’re doing. Sometimes you get unexpected results that way. But I have always liked working in teams as well and in order to make a team work you need very good communication. So a bit of both I would say.