A bit about me

My name, Ross Middleham

A bit about me

I soak up inspiration from everywhere I can. I collect random curios including discarded signs, obsolete technology and reclaimed salvage, mainly from the 80s and 90s. I keep them in a room which is full of memories and untold stories, immersed in a vibrant mix of colour, type and retro design and tech. Design is my way of life, not exclusive to my day job.

See my LinkedIn profile for details of my creative industry experience >

Quick links:

Things I’m proud of

Mentoring and inspiring

I’ve developed strong connections with colleges and universities to help inspire students and our team. For example, I proactively organised a day-long series of creative workshops as part of the D&AD New Blood event, where I invited industry speakers from innocent, Twitter, Design102 and Taxi Studio to run workshops alongside me.

Championing creative excellence

As a manager and mentor, I support and inspire others in our team to be the best we can be. For example, I’ve introduced initiatives like ‘Power Hour’ and ‘Lunch and Learn’ to help us share inspiration, our latest work and tackle challenges together. I encourage people to give open and honest feedback, reflecting on things we’ve done well and areas we could improve going forward.

Innovation

I have revolutionised the day-to-day production process at the Met Office, leading the daily editorial meetings, evolving the capture of activity by introducing a cloud-hosted production spreadsheet. The latter has been pivotal in aligning all social media resources, ensuring everyone is posting to a carefully managed publishing schedule.

Thought leadership

I stay at the forefront of trends in design, technology and communication and share that insight to help inspire others. I have had numerous contributions published to creative press, notably Creative Boom, have had a paper published in a Journal and been invited to talk at events like Social Day.

Creative connections

I continually keep my eyes open for new opportunities to collaborate with other organisations. For example, having spotted Jamie Oliver talking about weather forecasts, I contacted their team. I created a demo piece of content which led to us co-creating social content with him and running creative workshops with his production team.

Brand experience

Recognising the need for updated, more robust visual guidelines to support the diverse outputs produced by the organisation, I led the strategic refresh. Returning right back to the core foundations of the visual brand, I consulted stakeholders to develop, design, test and implement new brand experience guidelines.

Social compliance

The less shiny things can be just as important! I led the audit and reshaping of all of the Met Office social media accounts in order to be compliant with Cabinet Office Cyber Security Standards. This involved working with various teams, testing, training and documentation to report progress to Management and the Board.

Sun

Making things happen

  • I am a committed and dedicated worker.
  • I have drive and determination to do the best I can.
  • I am good at seeing the bigger picture and joining things up.
  • I push myself and others forward, looking for ways to improve.
  • I love making connections, spotting opportunities to make things happen.

Some of my fave projects

Techno Rhino

Devised a programmable LED covered rhino sculpture which could be interacted with via Twitter. It featured at V&A Digital Design Weekend.

The Beano

I used my creative network to contact The Beano to highlight the opportunity of us naming a storm ‘Dennis’. They ran a cover and comic strip.

TikTok growth

I proactively developed a partnership with TikTok on their #LearnOnTikTok feature. Helped to build Met Office to 100k followers in 18 months.

It’s who we are

I was chosen to facilitate strategy sessions with the Met Office Exec Team. I created a consistent set of visuals to communicate our plan.

Teacher Tuesdays

During the first lockdown, I came up with an initiative to help those colleagues struggling at home trying to teach their children. Teacher Tuesdays were a series of virtual school lessons around weather and climate, presented by our own team of experts.

Shooting star

Some lovely quotes

It would be very easy to underestimate the impact that Ross has had all across the organisation. He has contributed to the promotion of strong design directly through the work he has carried out and also as a passionate and trusted advocate of the profession. This influence has fed through the fabric of the organisation in a way that we barely noticed and now almost take for granted. Yet it has had major and ubiquitous impact on how the world see’s us and more importantly how we ourselves – and that is as a modern, creative and professional organisation.

Phil Evans
Former Met Office Chief Operating Officer, now
EUMETSAT Director-General

You successfully manage a huge workload but never compromise on the quality of your work.
Cat Slatcher,
Internal Comms Manager, Met Office

We had some incredible feedback – thanks so much for your input!
Kathy Wall,
Founder, Devon Social Media Forum

Ross has passion and enthusiasm to even rival our own, which is saying something.
Alex Bane,
Creative Partner and Founder, Taxi Studio

Your enthusiasm, passion and energy instantly light up any meeting, inspiring others to make things happen.
Emma Lawrence,

Design student, Loughborough Uni

Thank you for your creativity and awesome bias for action.
Keep your disruptor mindset, it’s making a real impact.
Stephen Marshall,
Acting Operations Director, Met Office

Clouds

HUGELY impressed. You have taken The Great Big Rhino Project into another dimension.
Philip Knowling,
Press Officer, Paignton Zoo

A few other shiny things

1994
Winner of Torbay Pavement Artist of the Year.  

Met Office

I’m an active Member of the Government Communication Service (GCS) and Public Relations and Comms Association (PRCA)

Follow me

Twitter @rossymids

Instagram @superdoodledesign

LinkedIn