John Hill at Stockport College.

John Hill, the design editor of The Times, came to do a presentation at our college last week. He spoke about his life after graduating from Kingston and how he worked his way up to where he now. Hill's first job was at Atelier Works where he worked during holidays as a junior designer. He then went on to be a senior designer at Esterson associates, which is where he said to have learnt from someone else for 6 years, before working from his London home.

It was an extreme transition from the working environment in his own house, to the grand scale of The Times building, where he would be working amongst a huge team of designers re-designing a smaller version of the times in 2006.

It was interesting to hear how someone so successful had worked they way up, and how he hadn't just jumped in to his dream job, nor had he sacrificed having a family.

When we asked Hill about his team, he told us that he likes to mix them up, so that they can dip in to other disciplines. Having people that had some understanding of all aspects of the job was very important to him. He also gives them a lot of freedom so that they can pretty much produce whatever they want.

And of course it was important for us to ask about how he goes about commissioning illustrators.

He responded by telling us he would always look for an illustrator who can illustrate an idea, and one that they can come up with themselves. He didn't seem at all interested in someone who would not have the confidence to have their 'own approach'. For me, this was the key comment that had been made. Briefs can often be so restricting, with almost everything handed to you on a plate, it can often feel like a page from a 'colouring in book'. The ever growing design team at The Times, recognise the potential in illustrators who can think for themselves.