The Global Wave Conference is an environmental conference, hosted (this year) by UK charity, Surfers Against Sewage (SAS). Andrew Couldwell was the Digital Rep at SAS - this is the fifth website he has designed/built for them. A great charity that works hard and make a big difference — protecting waves, oceans, beaches, marine ecosystems, water users and marine wildlife — he loves getting involved and helping any way he can. This is the 4th installment of the conference. Andrew was tasked with a re-brand, new creative direction and a website design and build, to present the conference themes, speakers, agenda, and visually incorporate the host destination of Cornwall, UK.

Global Wave Conference 2015 re-branding was a freelance project, essentially a personal project, given that I worked on it in the evenings and weekends, outside of my full-time job. The nice thing about a project like this is that I have total creative freedom, so I attempted a little more unorthodox UI. I had fun with it! I initially came up with some more ‘off-the-wall’ creative direction and design experiments, earlier in 2014, so SAS had some visuals to go out with and talk to partners/sponsors, and get them excited about the conference. I later refined these ideas into the live project you see here. I collaborated with an animator (David Urbinati) and a photographer (Karl Mackie) to get the best assets I could to work with, and I’m stoked with how it came out.
-Andrew Couldwell

Generally, I’m inspired by the wealth of creative projects I see every day — working for a design/inspiration platform (Behance). I love to design. I always want to create something original, and since I build my own freelance projects, I like to challenge myself with something a little different, each time, with the build. I’m obsessed with surf culture, so I love to work on surfing related projects. And I love working with SAS , so I wanted to create something awesome for them which was to re-brand the Global Wave Conference, and I believe in the positive change this conference can bring about, so that’s all the inspiration I needed! :)
-Andrew Couldwell

I guess I have a strange style — I love clean and simple interfaces and design, but I also like ‘grunge’, so those two styles sometimes collide. I can’t explain it much better than that. I believe that less is more, and user experience is central to everything I do. I try to strip back the design and UI to the bare basics — what does it need to do/communicate, what is the goal or business objective… and that steers the UI, UX and design. There are so many designers that inspire me, but no one, or few, in particular. I suppose looking through my history of people I follow on Twitter and Behance gives a rough indication of individuals or collectives that I admire. And I browse various design gallery websites from time-to-time.
-Andrew Couldwell

You have to be passionate and believe in what you do. Personally, I like to do meaningful and impactful work, but everyone is different, so try to work on a range of projects and find what inspires you to do your best work! Keep inspired. Surround yourself with creative, inspiring and talented people — you will learn so much from talking to, observing and working with people who are great at what they and/or better than you. They will push you and keep you inspired. Do work that challenges you — if you’re bored, or it’s easy, then it’s time to move on! Work hard, but not too hard! ...No successful designer in history got ahead by working 9-5, just saying ;) Do personal projects, my personal project is the backbone of my entire career, I simply wouldn’t be where I am without it. Love what you do — we’re paid to do our hobby, that’s pretty cool!
-Andrew Couldwell

About Andrew Couldwell

Andrew Couldwell is a British designer, recently relocated to New York City. Until this past year, he was a freelance digital designer and developer for several years, working internationally. At the end of 2014 he moved overseas to join Behance (Adobe), as the Creative Director and Lead Product Designer of a new web-based Adobe (Creative Cloud) product — to be released later in 2015! Outside of (paid) work, he's the Founder/Editor of Club Of The Waves, a long-running personal project of his, that he wished he had more time for! When he's not playing with pixels, or his cat, Andrew is mostly found exploring Brooklyn or Manhattan. See more of his work at Behance or his website.