Member Article

Head of Design from Award-Winning Digital Agency, Bolser has been Named as 'One to Watch' at Digital Festival

Hanneka Kilburn, Head of Design at award-winning digital agency Bolser has won the ‘One To Watch’ award at Leeds Digital Festival 2018 for her passion for creativity, accessibility in design, visionary outlook and for being an all-round great leader.

Hanneka who is 32, has risen to great heights relatively early in her career and as Bolser’s Head of Design, she has led work for global clients including EE, KFC, Microsoft, XBOX and Battersea Power Station.

At the sellout event this year, Leeds based award-winning digital agency, Bolser brought together a panel of digital experts with their latest insights and experiences of UI (user interface)/UX (user experience) innovation as part of the Leeds Digital Festival. Hanneka led this event and after a fantastic presentation which provided some great insights into design and showed off some of her best work, Hanneka was shortlisted and then went on to win the ‘One To Watch’ award as part of Leeds Digital Festival 2018.

With a panel of 6 judges headed up by Festival Director, Stuart Clarke, and facing tough competition from the 3 other nominees in her category, it proved that this was no easy win. The judges said; “Hanneka has clearly risen to great heights relatively early in her career. As Bolser’s Head of Design, which sees her leading a team, she combines a passion for creativity and accessibility in design with a visionary and efficient approach to integrating design with Scrum in the agile process.”

Hanneka Kilburn, Head of Design at Bolser, says; “It was such a shock to win but I want to thank everyone at Bolser as it’s a huge effort from the whole team – a special thank you to Lorena, our Studio Manager, for the nomination and her support.

“I’ve been in the industry for over 10 years now. My first job was very traditional, design was dictated by upper management, there was a system and we stuck to it. Since being involved with digital however we get involved with everything and are listened to so we ultimately create better designs. I think the nature of digital is constantly changing so is a very progressive industry to be in. I’ve only ever had positive experiences at Bolser with them supporting me in everything I do as head of design. If I was to give any advice to someone starting out it would be to have confidence in yourself and a positive attitude towards everything you do.

“It’s amazing for Bolser to be recognised for the great work we do and Leeds Digital Festival is an amazing event to put the Leeds digital sector on the map.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Becky Hayles .