​Meet the Whippets: Dan Bryant, Midweight Designer

If you’ve ever walked through a beautifully designed store and instinctively known where to go, what to look at, and what to buy, you’ve experienced the invisible hand of great design.

For Dan Bryant, Midweight Designer at Whippet, design isn’t just about making things look pretty. It’s about helping people navigate the physical world, creating meaningful experiences, and striking the perfect balance between strategy, creativity, and human connection.

We sat down with Dan to talk about his journey from university to the agency floor, the secrets of designing for massive retail environments, and why the future of design is looking a lot more human.

Q: You had a comprehensive creative education before landing at Whippet. Looking back, how did that journey shape the designer you are today?

A: I’m really grateful for that time. I studied Graphic Design from GCSE and A-Level right through to a degree at Arts University Bournemouth, so I had a lot of time to figure things out and grow as a creative.

Obviously I picked up the technical skills, but more importantly it gave me the chance to experiment, build confidence and work out how I like to think and solve problems.

One thing a tutor told me at uni has always stuck with me: “The industry can teach you skills, but it can’t teach you how to think.”

At the time, some of the projects felt completely random, but they pushed us to question things and look at problems from different angles. That’s what's stayed with me most. Everyone sees the world differently, and your perspective is one of the most valuable things you bring as a designer.

Q: Going from uni to the pace of agency life can be a shock to the system. What was the biggest adjustment for you, and what ultimately drew you to Whippet?

A: The biggest adjustment was definitely working with real clients. At uni, you're mostly designing for briefs that live in a bubble. In the real world, there are commercial goals, deadlines and expectations attached to everything you do.

You learn pretty quickly that it’s okay not to know everything. You ask questions, make mistakes, learn from them and lean on the people around you.

Before Whippet, I spent three years in a role where I got exposure to loads of different areas - digital, branding, print and marketing. It gave me a solid grounding, but I found myself getting more interested in physical spaces and how people interact with them.

That’s what attracted me to Whippet. There’s something really interesting about designing for environments people use every day. With retail, design has a real job to do. It needs to help people find what they’re looking for, navigate a space easily and feel comfortable while they're there. That mix of creativity, functionality and human behaviour is what really got me hooked.

Q: A lot of people see design as purely visual, but Whippet’s philosophy is all about “thinking like the customer.” How do you balance your own creative instincts with what’s actually right for the customer?

A: A lot of people think design is all about making things look good, but strategy is what gives it purpose. You can create something visually amazing, but if it doesn’t solve the problem, it’s not really doing its job.

In retail, people are making decisions constantly without even realising it. They’re comparing products, looking for value or spotting something new. Good design helps guide those moments without getting in the way.

For me, it always comes back to the brief. As designers, we naturally want to push ideas and think differently, but some of the best solutions come from working within a set of constraints. Those boundaries often force you to be more creative.

At Whippet, we spend a lot of time getting close to the audience. We visit stores, experience the environments ourselves and try to understand what customers actually need. You might go off on a few creative tangents along the way, but you always need to come back to the original challenge and make sure you're solving the right problem.

Q: You’re currently working on the M&S Christmas scheme. What’s it like being part of a project with that kind of scale and legacy?

A: Getting to work on something like this has been pretty unreal. Before Whippet I’d never worked on anything near this scale, let alone for a brand like M&S, so it’s been a massive learning curve in the best way. The thing that caught me off guard was how early Christmas starts. You’re talking about next year’s campaign while everyone’s still eating leftover turkey.

There’s so much going on behind the scenes that you’d never think about as a customer. And it takes way more people than you’d expect. You’re bouncing ideas around with different teams, then suddenly you’re seeing work you helped make out in the actual world. That’s a mad feeling.

Q: Design trends move fast, and with the rise of AI, the landscape is shifting daily. How do you stay inspired without just chasing the latest fad?

A: I think you have to stay grounded. Trends can be useful and sometimes they spark interesting ideas, but they shouldn’t be driving the work. The challenge is taking inspiration from what’s happening around you and filtering it through the needs of the brand.

One thing I’ve found really interesting lately is the move away from minimalist design. For a long time, everything felt very streamlined and digital. Now there seems to be more appreciation for work that feels human, tactile and a bit less perfect.

That’s something we tapped into with the M&S Food rebrand. The idea was to bring the energy and character of a fresh market into the supermarket environment, making it feel more engaging and authentic.

With so much AI-generated content appearing everywhere, I think people are naturally drawn to things that feel crafted and genuine. Sometimes the ideas with a bit of roughness around the edges are the ones people connect with most because they feel real.

Q: Finally, what advice would you give to aspiring designers looking to break into branding or retail design today?

A: It’s definitely a challenging time to be starting out, and technical skills alone probably aren’t enough anymore. The biggest thing is leaning into what makes you different, because that’s the part nobody else can replicate.

My first piece of advice would be to say yes to opportunities. Even if something isn’t exactly what you had planned, it might teach you a new skill or open a door you hadn’t considered.

Secondly, put yourself out there. Go to portfolio reviews, attend events or just reach out to people whose work you admire. And if traditional networking isn’t your thing, social media is a great way to share your work and connect with others.

The other big one is creating the kind of work you want to be hired for. If there’s an agency or brand you really admire, spend time understanding how they think, what they care about and the problems they’re trying to solve.

At the end of the day, your value isn’t just in what you can make. It’s in how you think, the perspective you bring and the way you approach a challenge. That’s the stuff people remember.

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