Tom Pickering: Why I love working at MadeByShape

It was my Shape Anniversary in December last year. Happy Shape Anniversary to me! I have been here 8 years now. I really can’t believe it has been that long, oh how time flies when you’re having fun!

I thought it would be nice to share with you some of the reasons I continue to love my job at MadeByShape…

The Team

I think this is the most important aspect of the job for me. Working with a small team makes for a happier and healthier life. Not only does it allow for everyones personalities to shine through the studio day to day, but it makes collaborating on projects much more creative and enjoyable. We are always sharing inspirational work from the web with each other, to help feed our creativity and productivity. In particular, me Jay and Jo regularly share saucy snippets from CodePen or the latest exciting new Craft CMS Plugins with each other.

Being able to know the people you work with and be able to call them close friends makes a massive difference too. There are so many digital agencies that are concerned with growing the size of their business. In my eyes, this takes away the personal aspect of the working environment that a creative digital agency needs to thrive and keep the creative fire alive.

The Projects

As a web developer, it is my responsibility to bring our projects to life. With a background in digital media and a passion for motion on the web, I thrive off making our design concepts function as best as they can and give them the finishing visual touches they deserve.

I have always preferred the front-end side of development and working at Shape gives me plenty of creative freedom with this, which I love. It’s great to be able to discuss the aesthetics and functionality of a project with our team so that we are all creatively satisfied.

The Early Friday Perk

Shape has 3 pretty keen cyclists. For anyone who rides a bike whether it's recreationally or competitively, you will know that it is a fairly time consuming hobby. We all do our fair share of commuting to work, and a recent change to our working productivity works out a treat for us.

With our Library Hours ruling in place now, the early Friday finishes give us all the opportunity to start the weekend early. And it works out an absolute treat for us bike riders in particular! Having an additional opportunity to ride in daylight every week is a bloody lovely perk to have.