From first designs to leading a major team: Anton’s story, Head of Visual Design

Anton is Head of Visual Design at 01.tech and has spent the past 9 years shaping the visual identity of our products and projects.

When he joined the company, Visual didn’t exist as a separate function. There was just one designer handling everything, and Anton became the second, taking ownership of graphic design. Over time, that small setup grew into a dedicated Visual department, which Anton leads today.

Over the years, there have been dozens of projects, new teams, and plenty of challenges with no playbook to follow. But Anton says it’s hard to single out one defining moment in his career:

“I’d say my entire journey here has been one big and incredibly valuable experience.”

So for this growth story, we decided to go right back to the beginning.

— It all started with a message in a job group. I reached out, got a reply, and things moved from there.

When I joined, there were only around 25-30 people in the entire office. I became the company’s second designer and took on the graphic design side of things.

My first impression was unusual. Everything almost seemed too perfect: a modern office, young, stylish, open-minded people who were genuinely driven by what they were doing.

I also remember one funny detail: the entire office was black, and almost everyone seemed to wear black too. It felt like we already had our own visual code and a very distinct vibe.

Every day brought something new: interesting projects, challenges, and always something happening around the office.

Communication with the owner was always open. You could suggest an idea, ask a question, or start a conversation without worrying about titles or formalities.

That sense of trust and being part of something together was probably the first thing that made me feel I was in the right place.

— You could say I joined as a junior. And almost everything I know and can do today, I learned here.

Back then, there was no established path for growth. I didn’t have a mentor laying out a roadmap for me, there were no established processes, and there wasn’t a huge body of experience to draw on. We were doing many things for the first time and building a lot from scratch.

I started as a Graphic Designer. Then a few people joined my team, and over time I began building full teams around different projects and areas.

The company was growing fast, Visual was growing with it, and my responsibilities kept expanding.

At some point, the scale changed completely. At its peak, the Visual organisation had around 190 people across graphic design, art direction, team leadership, 3D, motion design, and illustration.

That’s how I gradually moved from creating designs myself to leading large teams and building the processes that allowed them to work effectively.

Probably the most exciting part of all these years has been how often we’ve stepped into completely unfamiliar territory as a team. We took on things we had never done before and figured them out as we went: testing different approaches, making mistakes, finding solutions, and ultimately building the expertise ourselves. Sometimes we had months to figure it out. Sometimes we had just one night.

— First of all, probably the habit of always moving forward. I’ve always had a pretty simple principle: every day, do at least one thing that makes you better than you were yesterday.

It doesn’t have to be anything big. Sometimes it’s finding a new solution. Sometimes it’s making a mistake and learning from it. Sometimes it’s a difficult conversation or a challenge you’ve never faced before.

At the moment, those things can seem insignificant. But when you keep doing them for years, you eventually look back and realise just how far you’ve come from where you started.

Another big part of it was the trust and freedom I was given to make decisions. I had the space to figure things out for myself, choose an approach, experiment, make mistakes, and take responsibility for the outcome.

That kind of autonomy keeps pushing you to grow. Over time, you learn to make decisions on a completely different scale.

And, of course, the people. Over the years, I’ve worked alongside so many strong professionals — people I’ve learned from and shared very different stages of this journey with. When you’re surrounded by people who care just as much about the outcome, it’s hard not to keep pushing yourself too.

That’s probably why something one of our Visual team members once said has stayed with me:

“If you’re not ready to grow every day, this department, and this company, probably isn’t for you.”

— A few years ago, most of my day was spent designing. I was creating layouts myself and coming up with visual solutions.

Today, the scale is completely different. I’m much less hands-on, and my main focus is on people, processes, strategy, and where Visual goes next.

It’s no longer just about solving the task in front of us. It’s about understanding where we’re heading as a team, how we can get stronger, and what we need to change today to raise the bar tomorrow.

A big part of my focus is developing our team leads. I don’t want to simply give them the answers. I want to help them become more independent and confident in their own decision-making: setting the right priorities, communicating effectively, seeing the bigger picture, and finding the most efficient way to get to the best result.

I’m also always looking for ways to take our expertise beyond the department, finding opportunities for Visual to contribute to other initiatives and make them stronger.

At the same time, I stay closely involved in the creative side of Visual. I step into key creative decisions, major updates, and projects where the concept, quality, and consistency of the final result matter most.

And I keep a close eye on what’s happening across design, tech, and the wider industry: new tools, ideas, and approaches, what’s changing around us, and what we can bring into our own work.

The biggest difference is probably the scale of responsibility. My output used to be the design I created myself.

Today, it’s the level of work the entire team is capable of delivering.

— People, first and foremost.

For me, a strong team starts with an environment where age, title, or seniority don’t determine whose voice matters. Anyone can suggest an idea, ask a question, disagree, and know their perspective will be taken seriously.

I’ve always enjoyed working with people who genuinely love what they do. People who care not only about doing their own job well, but about making the overall result and the team around them stronger.

When people share their expertise, support one another, openly discuss and challenge ideas, and move towards the same goal together, that’s when a group of talented individuals becomes a genuinely strong team.

And it’s especially rewarding to see people grow within Visual. Someone can join as a junior designer, gradually build their expertise and take on more responsibility and eventually reach the point where they’re developing others themselves, whether as a mentor, team lead, or art director.

To me, that’s one of the clearest signs of a strong team: when it develops not only great specialists, but strong leaders who help the people around them grow too.

— 01.tech is a story that has unfolded over years, become part of who I am, and changed my life forever.

Nine years feels like a good moment to look back. But definitely not to draw a line under the story.

Visual is still growing and so is the scale of what comes next.

We’re looking for designers who want more than to work with ready-made solutions. People who want to bring their own ideas, shape the outcome, and work with the team on what could become Visual’s next big project.

Explore open roles at 01.tech