Open Studio #4: Rose O'Mahony's Dad Told Her Design Wasn't a Real Career.

Open Studio is a brand new podcast about what the creative industry's actually like. For the people in it, the people near it and the people still working out whether to jump in.

But twelve years and a client list including Weetabix and Dulux later, that particular argument is settled. In episode eight of Open Studio, the senior branding and packaging designer at Springetts talks us through why she tried on half a dozen design disciplines before finding the one that stuck, and why the messy projects taught her more than the polished ones.

Rose O'Mahony is a senior branding and packaging designer at Springetts, one of the UK's leading brand design agencies. Over 12-plus years, she's helped shape brands including Weetabix and Dulux. She's got a genuine soft spot for the tactile side of design, and no interest in pretending the creative process is tidier than it is.

Rose's path started at Chelsea College of Art, against her father's skepticism, and continued through a graphic design degree in Bristol. Rather than picking a specialism early, she worked through internships across web and editorial design before landing on branding and packaging.

• Diverse experience builds a real portfolio. Trying different fields early gave Rose a broader sense of her own strengths than staying in one lane would have.
• Every internship taught a different skill. Versatility wasn't a side effect — it was the point.
• The right lane only shows up once you've tried the wrong ones. Branding and packaging weren't the plan. They were what stuck after everything else got tested.

Rose's role at Springetts has shifted repeatedly over the years, right alongside the agency itself.

• Ask for the next step. Rose was offered internal promotions because she engaged with the opportunities, not because she waited to be noticed.
• Say the ambition out loud. Open conversations about career goals with management kept her engaged instead of quietly job-hunting elsewhere.
• Treat the learning curve as permanent. The design landscape keeps moving, and Rose treats staying current as part of the job, not an extra.

One of Rose's biggest projects was leading a global rebrand for the charity Tearfund, aligning multiple stakeholders around a single new identity.

• Stakeholder alignment is a leadership skill, not a soft one. Getting everyone rowing the same direction was as hard as the design work itself.
• Merging identities without losing them is the actual craft. The brief demanded creative problem-solving, not just a fresh coat of paint.
• Finishing it changed how she saw her own career. Pulling it off reinforced, for Rose, that this was exactly the right field to be in.

Rose is upfront that the Sponge Cakes project didn't go smoothly, and that's the point worth sharing.

• Back-and-forth is normal, not a red flag. Extensive collaboration and feedback loops can get confusing before they get good.
• Staying organised is what gets you through the mess. Chaos in the process doesn't have to mean chaos in the delivery.
• The design still has to land emotionally. Whatever the process looked like, the brand needs to resonate with the people actually buying it.

• Try more than one lane before committing. Your specialism is more convincing once you've ruled out a few others.
• Ask for growth instead of waiting for it. Say what you want out loud, to the people who can actually give it to you.
• Don't hide the messy middle. The chaotic projects are often the ones with the most honest lessons in them.

Open Studio, made at Shillington. Episode 04, listen here.