Remi Abayomi didn't set out to become a growth consultant. He was a junior project manager at Microsoft, restless and unfulfilled, when a chance conversation at a house party led him to a coffee with Ajaz Ahmed — the A in AKQA. That coffee turned into a job offer on the spot, and Remi's account management career began. From AKQA to R/GA to FutureDeluxe, he climbed the client service ladder, discovering along the way that growing relationships and spotting opportunity was a skill in its own right — one he's now built an entire consulting practice around.
Based in Sydney after a decade away from London, Remi now helps founders of creative companies define a vision and build the strategy to reach it. His philosophy, which he calls Purposeful Growth, rejects growth for its own sake in favour of expansion that's intentional and tied to values. It's a mindset shaped by his earliest days at AKQA, where experimentation wasn't just tolerated but expected — and one he argues applies as much to producers and business people as it does to designers.
Can you tell us a little about your first few steps in your career. Was there a moment or experience when you realised this was what you'd do as a career?
I was lucky and kind of fell into my career. I’d been working as a junior project manager at Microsoft, but found it dull as dishwater.
Then I was at a houseparty and met a friend of a friend who asked what I did and I told him I wished I was working somewhere more creative. He asked if I’d ever heard of AKQA. I hadn’t. He suggested I meet a guy called Ajaz. So I did.
I had absolutely no idea who Ajaz was when I met him (hint: AKQA are his initials). It wasn’t an interview - it was a coffee chat, but we got on like a house on fire and he offered me a job on the spot.
I started off as an Account Manager and realised after a while I had a knack for it. A big part of the Account Management / Client Service role is business growth. You have to find ways to grow the relationship with the client, spot new opportunities for projects, be proactive and entrepreneurial and through that, grow the business.
As I stepped up the client service ladder at AKQA and then R/GA, I was given bigger and bigger accounts to manage and grow. And then several years later I realised I was kinda good at this ‘growth’ thing. And that’s what I’ve been specialising in ever since.
Most recently I’ve been working as a growth consultant, helping founders of creative companies set a vision for their company and then create strategies to reach that vision.
And because I now have a lot to talk about on the subject, I recently started writing a substack called The Growth Manifest where I unpack strategies for creative companies to grow with intent and become masters of their own destiny. Hit subscribe 🙂
What lessons from your career have most shaped your style and approach?
My first day at AKQA London was back in 2006 (that dates me I know!). We were a new breed of ‘digital agency’, looked down upon by the traditional advertising agencies who didn’t regard us as a ‘proper agency’ - and we loved that 😉 We embraced that underdog / pirate ship mentality. Global brands like Nike, Coke, and Xbox would come to AKQA with million dollar budgets asking us to create and build never seen before digital experiences. We sold them ideas that honestly we had absolutely no idea were possible, and then somehow we made them happen.
It was a young team and a breeding ground for innovation. And it gave me a strong, palpable and addictive taste of working in an environment where experimentation and exploring the unknown was a heavy part of my every day. This mentality has stuck with me throughout my career and I’ve always been drawn to creative companies who have a heavy appetite for experimentation.
And it’s a mentality that doesn’t just apply to creatives, but to producers and business growth people like me. Experimentation is a mindset. It’s about thinking outside of the box and doing things differently, not matter your discipline.
Tell us about the core values or philosophies that guide your creative practice.
In my consultancy practice I talk a lot about the importance of Purposeful Growth, the antithesis of aimless drifting.
Purposeful Growth is my philosophy that there’s no point doing ‘growth for growth’s sake’ – instead growth must be intentional and aligned to your values, purpose and vision.
You can read more about that here.
What needs to change, so emerging and under-represented creative professionals have more opportunity, are seen and heard?
When I was at FutureDeluxe I was quite taken aback by the lack of diversity in the motion design industry and discovered that it spreads further into the ‘design’ industry as a whole.I became quite obsessed with trying to pinpoint why this was, and while there are a multitude of other complex reasons that I won’t go into here, one issue I came to understand was that the cost of entry to become a motion designer is prohibitively high.
There’s the cost of the high-spec machine, the software licenses, rendering, storage etc etc. It all costs a bomb.
And so it excludes young creative people from underprivileged backgrounds from getting started.The cost of entry to universities acts as another barrier.So at FutureDeluxe we explored opportunities to support emerging talent from lower income families to gain access to high spec computers within council funded buildings, with learning modules designed by us at FD. It was a great concept and I put a lot of time and energy into trying to make it happen, but there were just too many hurdles - government-side mainly - so we ended up shelving it and instead we formed partnerships with design colleges in London, LA and Sydney to offer mentorship and internships to a diverse set of emerging artists.But I still believe in this concept and would love to resurface it one day, so if anyone out there has links to council/government and would like to help turn it into a reality, let me know!
How important is it that creative professionals find their unique voice?
I think that finding your unique voice has always been hugely important in the art, design and creative industries. But now with the adoption of AI, even more so.
As my old R/GA colleague Nick Law said:
“Mediocrity is now free. The creative industry must now return to genuine creativity, our most vital and irreplaceable asset”.
And I think that ‘genuine creativity’ as he puts it is about being unique and developing thinking that we’ve never seen before in order to stand out and rise above the mediocrity of AI (which comes from having creative freedom and an experimentation mindset).
Looking ahead, what do you think are the key factors that will influence change for creative professionals?
Looking back at the early days of my career, I think we were lucky that we worked in an environment where there were 100 of us and within that, there were layers of seniority on each role. The result was that juniors learned every day from their seniors. Just being there, watching how more experienced people did it, absorbing their knowledge through osmosis. Personal development and growth happened organically, every day, across each discipline.
Looking around me, I think this is missing today. Partly because agencies and other creative practices have shrunk in size as brands are spending less; partly because since covid we work remotely; and partly because there’s a lot of talk that the ’threat of AI’ is more likely to replace junior roles than mid/senior ones… and that is probably and understandably putting junior creatives off.
I think we need to find ways of enabling junior creatives to learn from more experienced seniors. Learning on-the-job is honestly the best form of learning, and is what will drive the creative economy. I’d say it’s in the government’s interest to incentivise creative businesses to welcome juniors into the workforce, whether that’s through an apprenticeships scheme or otherwise.
How much does your city influence your work?
)How much does your culture influence your work?
And all of these cultures have influenced me, my work and everything I do.
Tell us some of your favourite, creative professionals and inspiring places in your city!
So many favourite creative professionals from my career, but I’ll just mention 2 who have inspired me most recently:
Gareth O’Brien is the ECD and studio lead at BUCK Sydney. Last year I did a long stint of consulting with the local BUCK team, and was blown away by what Gareth has achieved in building that team. They are an incredibly tight outfit of super talented people - most if not all of whom have been personally interviewed and hired by Gareth. The culture is SO strong, it’s inspiring and wonderful to see.
I spend a lot of time with Kris Andrew Small. We have a mutual love and respect and inspire each other and learn from each other in different ways. So much so that we’ve gone into business together and created a clothing and homewares company called Small Goods. Still very early days with that, but much more to come!
In terms of inspiring places, a lot of my best thinking happens when I’m not at my desk but out walking or cycling. I’ll often try to find time for a bush walk in one of the inner city reserves like Cooper Park, or make more of a day/half-day of it, and head to Ku-ring-gai or do the Spit to Manly walk.
What should emerging creative professionals keep in mind as they begin their design career?
I’m not going to try and come up with my own words of wisdom here but instead will borrow from Rick Rubin:
"The audience comes last. I'm not making it for them, I'm making it for me. It turns out that when you truly make something for yourself, you're doing the best thing you possibly can for the audience."
If you try to guess what other people want, you are making a business calculation rather than art. By focusing entirely on what you love, you create something completely authentic, and that authenticity is what ultimately connects with everyone else.