“Every position is a leadership position” Alex Bec, Co-founder of It’s Nice That & Creative Lives in Progress

Alex Bec has spent nearly two decades building remarkable platforms that are reference points for designers on the daily, all around the world. He is Co-founder of It’s Nice That, the platform that has inspired a generation of creatives, and Creative Lives in Progress, the initiative dedicated to opening up the industry to emerging talent, and of which we are very proud partners. No doubt, Alex is someone who thinks seriously about the gap between where creativity lives and where it doesn’t.

Sitting down with Alex for series three of Design Next, which is focused on Creative Excellence, the conversation was less about design output and more about consistency, on behalf of the entire industry.

We start with Alex’s personal measure of creative excellence. He’s a fount of wisdom and shares his fresh take… “Excellence when defined by someone else is a pretty hollow task – it’s a hollow mountain to climb.” Lesson one: it’s up to us to define excellence for ourselves.

He comes back to a piece of advice his uncle gave him at 18… “be good, but know what good is.” Yep that feels increasingly relevant when we’re all one scroll away from someone else’s idea of brilliant.

Right now, his version of excellence is focused on the work of Creative Lives in Progress: not solving an enormous, industry-wide problem overnight, but moving the dial 1% at a time.

Creative Lives in Progress exists to bridge the distance between a young person who loves design and an industry that has become pretty poor at welcoming them in. Alex is realistic about the scale of that challenge.

The information gap has shrunk: there’s more out there than when It’s Nice That launched 19 years ago, but information doesn’t translate into opportunity. The growing crisis is shockingly simple: it’s the lack of paid entry-level roles. Economic pressures, the tech crash of recent years, and rapid AI advancement have all contributed to a shrinking need for junior talent on paper.

These are the pressures all studios face. But the social responsibility of the industry doesn’t disappear because times are tough. So he’s Alex’s practical advice: offer a paid placement. Review a portfolio. Reply to a LinkedIn message. “I don’t think everyone has to be excellent,” he said. “I think they’ve just got to do something.”

Alex shared advice he received early in his career from a leader he deeply admired: every position is a leadership position.

If there’s one thread running through everything Alex said, and it’s not genius. Consistency.

It’s Nice That is now in its nineteenth year. Creative Lives in Progress has been running for eight. Neither started with a five-year plan. “It’s about pure consistency and stoicism,” he said. “Doing the thing you said you were going to do.”

And that helps solve the issue we find ourselves in. If you say that protecting the future of design is important to you, if you’ve ever made a promise to help junior talent, do it.