I make complex things clear.
I’m Will Knack, a multidisciplinary designer and hands on creative lead with 20+ years across visual design, motion, storytelling and digital products.
Based in Canada, working worldwide.
The short version
I’ve never been very interested in staying inside one box.
I started my career in visual design and communication, and motion became part of the work early on.
Animation led to video. Video led to storytelling. Storytelling led to art direction, systems, products and eventually deeper work alongside UX, research and engineering teams.
Over the years, I’ve worked across education, media, SaaS, technology, AI, marketing and digital products. Sometimes building the visual language from scratch. Sometimes helping a growing team turn that language into a system. Sometimes making a complicated product easier to explain, understand or use.
The tools and job titles changed.
The core of the work didn’t.
I like taking something complicated, finding the idea inside it and turning that idea into something clear, useful and human.
That also explains why I still like being close to the work.
I enjoy direction and strategy, but I also enjoy opening Figma, animating in After Effects, editing a story, building a prototype, experimenting with AI or figuring out a better way to make the whole process work. Nothing can change the hard work.
Outside client and product work, I create Will Do, a personal project about thinking, making and actually doing something with the ideas we already have. It gives me a place to write, shoot, edit, experiment and keep being a beginner at things.
After 20+ years, I still think that matters.
Where I've been
The tools changed.
The core didn’t.
Visual
Design
Learning to make ideas visible.
→
Motion & Storytelling
Adding time, rhythm and emotion.
→
Creative Direction
Connecting ideas with execution.
→
Systems
& Products
Making design work across teams and scale.
→
AI &
New Tools
Learning what changes and what still requires human judgment.
Design By
For Humans
Trust from clarity.
Connection from craft.
Scale from systems.
Good design should make things easier to understand, easier to use and easier to trust.
Clarity helps people know what matters.
Craft shapes how the experience feels.
Systems help quality survive growth.
The tools change. The medium changes. The audience changes. The responsibility stays the same: make something useful for the person on the other side.
👁️
Clarity creates trust
People trust what they can understand.
✋
Craft creates connection
Details shape how an idea feels and how people remember it.
🧩
Systems create scale
Good systems help teams move faster without losing quality or intent.
Outside the job title
A lot of what shapes my work
happens away from work.
The things I play, watch, listen to, build and experience eventually find their way back into how I think about design.
What I do
A few things I believe.
These are the principles behind my work and the decisions.
Not rules. Just the ideas
I try to keep in front of me.
Clarity earns trust.
Clear ideas reduce effort and help people understand what matters faster.
Systems give freedom.
Good structure makes better work easier without adding unnecessary rules.
Craft still matters.
Tools speed up execution, but details still shape how work feels.
Tools change process.
New tools should expand what we can do, not replace thinking.
Leaders still make.
Staying close to the craft keeps ideas grounded in real execution.
Working well matters.
Curiosity, communication and reliability matter just as much as talent.
20+ years
→
visual & Motion
→
global teams
→
brand to product
→
hands on
→
