Thank you Nel… You are the daddy!

Well today is a big day for Studio Skylab. Not only is it the day that our Design Director Neale ‘Nel’ Johnson becomes a father for the second time, but it’s also the beginning of Nel’s last few weeks with Skylab. After four years helping to found and grow the business, Nel is making the very personal and entirely understandable decision to focus on life as a parent rather than as a partner at Skylab.

Of course we all tried to change his mind, using whatever tricks we knew, but having already had one son during his time at Skylab, Nel has already experienced the challenges of trying to grow a successful digital studio with trying to raise a family and believe me… it’s not easy at all. Growing any business requires daytime hours, evenings and weekends to make it work and it’s something you never switch off from. It doesn’t take more than a minute to work out that it’s a very human decision and one we support totally. So after a lot of discussion and succession planning, we are both happy to welcome Nel’s son into the world today and also sad to announce Nel will be leaving Skylab. Over the past few weeks the work has slowly but surely been handed over to the design team at Skylab, so that Nel can relax and enjoy his paternity leave, before ultimately leaving at Christmas.

We’ve already prepared a baby hamper of goodies for the new addition to the family and we’re going to have a special Christmas party in celebration of Nel’s time at Skylab. This is a happy occasion for us and one that deserves celebration in recognition of Nel’s incredible contribution to Skylab. Not only has Nel helped to bring a couple of babies into the world, but he helped give birth to Skylab itself. Nel’s been an important part of our story and our family from the beginning and he will continue to be a part of our family in the future.

One of the proudest moments of my career as Managing Director of Skylab, was to share a stage with Nel as we won last year’s Anthony Wilson Original Modern Award at the Big Chip Awards. The picture in this article (Nel’s on the right) was taken as we both shared a taxi home after the event, shell shocked that we’d beaten some of the biggest agencies and the best studios to win this prestigious award.

Many congratulations to you and to Vik on the birth of your second son and we will all look forward to seeing the little man in the studio soon.

It’s difficult to find enough words that properly express your contribution to our success but thank you for everything…. you are indeed The Daddy!

Nigel Collier
Managing Director