Meet Sam Sayer

Sam’s path into web started long before WordPress entered the picture — in print studios, brand agencies, late nights DJing, and designing flyers for music events across the UK. That mix of visual storytelling, motion, and experimentation still shows up in everything he does today at DeType.

What stands out about Sam is his love for the moment where it clicks — that first set of visuals where a company’s value, personality, and story finally come together on the page. In this interview, he talks candidly about creative confidence, weathering tough seasons, building a team he’s proud of, and why looking at the bigger picture matters more than winning every single month.

What kind of work did you do before your current business and what did you bring with you into this career?

I originally started out in graphic design and print, working at first in print companies and then as a freelancer around the UK, gaining experience in global agencies and also smaller boutique agencies. I learned a lot, with some incredible peers around me – and also what didn’t work, which are perhaps more valuable lessons!

During this I was DJing and running events across the UK, designing flyers, record sleeves and some digital assets for some now well-known artists, and really started to find my creative path beyond graphic design.

I took a creative role in a brand agency following this for some stability and to really hone my craft, which really set me up with some excellent skills and methodologies.

I was always intrigued with bringing designs to life, playing around with Apple Motion and After Effects, and Flash back in the day. It added a whole other dimension to it, and enabled a more engaging ‘story’ to guide and immerse you on.

Along the way I’d picked up a handful of clients, and eventually made the leap to go full time with DeType, and formed a partnership with a rapidly growing PropTech group which set the scene for the early years as my biggest client.

As we were working less and less on print materials, and more so on website homepage designs in our branding projects, I started to explore WordPress to see how hard it was to take a leap into the world of web…

10 years after that, web is the biggest part of our service offering, with brand and content creation making up the rest.

What part of the website creation process is your favorite to work on and why?

Whilst it can still be the most daunting part even with decades of experience, working on the first creative visuals is absolutely my favorite part. Distilling a client / company into a web page – nailing their value proposition, creating graphic assets to bring it to life, exploring CodePen for some neat CSS trickery – when the magic happens and it all comes together, it’s just incredible! Especially when the client really feels the vision, and is vibing when it’s first presented.

I will often play around in CodePen to jam out a transition or micro animation to make the first presentation of visuals come alive.

A close second is the build out of the home page, seeing it come to life — though my team do that more than I do these days!

What motivated you to start your own business, and what keeps you going when things get tough?

In my late teens / early 20s I was around a lot of people who were carving out their own path (mostly in music scenes) so I was quite ambitious, also I was never great at sticking to a 9 to 5. A lot of my best creative work came about a late night before a deadline!

I was fortunate to land with some good creative freelancers which kept me disciplined whilst also being flexible. 

Starting the business was a leap of faith when I’d managed to secure some regular clients, and landing a retained client kept the fear of maintaining income mostly at bay.

In 2022-2024 I had some major setbacks that really made me question what I was doing, and if I should curb my ambitions, but the last 18 months or so have really proved that building a team, client list and portfolio over the last nearly 14 years has really made me feel alive.

It’s so easy to have a major client loss, bad revenue period or similar knock you off course, but running a retrospective of what we’ve achieved can bring it back around.

I still get a real buzz looking back at past sites and creative work, feel super proud, and make sure I get those testimonials – nothing better than reading some awesome client feedback to inspire you again!

It can be a controversial topic for some, and everyone is motivated in different ways, but entering awards more recently helped cement this – it DOES feel good saying we’re an Award Winning Agency!

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten and how has it affected your business?

“Think of your business year as a league. You may not win every game (month) but you can win a season if you think of the bigger picture. And don’t get complacent on a winning streak.”