Darren Carpenter

Digital Design Lead · WPP · London

I make complex change clear enough for people to get behind.

Darren Carpenter

I’m Darren Carpenter. I work with cross-functional teams to make technology change understandable, usable and worth adopting, drawing on almost twenty years in design.

See my work Get in touch
Six separate things, functions, priorities, systems, teams, timelines and ways of working, tangle together and resolve into one shared plan. Functions Priorities Systems Teams Timelines Ways of working One shared plan Six separate things, functions, priorities, systems, teams, timelines and ways of working, tangle together and resolve into one shared plan. Functions Priorities Systems Teams Timelines Ways of working One shared plan
Many moving parts, one plan people can get behind.

Selected work

Selected work

Independent project · Free to use · Moving to a new platform

PIP Helper: making a difficult form less daunting

I created PIP Helper, a free AI assistant that helps people plan and practise their answers for a Personal Independence Payment application, one question at a time. It’s built for people facing a stressful process, often on a bad day, so it asks for nothing personal and is honest about what it can and can’t do.

Conversations
1,000+
Average rating
4.4 out of 5

First version, on ChatGPT, October 2026.

Visit PIP Helper (opens in a new tab)
PIP Helper’s ChatGPT listing: a 4.4 rating from more than 20 ratings, more than 1,000 conversations, and conversation starters such as starting the PIP form from the beginning or jumping to a specific section.
The first version’s listing on ChatGPT.

How it fits in

  1. You, at your own pace
  2. PIP Helper asks one question at a time
  3. Your own draft, to review and edit
  4. The official form, completed by you
The tool helps you prepare. It never touches the official form.
How I designed it
  • Nothing to installThe first version ran as a ChatGPT assistant with a free login, so there was nothing to download and nothing to pay.
  • One question at a timeIt asks follow-up questions and gives examples, and people can pause, skip or come back later.
  • People keep their own wordsAnswers go into the person’s own document, ready to review and edit before they fill in the form.
  • Nothing personal requiredIt never asks for a name, address or National Insurance number.
  • Honest about its limitsIt isn’t an official service, doesn’t decide eligibility or give legal, medical or financial advice, and points people to GOV.UK and Citizens Advice.
  • Calm, plain languageThe tone is warm and plain, built around dignity.

Experience

From the drawing board to the CIO office

Today I’m Digital Design Lead in WPP’s Enterprise Technology team. I design how technology change is explained and experienced across the group, from communications and visual identity to the tools people use day to day, and I bring cross-functional teams together so that change lands well.

Before that came engineering, creative agencies, financial services and the charity sector. Each taught me something different about how organisations work, and I’ve been promoted at four of the organisations I’ve worked for.

  1. 2007

    Mott MacDonald

    Junior Designer, then Graphic Designer

    Learned to explain complex engineering clearly.

    Promoted

  2. 2010

    Ronin Marketing

    Graphic Designer, then Senior Designer

    Five-plus years of agency work for a wide range of clients.

    Promoted

  3. 2016

    Brandiful Design

    Creative Director

    Led brand creation for small and medium-sized businesses.

  4. 2017

    Direct Line Group

    Digital Designer

    Moved from brand into digital product design.

  5. 2018

    Freelance and Umbee Group

    Designer; Graphic Designer

    Freelance and in-house roles, broadening my digital work.

  6. 2019

    National Autistic Society

    Integrated Designer, then Senior Integrated Designer

    Accessibility and plain language became essential.

    Promoted

  7. 2022 – now

    WPP, Enterprise Technology

    Senior Digital Designer, then Digital Design Lead

    Making technology change clear across the group.

    Promoted

BA (Hons) Graphic Design, 2:1, London Metropolitan University, 2007 · Full history on LinkedIn

Behind this site

Designed by me. Built with AI.

I designed this site and built it in conversation with AI, one prompt at a time. Here are a few of the real prompts and what they changed.

Real prompts from the build, lightly tidied.

What the animation shows:

  1. A timeline of design eras: print and the drawing board in 2007, brand and campaigns in 2010, digital products in 2017, accessible by default in 2019, enterprise technology in 2022, and now, designing with AI.
  2. My prompt: “I like the rounded box around the nav bar, with the Quiet Editorial colour theme.” A plain page mock-up gains a rounded navigation bar, rounded cards and warm colours.
  3. My prompts: “Why oxblood as the accent?”, “Try deep teal.”, “What about something more progressive, like lime?”, “Try ultramarine.” The accent colour changes with each one, ending on ultramarine.
  4. My prompt: “Can the initial view follow the user’s own settings, so if their device is in dark mode, it starts in dark mode?” The page switches to dark mode.
  5. It ends on: 56 prompts. One website.

How I work

Design is where I started. People are how change happens.

Most of the hard problems in change are human ones. Good design helps, but only when people understand it, trust it and choose to use it.

Simple, scalable, sustainable. Work people can understand, that holds up as more teams depend on it, and that still works a year later.

Point of view

Bring people on the journey, and they become part of the change.

My one piece of advice for anyone leading a rollout

Technology change is a people problem

Most technology changes don’t stall because of the technology. They stall when teams drift apart, each working on its own piece with its own priorities, or when people start designing complex systems before anyone has agreed the problem.

The most useful thing I’ve done is also one of the simplest: bringing teams together regularly to share ideas and see each other’s work. Assumptions get challenged earlier, duplicated effort becomes visible, and silos start to break down.

People are emotional beings. When change is done to them, they resist it, often quietly. When they’re brought along and given a part in shaping it, they own the result.

Contact

Let’s connect.

I’m always glad to talk about design, technology, leadership and making complex things simpler.

Email me LinkedIn