Santiago Hermann

Why this persona fits the audience

He is a creative technologist at a 6-person social agency in Bristol. His team already pays for a competing AR tool through an annual subscription, and he uses it to assemble client campaign prototypes alongside Figma, Notion, and shared spreadsheets.

• Age: 38
• Location: Bristol, UK
• Occupation: Creative technologist
• Income: £58k GBP
• Education: BA in digital media
• Company size: 6 employees
• Years in role: 4 years

“You can build anything if you understand the constraints, but the magic happens when you make those limits look like features.”

Santiago Hermann is a 38-year-old creative technologist embedded in the vibrant, gritty ecosystem of Bristol's digital agency scene. With a BA in Digital Media from UWE, he entered the workforce just as the smartphone revolution was peaking, positioning him perfectly for the subsequent explosion of mobile-first marketing. Over the last four years at a six-person social agency, he has evolved from a generalist web developer into the team's primary architect for immersive experiences. His role is defined by a unique duality: he must possess the soul of a designer to visualize the campaign's emotional core and the mind of an engineer to ensure it functions flawlessly across fragmented device ecosystems. Currently, Santiago manages the agency's AR initiatives, utilizing a competitor's subscription tool as the backbone of their prototyping workflow. This setup allows him to deliver impressive client demos quickly, yet it also imposes a ceiling on his creativity due to licensing costs and rigid platform limitations. He navigates a daily existence of constant context switching, moving from high-level strategy meetings to deep-dive code reviews, often feeling the weight of being the sole technical authority in a non-technical leadership structure. Despite the pressures of tight deadlines and the fast-paced nature of social media trends, Santiago remains deeply committed to the craft. He views technology not as a magic wand but as a set of tools to be mastered and bent to human needs. His recent decisions have focused on optimizing the agency's asset pipeline, trying to squeeze more value out of existing resources before requesting further investment. Living in a converted warehouse in Stokes Croft with his partner, he embodies the modern creative professional: adaptable, technically proficient, and perpetually curious about the next frontier of digital interaction.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Santiago wakes at 6:30 AM to a quiet apartment, brewing strong coffee before the city wakes up. He cycles to the office in Stokes Croft, arriving by 8:15 AM to review overnight GitHub commits and client emails. The morning is dedicated to deep work: refining a complex AR interaction for a fashion client, wrestling with lighting artifacts in the prototype. By 11:00 AM, he joins a video call with the London-based marketing team, explaining why a requested feature isn't feasible on current devices without sounding dismissive. Lunch is a quick sandwich eaten at his desk while watching a tutorial on the latest shader updates. Afternoon hours involve cross-functional collaboration, reviewing Notion boards with the design team and updating spreadsheets for the director. Late afternoons are for debugging, often fighting with browser compatibility issues that only appear on specific Android models. He leaves the office around 6:00 PM, stopping at a local market for groceries before heading home. Evenings are reserved for winding down, sometimes coding a side project, but mostly spent reading or playing music with his partner.

Lifestyle

Santiago splits his time between his high-ceilinged, brick-walled flat in Stokes Croft and the office. He commutes via bicycle regardless of weather, viewing it as essential maintenance rather than transit. His evenings are rarely sedentary; he spends weekends tinkering with Arduino projects or visiting the Arnolfini gallery. Financially, he lives comfortably but avoids luxury spending, preferring to invest in high-quality audio gear and software subscriptions that genuinely improve his workflow. He maintains a close-knit circle of friends from university and the local creative scene, often gathering for cheap Thai food and board games. Health-wise, he prioritizes sleep and gym sessions three times a week to counteract the physical toll of long coding marathons, though he admits to occasional eye strain from screen fatigue.

Work life

At the agency, Santiago is the bridge between abstract creative briefs and functional reality. His day begins with a stand-up where he translates client dreams into technical feasibility reports. He spends hours stitching together assets in Figma, prototyping interactions in the company's existing AR subscription tool, and managing version control in Notion. The pressure is constant; with only six staff, there is no room for error, and deadlines are hard lines. He frequently finds himself troubleshooting why a markerless AR experience fails on older Android devices, a task that requires both deep technical knowledge and patience. He collaborates closely with two other creatives and the agency director, often acting as the de facto lead when the team needs to pivot quickly. The environment is collaborative but intense, driven by the need to deliver polished work for high-profile clients before their campaigns launch.

Relationships

Santiago shares his home with Elena, a graphic designer who understands the unique pressures of the creative industry. Their relationship is built on mutual respect for each other's craft, though they occasionally clash over the noise of late-night brainstorming sessions. He has a tight group of five friends from his university days who still meet monthly for dinner. Professionally, he relies heavily on his direct manager for strategic alignment but feels most influenced by anonymous online communities where peers discuss technical hurdles without corporate filter. He values honesty above all in his relationships, preferring blunt feedback over polite platitudes.

How they decide

Santiago operates on a 'test then trust' basis. He is neither impulsive nor paralyzed by analysis; instead, he conducts rapid, low-stakes experiments to validate concepts before committing resources. He relies heavily on peer validation and technical documentation rather than marketing copy. When evaluating new solutions, he looks for concrete evidence of efficiency gains and integration capabilities, often running silent trials in the background. He is cautious about budget increases unless the ROI is immediately visible, preferring modular investments over large, all-or-nothing contracts.

How they sound

His speech is measured and articulate, with a distinct West Country lilt that softens his otherwise precise vocabulary. He tends to use metaphors related to mechanics and architecture when explaining abstract concepts. He avoids jargon when speaking to non-technical stakeholders but switches seamlessly to technical terminology with colleagues. He speaks with a calm cadence, rarely raising his voice even under pressure, and often pauses to think before answering. He dislikes corporate buzzwords like 'synergy' or 'disruption,' finding them empty. Instead, he prefers concrete verbs and clear outcomes. In casual conversation, he can be surprisingly witty and dry, using self-deprecating humor to diffuse tension.