Interview: Will Humphrey discusses the importance of Creative Wales

2025 marks five years of Creative Wales supporting the creative industries, so we’re celebrating by reflecting on the people and projects driving our sectors forward.

Will Humphrey is the creative director at Sugar Creative: an award-winning studio specialising in new technologies and immersive storytelling. Since 2018, he’s led groundbreaking projects, including Wallace and Gromit’s The Big Fix Up.

How did your career path lead you to Sugar Creative?

Growing up, I was a keen artist, but I also had a deep love for understanding science. So, my journey into the creative industries started with a molecular genetics degree at King’s.

I studied neurogenetics, behavioural neuroscience and communication for advanced science, which made me appreciate how complex subjects needed clear communication.

This led me to the London College of Communication where I studied under Tony Pritchard, a pioneer who taught design principles of visual communication to non-designers. This shaped me into a communication theory-focused designer.

I later took on leading Sugar Creative to explore the intersection of communication, technology and innovation. Being a creative director at Sugar involves turning clients’ problems into ideas and solutions. It’s my job to take responsibility for everything that’s created and shape its direction.

I’m proud of the way we run Sugar. We tried to make a different type of company that really supports its team, embracing the individual physical and mental needs of the team. We have a very strong set of principles for creating positive change both with the work we do and in support of charities. We see it as invaluable.

How does Sugar Creative embrace new trends and technologies within its projects?

At Sugar Creative, technology is the tool, and creativity is the intent behind it. We embrace new and emerging technologies, but we use them to solve problems, and we’re largely agnostic about what they are.

Innovation happens on the edge where no one quite knows how to make it work, so we choose to be brave. Being fearful of emerging technologies holds companies back.

It’s not about replacing traditional media like video and animation. It’s about expanding ideas and stepping into new possibilities. For us, it’s an exciting combination of blending cutting-edge technology with creativity to build experiences cooler than ever before. Some of Sugar’s projects include:

Cogneuro

Cogneuro combined AR with voice recognition and AI to create an interactive AR dog that responded to commands. We partnered with a university specialising in early-onset dementia diagnosis to explore how this technology could flag people for further investigation.

The Big Fix Up

Winning Innovate UK’s Audience of the Future competition allowed us to work with Tiny Rebel and Potato to reimagine storytelling, shifting from an author’s perspective to a focus on time, experience and place.

We developed transmedia geo-located storytelling, where stories emerge as users physically move through real city spaces – bringing imagined worlds to life. This groundbreaking project created the first new story for Wallace & Gromit story in nine years, won awards, and laid the groundwork for future projects.

It also sparked a key question: what if stories weren’t distinct but deeply rooted in place? That idea inspired a subsequent project, 878 AD.

878 AD.

In partnership with Ubisoft, the creators of Assassin’s Creed, and Hampshire Cultural Trust, we created a geo-located city-scale XR experience. Using the assets from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, we reconstructed Viking Britain and allowed users to step into an adventure that takes them through a city’s streets as they existed centuries ago.

Five years ago, technology limited our ideas. Today, technology has jumped ahead, and our only constraint is our imagination. At Sugar, our mission statement is to ‘Deliver Wonder’. We take what is imagined and make it real.

Why is Creative Wales’ investment in digital sectors so important?

Creative Wales’ support has been instrumental in enabling us to do what we do and to challenge the sector globally.

Financial support from Creative Wales lets us reduce risk. Risk creates fear in a client, fear drives hesitation, and hesitation kills projects. A small catalyst like funding lets people feel that somebody else believes in it, which leads to innovation.

Beyond funding support for projects, Creative Wales platforms our work globally through trade missions and outreach, allowing us to drive awareness of what’s possible and build impactful partnerships.

As the landscape evolves, the best thing Creative Wales can do is have a willingness to evolve and adapt, and to look at something in a non-traditional way. Limiting the idea of creative technology to one single vertical not only holds back the sector but also other industries that could benefit from its innovations and opportunities.

What would you say are the biggest opportunities and challenges in the digital sector?

One of the biggest challenges is the constant conceptual shift and rapid pace of change: every six months, we’re in a different landscape. We’re also shifting from a world where knowledge is taught by subject matter to one where knowledge, delivery, creativity, and storytelling come together. This change is huge, but it’s the most exciting challenge I could imagine.

Wales doesn’t have an established creative technology sector yet – very few places do – but this landscape of uncertainty and disruption does bring opportunities. In times of change, people are more willing to look for newness, and that creates a chance to turn challenges into positive changes.

What advice do you have for aspiring developers? 

Be brave. The industry constantly shifts, and you’re jumping into innovation and creativity. All creativity demands bravery, but in this field, you’ll need it tenfold.

We were told many times you can’t build a creative technology company in Wales, but we moved forward and are proud to help show what’s possible. Be prepared to create the canvas where your work will live.