Daniel Tomasz Zalepa

Every company needs graphic designers - to create their corporate identity and build their brand. At Highways England, there are about 10 in-house designers. At the BBC, there are hundreds. At High Speed Two, the company building Britain's new railway and the largest infrastructure project in the whole of Europe, Dan Zalepa was the only in-house graphic designer from February 2017 for most of his five years in the job. 

We often say at HS2 that "we're more than a railway", so it's a good job that Dan was more than a graphic designer. His official title was Senior Manager - Brand Visual Design, and his scope was enormous. He set HS2's brand visual guidelines (thank you Victoria Robinson for the expert technical input and delivery support you gave Dan as your line manager); Dan designed all sorts of printed products and digital content; he directed top creative agencies; he concepted flagship events, campaigns and reports (Sarah Hailey - what a challenge corporate reports are, eh, but with Dan's creative you nailed 'em); Dan designed huge public billboards; he oversaw the procurement and establishing of a digital asset management system, together with raising the standard of HS2 photography and video to be kept on it (thank you Hardeep Singh and Julia Clamp for supporting your line manager with your perseverance and specialist skills) - not forgetting to mention, Dan even chose the London office carpet. 

It wasn't just the massive scope of Dan's job that was exceptionally challenging. Working at the biggest, most controversial construction project Britain has ever seen means you have to cope on a daily basis with relentless, tight deadlines and an extreme amount of ambiguity and change. But Dan made operating in this environment a joy for everyone who worked with him. He loved to laugh. I (Vic, his line manager and creative partner) have never laughed as hard as while working with Dan. And whenever the going got tough, that's when we laughed the most (right, Debs Walker?).

Dan's positive attitude, breadth of experience and rare talent enabled us to build a high-performing and very close-knit brand and creative team, a team that is now regularly recognised by HS2's senior leadership for producing outstanding creative work. This would not have been achievable if the whole team hadn't been able to look to Dan for expertise, to rely on his specialist technical skills as an art director across all our work. Individual team members will always be grateful to Dan for the care, encouragement and practical support he always strove to give everyone, as well as his truly inspiring leadership. 

To put it simply, Dan had an extraordinary job - and he was extraordinary at doing it. 

One of HS2's SLT recently said, "I've been thinking about Dan and I've realised that every piece of successful HS2 communication had Dan's hands on it". To give a few examples: 

- Dan was instrumental in refreshing our health and safety brand, Safe at Heart, which is raising the bar across our huge supply chain to prevent accidents and save lives (thank you Drew Nixon and Roisin Doherty for the exemplary collaboration and teamwork required to deliver a brand framework guidelines document, toolkit and high-profile launch event). 

- Once at a press conference where Prime Minister Boris Johnson was being interviewed by TV journalists, he kept losing track of what he was saying because he kept looking at one of Dan's construction animations which was playing in the background (thank you Liz Broad for the months of intense and complex creative project management, and Myrddin Edwards for the Project expertise). 

- In the autumn of 2020, Dan created the look and feel for HS2's Meet the Contractor event, an event which got through to the finals of that year's CIPS Awards (an outstanding events job by Sally Hunter). 

- In the autumn of 2021, Dan created the look and feel for the HS2 in the North campaign, a campaign which won a Government Communications Service Award (thank you Ben Goodwin and Lindsey Preece for your great campaign's wonderful opportunities for creative work). 

- And (probably best of all) Dan even designed a new look for a GB Railfreight locomotive being used on the HS2 Project, which Hornby thinks is so good that they're turning it into one of their models (on sale Spring 2022). 

The brand and creative team will always feel the loss of Dan, as both our colleague and our friend. But Dan has left a legacy of design work that his team will continue for him - while we hold him close in our hearts and minds - and which will be able to be seen by people all over Britain for years to come.