After 550 job rejections, a graduate interior designer launched his own firm instead of softening his bold style

Harry Matuszewicz-Milne, a former mental health nurse who retrained as an interior designer and graduated from UWE Bristol in 2024 with first-class honours, applied for nearly 550 design jobs over the course of a year—including speculative letters, branded coasters, and custom stationery—without receiving a single offer. Rather than diluting his bold creative style to fit employer expectations, he decided his portfolio wasn't the problem; the briefs were. He launched his own firm, Acid House Designs, in Edinburgh, turning rejection into entrepreneurship and building a business on his own terms.