Award winning designer with over 15 years agency experience. An early background in publishing and print, branding and identity, creative strategy and campaign based marketing, with over a decade in user experience, digital media and web based content.
Since January 2022 I've served as Senior Digital Designer for Paragon Banking Group PLC with my core responsibilities overlapping across brand and digital on a number of key projects for the business.
Before Paragon I spent a year as Senior Designer and Team Leader for Verse Group Ltd, working predominantly on UX/UI design for website and app development, branding and identity for a number of start-ups and well established businesses based both locally and globally
From 2013 until May 2020 I served as Creative Director for ROK Stars PLC, a multinational organisation specialising in brand creation, product development and marketing. Prior to ROK Stars, roles of Art Director and Senior Designer for a number of agencies including Brandscape, Box Clever Marketing, McCann and Wyatt International.
Highly creative with outstanding idea generation, visualisation and inexhaustible creative flow. Award winning design for prominent brands. Experienced and insightful but always open-minded and striving to develop further, learn more, understand better. Highly driven, hard working, dedicated and resolute. Able to engage, confident to lead.
Always happy to contribute or collaborate and give an honest and considered opinion when required. Experience of staff and resource management, workflow and scheduling, project planning, production and procurement. A positive influence in terms of work ethic, enthusiasm and energy. Supportive and fair, leading by example.
UX DIPLOMA
UX Institute, Dublin
Currently in progress
WORLD BEER CHAMPIONSHIPS 2018
Packaging Category Bronze Award
ABK Wooden Tap Handle
AMERICAN DISTILLING INSTITUTE 2017
Excellence in Packaging Silver Award
Bogart's Gin
COMMUNICATORS IN BUSINESS AWARDS
Best Newsletter Design
MINI Plant Oxford
Senior UX/UI Designer & Team Leader for a Birmingham and Cumbrian based digital agency with a strong focus on Discovery, Design Thinking and User Experience. My responsibilities include leading a team of seven UX/UI designers, illustrators and graphic designers to deliver high quality, immersive digital solutions, focussing on user journeys and flows that have an instant, positive impact on the consumer, promoting both products and brands. My role involces working closely with Project Management, Customer Success and Technical Teams to deliver award winning results for our clients, championing a research led approach to ideate and innovate, producing industry leading digital creative. During my time at Verse I've helped to raise our online profile and the standard of our creative output and have contributed to a number of exciting projects for start-ups and established national businesses, plus a number of big client wins.
Clients and brands / Incremental Solutions / eStar Mercedes / Voisins / Lakeland Leisure Estates / Manufacture 2030 / Verse internal projects
Freelance designer for a number of start-ups and well established businesses based both locally and globally, working predominantly on UX/UI design, branding and identity projects.
Clients and brands / Vcard / Tri-Topia / Various Fashion Professionals / Smart Timer Home Automation Application / That’s TV / NHS Arden & GEM / Smith & Chambers / V-Juice / Hoxton Post
Creative Director for ROK Stars PLC, a multi-national organisation specialising in brand creation, product development and marketing - multiple businesses across a wide variety of industry sectors - drinks, media, leisure, music, mobile technology, water purification, health and beauty including ethical fair-trade products.
My role involved leading an in-house team of two designers and two developers along with coordinating and briefing multi-skilled development teams, animators and videographers based remotely around the UK and in the US. Creative strategy, art direction and design, identity, branding and packaging, website and application UX/UI, copy writing, advertising concepts and campaigns with a strong focus on digital based marketing. Global creative direction for ABK Beer and Bogart's Gin, Vodka, Rum and Whiskey. New business ideation, product design and development. During my time at ROK Stars I also had the opportunity to develop app concepts for Sony Entertainment and Global Merchandising Services LTD with accompanying design, story boarding and presentation to the client. Extensive experience of the presentation of designs, concepts and campaigns to stakeholders, project management teams, shareholders and at board level.
Due to the nature of the business, the products and brands I helped to create were incredibly diverse for an in-house role and by using the experiences, knowledge and skills gained throughout my agency career I became an essential part of the process. UK launch of drinks business with rapidly growing retail network.
Clients and brands / Sony Music / Sony Entertainment / Wharfedale / Paul Mitchell Hair Products / ABK Beer / Global Merchandising LLC / Bogart’s Spirits / Maisy Kay / Dejoria Diamonds / Rola Records / Patron Tequila / Bandero Tequila / ROK Mobile / ROK TV / ROK Water Technologies / Williams F1
All encompassing agency re-brand, repositioning and relaunch. Copy writing and content creation, website planning and strategy, design and development. Strategy and design for all agency marketing collateral and social media campaigns. Integrated brand management, idea generation, campaign strategy, art direction, design and development of all projects for external clients - B2B, B2C, small to medium local businesses and a number of high-profile regional companies such as West Midlands Safari Park. I.P. and product marketing for all internal businesses - sister and parent companies within the group.
Box Clever Marketing was a relatively small creative agency but continually challenged larger, better known agencies, winning a number of high-profile clients through inspired creative work combined with a lean, efficient and effective process. Due to the size of the agency I often had to step out from my remit as a designer, contributing to copy writing, social media and brand strategy plus further advancing my skills in web development and social media.
Clients / Warwickshire County Council / Warwickshire Legal Services / Heritage Motor Museum / Clifton Cowley Partners / IceTube / Har-bor / NHS Warwickshire / NHS Coventry
McCann Erickson, Wyatt International, Matrix, etc. - Automotive, Leisure, Fashion, Retail, Publicly funded organisations, Construction, Financial services and B2B. Brand creation and development, creative advertising concepts and campaigns, promotional collateral for social media, web and print-based campaigns, promotional material and event branding, corporate branding and guidelines.
I've also helped a number of fashion professionals; models, photographers, make-up artists and stylists with design and website development for online portfolios and personal websites.
Clients / Harley Davidson Motor Cycles / The Coventry Building Society / Saab Motor Cars / AKW Medicare Ltd / RoSPA / Assa Abloy / Valeo Service / Linpac Allibet / The University of Central England / Stourbridge College / Creative Partnerships / Walsall Life-long Learning Alliance / Hadley Steel Products / Marston’s / Tri-Topia / Packt Publishing / Skills for Birmingham
High-end experiential marketing concepts for the promotion of brands and products, through associated print, web and digital media, events, exhibitions and product launches. Art direction, creative concepts, project management, briefing, budgeting and buying. New business through the presentation of pitches and proposals to high profile clients. Industry Award for design of the SEAT Ibiza Launch Pack.
Clients / Bentley Motor Cars / SEAT / VW / Innocent Drinks Company / Jaguar / Mercedes / Audi / The Met Office / Hummer / Land Rover / Liz Earle Cosmetics / The Duke of Edinburgh Award / Hays / Triumph Motorcycles / Harley Davidson Motor Company / Continental Tyres
Highly creative, client facing role providing publication design, all creative pitch work, corporate advertising, branding, publication planning and design. Assisted on a number of successful pitches to blue-chip companies and multinationals. Communicators In Business (CIB) Award for ‘Best Newsletter Design’ for ‘MINI@Oxford’, MINI Plant Oxford employee magazine.
Clients / Coventry Building Society / Barclays / Toshiba / NHS / MINI / The Post Office / Rolls Royce / BMW / Gerber Drinks Company / National Grid / EDF Energy / BP / The Kennel Club / FEIEA / Aon
Responsible for all editorial and advertising design of the Birmingham Independent and associated publications. Sub-editing and art direction of all publications, ad production, ad-hoc branding and print projects for both external clients and sister companies of the Birmingham Independent.
Illustration, design and layout for children’s publishing company. Various mainstream Children’s titles, contributing to a number of exciting projects, including lift-the-flap pop-up books, a number of illustrated encyclopedia on various subjects and design of a 92 page catalogue.
Design and layout of all graphic output; book cover designs, marketing collateral, catalogues, merchandise and POS. Conference and exhibition design, advertising and web presence. Brand design and product prototyping for startup publishing companies. My role at Wrox was an amazing first design job. I worked with some truly inspirational people and the position gave me a great foundation in graphic design, enabling me to grow and develop my skills at a great pace.
I'm creative by default and have always enjoyed art, design, print and print-making, brands and advertising. As a child I was always creating things. I loved drawing cars, playing with Lego, unravelling loo rolls and emptying cereal boxes to make a multitude of things. I've been into hip-hop and graffiti culture for as long as I can remember. I gained a love for brands and branding from a young age through the early 80's explosion of sportswear. From then it was BMX and then skateboarding - bike and board brands, graphics, magazines, stickers and posters. R.A.D. Magazine, The Face. Spraycan Art by Henry Chalfant, more graffiti. The Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Def Jam, Nike - Just do it, Neville Brody, DEF II, De La Soul, Dance Energy. Manchester, Peter Saville. More graffiti. London. Elk, Mode-2, Nema. The Rave Scene. Jungle. Biggie. Howard Hodgkin. Naples, Florence, Rome. Devon. Fine art, the Renaissance, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci. Greece. Capri. Rika Magazine. Instagram. Humphrey Ocean, Stu Perry, James Jean. Vashti.