Tell us about yourself. What’s your story and your journey to where you are now?
I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember, I don’t know if I enjoy it because I’m good at it or I’m good at it because I enjoy it. In any case my doodling got me into university.
Whilst studying for a degree in visual communications I was seduced by the glamorous world of advertising, a few weeks after graduation I packed my bags and moved to London, with a big portfolio and even bigger dreams. Fast forward a year of hard rejections and even harder work, and I was sitting at my desk as an Art Director at AMV BBDO. I was surrounded by some of the most talented conceptual thinkers that it couldn’t help but rub off and I fell in love with ideas.
But after a number of years I was frustrated. The industry had become more research obsessed, less instinctive and I was no longer drawing and I missed it.
You can either piss or get off the pot so my partner and I decided to change things, I quit advertising to become a full time graphic artist. The decade since has been a rollercoaster, up, down but great fun.
Your work is so striking – where do you get inspiration from?
Looking at the built environment, people watching, Google image search. But mostly I find inspiration from within the problem I’m trying to solve. It always starts with words. As I read the brief or copy I see visual connections. This is the buzz, when you feel like you’re cracking the idea.