I'm a writer, thinker, creator, poet and calligrapher. I'm also a professional person who wants to work with other creative people to create great work.
My consultancy primarily delivers high end insight work for blue chip brands. In the course of this work I often need to bring in researchers, visualisers, designers and creatives of various types to add value to the final product. I also need to produce content to promote the consultancy.
One of the challenges for the Creative Semiotics business is in moving from a narrow 'semiotics specialist' positioning towards a broader ‘creative problem solving’ solutions positioning and to bring my critical skills to bear working with others to cultivate great, meaningful brand ideas for clients.
Work history
Founder Director
Freelance
Creative Semiotics is a creative problem solving business that uses semiotics, the study of signs, cuesan evidence based tool for meaning management and implicit communication as the fuel writing sharper creative briefs as a creative springboard towards more meaningful, effective brand strategy. The service Creative Semiotics provides is creates a bridge between insight, strategy and creative execution, ensuring brand values and the brand aesthetic is reflected throughout.
Creative Semiotics delivers visually engaging reports and visualised strategic options that help equip business decision makers with in depth understanding of brand imagery and fresh, provocative perspectives on their brand, category and cultural context, with tangible implications for e around brands that informs their brand, design or communications.
Head of Semiotics
- London, United KingdomFull Time
8 years of international qualitative research experience working with blue chip brands such as Unilever, Pepsico, World Gold Council, Manchester City, O2.
Semiotics expert Head of Semiotics with responsibility for developing offerings and upgrading qualitative research findings with semiotic insight
Skilled moderator of groups from Ireland to Singapore to Ghana and built up expertise in both Japan and Latin America (Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil etc)
Proven business winner with a +60% conversion rate on RFP pitches won pitches for accounts such as COI, Westfield, Umbro, Wrigley's and REXAM.
Accomplished ethnographer having made films for brands / companies as diverse as Sainbury’s, Mazda, Marks & Spencer, Westfield, Braun, Umbro.
Thought leader writing ESOMAR papers “Sonic Semiotics: Sound and Music in Marketing Communications” and “Hip-Hop: Sub-Culture or Superbrand”
Skills
- Creative Stragegy
- Brand Copywriting
- Moderating
Education
MA
Coventry, United Kingdom
I teach an MA course entitled Brands & Meaning on the Global Media and Communications programme at Warwick University. It's a 10 week course covering the construction of brands from a semiotic perspective focusing on the meanings (cultural and cognitive) embedded in brand imagery, narrative and the how brands and product categories can be analysed using semiotic principles to help us all manage meaning more effectively.
Awards
Media Week Award (Silver)
For the work I did for Radio Centre analysing the meaning of music which resulted in the Brand Music Navigator website. Check it out:
http://music.radiocentre.org/#/