About me

I’m a Creative Director with a background in design for brand, print and digital combined with a strategic mind that can see the bigger picture on projects. I have a natural flair at developing and nurturing client relationships and am a valuable part of any sales arsenal. I’m a natural leader, able to inspire and impart knowledge as well as provide support on a pastoral level. I enjoy flexing the boundaries of a project and experimenting with fledgling technology which has led me to create groundbreaking concepts for clients such as Leeds College of Music and Birmingham Business School. I’m fascinated by the future of digital and the development of brand as part of this. As a counterpoint for my fascination with all things technical i’m an avid crafter, launching a range of handpainted textile products earlier this year.

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Projects

• 1

  Birmingham Business SchoolBirmingham Business School are part of the well respected University of Birmingham and this association has served them well. But the school was crying out for its own identity to let it visually stand on its own two feet. The challenge The school needed an identity which could allow them to stand alone but equally, when required, be allied with the University. The University brand and logo mark would need to sit comfortably alongside anything we created but give staff and students of the scho
• FSCSThe FSCS needed a microsite aimed at savers to help them check if their money would be compensated should their bank or building society fold. The challenge FSCS commissioned the site to help educate and reassure during a period of financial uncertainty. We joined a project team consisting of 4 agencies, all working on other elements of the campaign from illustrations through to to radio adverts. We were supplied with these illustrated assets to make sure there was a cohesive campaign across all media. The solution To ensure that the site could be created quickly and meet their tight deadline we simplified the journey they wanted the user to take into 4 education steps ending with a Protection Checker tool. Each step could be summarised using just a few short sentences so we began to envisage the journey in the structure of a long scrolling page.
• Central School of Speech and DramaCentral School of Speech and Drama is renowned for training some of acting's biggest names. But their pedigree in other areas of theatre and performance training flies almost under the radar. The challenge With applications soaring for their performance based courses, CSSD have a strong reputation and an enviable alumni list that guarantees them the best students. But many of their production and design courses don't draw the same numbers of applicants, an imbalance that saw CSSD keen to promote the fact that it's more than an acting school. A recent acquisition of the word Royal to the title had given them a perceived new level of gravitas externally but had changed them very little operationally and in the minds of its students and staff. They stuck by their mantra 'Elite but not elitist'. The solution On visiting the school and speaking to the students it became even clearer that non acting students felt under-represented on the homepage of the website. Everyone we spoke to seemed to be studying something different and had a strong opinion about it. In their breaks students from different courses spilled out onto the grassy areas and into the cafeteria, actors mixing with puppeteers, costumiers with teachers. The building itself had pockets of space between teaching rooms where students could break out and practice lines or talk through a set brief and the more formal rooms where lesson took place could be transformed into a theatre with the release of a raked seating platform. At any time multiple things can be taking place in the building with energy, passion and strong opinion behind it and i liked the conflict of this. We ran a design briefing session where we explored the brand, the addition of the Royal and what this meant for the school. There was a strong sense of pride, almost arrogance, towards CSSD as an institution, a feel of 'we're Central, people know who we are' and that the design could be brave and embrace this confident attitude. The staff and students students still refer to the school as Central even after gaining Royal status so we wanted to play on this slightly rebellious pride in their school. They felt an affinity with the concepts where the name Central took centre stage. The brand typeface Fogarty Inline provided a strong stamp to the imagery on the homepage, the photos become an incidental background to the text, it's less about what it shows than how it reacts with the letters. Sometimes on a light image the text almost disappears, true rebellion and arrogance that the visitor already knows who they are. It was important to Central to retain a full course list on their home page at all times to represent the multitude of high quality courses on offer. This posed a design challenge in keeping the site uncluttered but by adding them into the footer the courses panel can be opened or closed as needed by the user. This paired with a simple to use Course Finder makes for an effortless course search experience no matter which part of the site you're in. Testing the concept We ran guerilla testing with students to gauge their reactions on the look and structure of the new site. The overall impression was that it was bolder and more confident and reflected the ethos of Central. Dyslexic students gave us advice on unclear areas, a vital insight as the school has a high proportion of students with a need for increased clarity and legibility.

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Work history

Creative DirectorPrecedent
Feb 2012

Skills

• Advertising
• Digital Media
• Branding
• Art Direction
• Design
• Illustrator
• Indesign
• Photoshop
• Powerpoint
• Word
• Blogger
• Networking Communication
• Creative Problem Solving Abilities
• Creative Adviser
• Speaker