About me

I’m a graphic designer, creative director and reportage illustrator. I make brand identities work. I design for print and for screen. I draw people, events and locations. Clients come to me for my enquiring eye, organised process and decades of knowledge.

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Projects

• 2

  Trampery TakeoverA sketchbook tour of four creative workspaces for an Instagram takeover, visiting The Trampery co-working spaces during their weekly socials. Illustrations have since been used and adapted for communications.
• 1

  Bowen Craggs Conference live sketchingGestural drawings pick up movement in a way that’s handy for getting across the character of a conference where presentations are animated and listeners are active. That was particularly useful for the informal, collegiate style of the 2019 Bowen Craggs Conference, in Berlin, looking at the future of digital corporate communications. I worked primarily on iPad, for social media use.
• A Very Stokey Christmas illustrationAn illustration to get people to buy local and independent has also been a masterclass in how small businesses can work together to offer customers an experience. It became a fast-growing thing as businesses got involved – and that’s where doing this illustration digitally gave me crucial adaptability in a tight timeframe and enabled the illustration to grow in a cohesive way for print and online communications.
• Space to Earth Challenge brandingSpace to Earth Challenge is a triathlon-based, STEM linked programme of activities for school students which followed British ESA astronaut Tim Peake's training for his mission to the International Space Station. Devised by Venture Thinking, Ideas Foundation and Triathlon Trust for the UK Space Agency and ESA, the programme's branding task was to get schools involved and keep them engaged.
• No Pens Day Wednesday brandingOracy. It’s effective verbal communication – and an important life skill. Yet it’s underrepresented in the school curriculum. No Pens Day Wednesday is a national day of speaking and listening activities in schools and other settings across the UK. The challenges were how to make the verbal visual, how to make communications accessible and how to combine two brands with similar identities.
• The Clothworkers' Company and Foundation: a programme of designThe Clothworkers' Company follows City livery company tradition while engaged in the modern work of being a crafts patron and funding innovative textiles research. It also has a charitable organisation, The Clothworkers’ Foundation. An initial design and consultancy brief for annual review, advice on pictures and membership area web interface expanded into a programme of design, creative direction and templating.

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Work history

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Graphic designer, creative director, live illustratorStudio Lydia Thornley
Dec 1991London, United KingdomFull Time
I started may own practice after 10 years working for London design consultancies, including Pentagram and lewis Moberly. I work solo and in collaboration.

Skills

• Strategic Branding
• Strategic Communications
• Strategic Design
• Project Management
• Reportage Illustration
• Workshop Design
• Workshop Delivery
• Client Liaison
• Process Design
• Brand Developent
• Creative Direction
• Art Direction

Education

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(BA hons) Graphic DesignUCA Canterbury
Sep 1977 - Jul 1981Canterbury, United Kingdom
I studied at Foundation and degree level at Canterbury, now part of UCA. I have returned since as a visiting lecturer for UCA Maidstone and Epsom and recently for UCA Epsom as a sessional lecturer.