About me
I enjoy innovating and implementing sustainable practice with a focus on design and creativity:
- leading the furniture social enterprise, Restoration Station
- producing award winning climate change communications for the BBC
- consulting with non-profits on communications
Managing Restoration Station brought together my enthusiasm for social innovation and sustainability with a love of workshops, upcycling and vintage furniture.
Supported by a fantastic team of trainees, volunteers and colleagues, I was responsible for strategy and operations including commissions, quality control, marketing, brand, impact assessment, partnerships and the project's financial sustainability.
Collaborating as part of a thriving creative community brought exciting opportunities for innovation. A highlight was our successful exhibition with Yinka Ilori and creative agency Zetteler for London Design Festival 2017, at which I had the privilege of hosting HRH Prince William.
For Restoration Station x Something & Son, our team worked from Makerversity workshops to produce seating for the A Common Ground events at Tate Britain.
I started my career at the BBC where I produced programming and content on climate change and sustainable development, earning 12 awards on TV and interactive media for work on these issues.
Previously I originated and delivered new interactive formats in collaboration with TV production teams on major BBC brands such as Stargazing Live, Later… with Jools Holland and Who Do You Think You Are?
Leaving the BBC for more focussed action on climate change, I managed several digital projects for the Energy Saving Trust before consulting with a number of smaller UK charities.
My commitment to social enterprise was informed by a year volunteering with UnLtd India, communicating outstanding work by the social entrepreneurs they support in Bombay. I also visited leading social enterprises around India whilst filming with Journeys for Change.
Projects
- SusTransat Dining Chair for V&A Exhibition Road Day of Design ExhibitionThe V&A in partnership with homeless charity 999 Club made an open call for makers to create dining furniture for a food waste feast, using materials salvaged from the museum’s waste shipping crates. Taking Eileen Gray’s 'Transat Chair' as a starting point, I used salvaged birch ply and timber to form a frame, and donated ‘vegan leather’ for an upholstered seat. This was exhibited alongside other makers' work as part of the Day of Design at Exhibition Road - for the finale of London Design Fest
Projects credited in
- A Common GroundTate Britain’s front lawns were transformed into a working garden led by artist collective Something & Son. Space was used as a community garden to welcome the public through a daily programme of activities and one-off special events. The plants, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in the garden were chosen to reflect multicultural London today, and highlight the unexpected ancient origin of plants and how they’re used in modern-day cuisines. Free seed packets for visitors highlighted some of the pl
- Restoration Station x Yinka IloriLondon Design Festival 2017 marks a collaboration between non-profit social enterprise Restoration Station and designer Yinka Ilori. The Shoreditch-based initiative runs workshops for people in recovery, teaching them skills in woodwork and furniture restoration, the results being sold to fund its ongoing programme. This special London Design Festival project sees Ilori hold a series of hands-on workshops with Restoration Station volunteers, each participant restoring a chair according to Ilori’10
- Restoration StationSet up by the Spitalfields Crypt Trust, Restoration Station is a non-profit social initiative that uses design and making as a tool to help people recover from addiction and re-engage with the world of creative work. Participants in the programme are trained in woodworking and the restoration of vintage furniture – much of it donated – at the enterprise’s studio at the New Hanbury Project, where they also receive specialist instruction from local craftspeople. Every Thursday and Friday, Restorat32
Work history
S
S
Communications partnerships managerSchool for Social Entrepreneurs
West Dorset District, UKPart Time
Bringing a strategic approach to SSE's external communications.
- Developing partnerships and networks to build comms reach and support business growth.
- Designing comms and media strategies to achieve organisational objectives.
- Re-designing processes to make more rewarding use of human time, benefit from AI and automation, and deliver outstanding results.
B
B
Communications Manager (maternity cover)BAFTA albert Consortium
- Piccadilly, St. James's, London, UKFreelance
The BAFTA albert Consortium brings the screen industries together to tackle environmental impact and inspire audiences to act for a sustainable future.
Maternity cover for the communications manager involved:
- coordinating graphics and installation design for the Green Zone at 'FOCUS 2019' event
- managing short form video and animation production
- writing articles on sustainability in the TV and film industry
- brand roll out
- supervising website relaunch
- leading on social media and press
- communications planning
+ Show more
Skills
- Social Entrepeneurship
- Content Production
- Community Workshop
- Communications
- Bespoke Design
- Fabrication
- Social Change
- Sustainability
- Sustainable Design
Education
Post Graduate Certificate in Climate Change and Sustainable DevelopmentDe Montfort University
- Leicester, United Kingdom
Grade: Merit
BA Joint Hons Philosophy and Art HistoryUniversity of Leeds
- Leeds, United Kingdom
Awards
L
L
General Education Multimedia AwardLearning On Screen Awards
'Stargazing LIVE', Senior Content Producer, BBC Multiplatform Productions.
I developed and produced the highly successful web and social media output for 'Stargazing LIVE', promoted as best practice within the BBC:
• Launched a Flickr group attracting 1,500 members in one month
• Promoted #bbcstargazing to trend worldwide
• Posted a clip on YouTube viewed nearly 200,000 times
• Ran a live blog reaching 15,000 users over three nightsI
I
Award for Climate Change CommunicationInternational Visual Communications Association
This was awarded to the innovative BBC Bloom website on personal action to reduce carbon emissions. As Producer for BBC Multiplatform Productions, I:
• Managed tender process & commissioned creative agency
• Led production of over 70 articles on CO2 reduction
• Managed the research, consultancy and sub-editing teams
Credit is due to the Magnetic North agency who designed and built the site.+ Show more