April 2017 to present

The Grove Resource Centre (Voyage Care)

Care sector / therapeutic learning
Workshop Facilitator

Helping adults with learning disabilities, autism, brain injuries and complex needs to make interesting, useful and fun items from wood and other materials. Designing, building and coordinating props and scenery for special events. Participation in the house band.

​

April 2015 to April 2017

Make Me Something Special Ltd

Bespoke and personalised wooden products
Workshop Craftsperson / Graphic Designer

Design and manufacture of bespoke and personalised wooden gift items. CNC router programming, machining and finishing. Graphic design (brochure, customer care guides and information sheets).

 

April 2012 January 2015

LifeBook Ltd

Bespoke autobiography service (start-up)
Designer / Editor / Editorial Production Coordinator

Book design involving close collaboration with Artisan Books at Hurtwood Press to develop high-end prototypes for core products plus a range of luxury options. Setting up book templates and typesetting styles. Design of marketing collateral, training resources and internal communications. Project management (managing remote teams of interviewers and writers in the UK and internationally). Book editing.

 

September 1999 to November 2011

Surrey & Berkshire Media Ltd  (Guardian Media Group owned to March 2010, Trinity Mirror owned from March 2010)

News publishing and advertising media
Senior Creative

Design of newspapers and magazines, logotypes, branding, advertising (print and online), conceptual work, copywriting, client adverts, media packs, stationery, marketing collateral, point-of-sale, exhibition stands, pop-up banners, bus sides/backs, taxi wraps, 6 and 48 sheet posters, hoardings, signage, station adgates, large format media, staff mentoring.

 

1988 to 1996

Hurst Publishing Ltd

Publishing and advertising media
Designer / Deputy Studio Manager

Magazines, client adverts, corporate communications, stationery, marketing collateral, point-of-sale, media packs, exhibition stands, model-making, copywriting for national advertising campaigns, script writing for commercial radio advertisements.

 

1987 to 1988

Berkshire County Council

Leisure and tourism
Junior Designer, Recreational Routes project

Design and production of leaflets for Berkshire County Council Leisure and Tourism department, including maps and pen-and-ink illustrations of interesting locations and artefacts.

​

Freelance
• Audio CD packaging, promotional material and music press advertising for several small independent record labels including Acoustics Records and Old Bridge Music. Tutor books and instructional DVDs.
• Varied work for a number of niche software developers including identity, branding, publicity, pop-up exhibition banners, application / web icons and images.
• Illustration commissions for greetings cards and wallpaper illustrations.
• Commissions for wall art for JD Wetherspoons.
• Fine art exhibitions, collaborations and workshop tutoring.

 

Software Expertise
Adobe Creative Cloud (on Mac and PC) – InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro X

 

Education 

Aberystwyth University
Degree: BA (Hons) Visual Art
(Including graphic art, printmaking, illustration, photography, art theory and history)

 

St Wilfrid's Roman Catholic School, Crawley,  West Sussex
A Levels: British Social and Economic History, Art with Art History, English Literature (Special Paper distinction)

O Levels: Mathematics, English Language, Physics, French, History, Art, Woodwork, Technical Drawing, Religious Education

 

Achievements

• Degree show work selected for inclusion in the University Collection, housed in the Catherine Lewis Gallery, Aberystwyth (one of only two examples selected from the year group).
• Work selected for the prestigious annual Association of Illustrators ‘Images’ exhibition and book.
• Designer of the Newspaper Society’s ‘Regional Newspaper of the Year’ 2003 and 2004 (Reading Evening Post, Guardian Media Group).
• Work selected for the biennial Surrey Open Art Exhibition (2012), The Lightbox Museum, Woking.

 

Interests

I keep in touch with my ‘Fine Art’ roots by producing personal work which I exhibit and sell through galleries, group shows and open exhibitions. In recent years I have been investigating alternative photographic processes such as pinhole photography and cliché verre print making and I have run hands-on workshops for children and adults with organisations such as Cranleigh Arts Centre and the Sculpt It community arts group.
I also enjoy wood turning and banjo making and I play fiddle, banjo and mandolin in several band collaborations.