I have been in the design industry for many years. I started my career at drama school where as part of the course I did the posters, flyers and publicity for one of the shows. This is shown on the left. (Ok it's not the greatest piece of work in the world but it was my first ever piece and it was designed on an Atari ST!) I found this to more enjoyable than the acting and once I had completed the course (gaining an BTeC National Diploma at merit level) I pursued a career in Design. My first stop was to buy the book, "Macs for Dummies" as I had never used an Apple Mac before. This book proved to be a god send.

With no qualifications in design (I have many qualifications in other things download my CV to see how many!) getting work was going to be hard. I managed to get a job using my enthusiasm and persistence (and lots of blagging from the Macs for Dummies book!) with Universal Design, based in Northfleet, as a Junior Designer. This was small studio and printers with several large clients, including some record labels. Here I learnt the trade, scanning and typesetting for the 3 designers. In spare moments and after hours I began learning Illustrator, Photoshop & Quark. Soon I was creating logos and helping lay up artwork. By the beginning of 1997 I was working independently as part of the team creating design, point of sale and marketing tools. Unfortunately in September 1997 the company lost some clients and I was made redundant. This was a definite blow but the experience I had gained was priceless. I've not seen the designers from Universal since that day but would like to thank Des, Rob and Martin for giving a young wannabe a chance. I owe a lot to these guys.

I was on the lookout again for another job. This time I had a portfolio behind me but getting a job was still not easy. I faced the problem of no qualifications in design and not enough experience. Most companies were asking for 2 years. My persistence and keenness paid dividends again. I got a job with The Fire Training Organisation. My role here was varied. Primarily I was there to work with software designers providing graphic support for a pioneering software system called The EIS, (The Emergency Information System). This was Training software for new and existing staff that when loaded onto a companies intranet shows the locations of fire exits, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, first aid kits, safe exit routes, fire marshall & first aider contacts and many other aspects of building safety with regard to risk assessments. I had to redraw maps from building schematics and gather information about contacts. I was responsible for point of sale and company marketing design. I was also I.T. support for the company which taught me a lot about Mac networking, repairs, upgrades and problem solving. Unfortunately I was to fall pray to another set back when the company made me redundant in April 1998. Unfortunately due to the nature of the work that I used to do and the swiftness of my departure I do not have a samples of work from this time. (A mistake I would never make again!)

My big career break came in April 1998. I was offered a job with Comma Oil and Chemicals in Gravesend. I was to be an Assistant Designer to their Studio Manager, Gareth Webb. Primarily we were responsible for supporting the sales force with design materials for promotions that they were running and back labels for Commas extensive product range. Comma outsourced all of its other design needs to an external agency. Gareth & myself were not happy about this and over the two years we worked together to bring all the design work in-house. We succeeded. By the time that Gareth left in 2000 we were responsible for the complete corporate identity of the company. Products, point of sale, packaging, stationary and basically anything else you wanted to stick a Comma logo onto, including company vehicles and racing cars. We were also responsible for many of the companies private label designs including Wilkinson's, Massey Ferguson and Esso. Gareth's departure put me in charge of the design studio. My role expanded from just Studio Manager (or as my business card stated - Marketing Services Senior Advisor), to include support for shows and events. I helped co-ordinate many big name shows for Comma including The Birmingham Motor show, Max Power Live, Autosport International. I also played an active part in the 2000/1 British Touring Car Championship. (Unfortunately I wasn't one of the Drivers). After four years I did not like the direction the company was taking with respect to my design career. I found most of my time was being dedicated to event coordination whilst the studio management side of my job was becoming less and less. I found I was trying to do two peoples jobs. Despite my objections Comma took the decision to start out sourcing some of the design jobs to take some of the strain off of the studio and free up more of my time to concentrate on shows and events. This was not what I wanted and went against everything Gareth and myself had worked so hard to create. I am a designer at heart and whilst event co-ordination is great I had no interest in it becoming a full time career. Time for the next step on the ladder.

A new experience for me. Looking for a job whilst in one. Conflicts of guilt over leaving a company that I had loved working for were out weighed by more aspects of the design studio Gareth and myself had built being outsourced. The final nail in the coffin came when along with my event co-ordination I was put in charge of managing the agencies that had been out sourced to do my Studios work. This to be honest angered me. Finding the right job was tricky. Several companies that promised the earth, did not have the right feel, (particularly the company that designed graphics for pub ice-cube holders and pub ice-cube holders only). The right company surfaced in the form of South London Auto Trader. I took the reigns of the studio department in late April 2002. This was a good move. Starting from scratch I had to not only select and build my own design team, but the company gave me a pretty much blank canvas for how to run the department. (A pretty much blank cheque as well for updating the studio). My job was design focused with some event support, but at Auto Trader my talents for understanding design, media and problem solving were recognised and used to their full potential. With the many tight deadlines working for a publishing house entails, days are never dull. My department was responsible for the complete corporate identity of the Auto Trader Magazine along with Auto Freeway, Top Marques and Buy New. We were also responsible for the design of much of the companies marketing and point of sale.