myself & what makes me tick

I love design and pleasing people, and that just great because that's what I do all day long as a design freelancer.

I'm a stickler for detail, I always have been, as a child my lego models where always meticulously correct, I'd always be taking things apart and putting them back together correctly, it's the best way to learn, it's hardly surprising that I'd be pretty much self taught in everything I do. Nowadays I don't play as much lego as I used to, but I funnel that fanatical precision and passion for creativity into beautiful design for my clients.

When I'm not designing I'm often still being creative, I take a lot of photographs, you can see the results here. I keep very active and ride my mountain bikes as often as I can, living in such a beautiful part of the country who wouldn't? Music makes me happy. I've never been able to actually play anything, it turns out my fingers don't bend the right way for a guitar, but my encyclopaedic knowledge of just about every genre of music is fairly unrivalled. Inspirational music makes my designs flow smoothly through the mouse and into the computer to the benefit of my clients...

stuff i did at school

I was always one of the most creative pupils in my year at school, I always spent as much time as i could in the design department.

I went to King James' School, in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. For my A-Level Design major project, I decided to try and combine my passions for design and mountain biking. I decided to build hydraulic brakes for the bike. Inadvertently in the development process, I came up with the same solution that became Shimano's long arm V-Brake a year or so later, this was sheer coincidence but shows the strength of my thought process.

The completed brake system, worked exactly as it was required to, it was entered into several Young Engineer competitions over the summer that I finished my A-Levels and scored very highly, second place in one of them, with my prize monies being used to visit my first festival.

stuff i did at university

I completed a three year degree course in Three Dimensional Product Design at Ravensbourne College of Design & Communication in Kent (nearly South London). It was a very high calibre course which I felt honoured to be on.

It was an intensive and competitive course highlighting all area of not only product design, but design in general. Despite not choosing to follow that specific job path, the course taught me more than I probably imagine about good design practice. I still think my work displays a Ravensbourne imprint.

My final degree project was again, in the field of mountain biking, to design a versatile shoe which combined the cycling benefits of a stiff clip-less pedal shoe, with the ability to walk comfortably. The end result worked 100%.

stuff i did at my first job

Post university I worked for many years as a graphic designer at Adgroup who specialised in outdoor advertising. This incorporated;

» Bus Adverts - We wrapped full buses, bus rears, and designed poster adverts for inside and outside of the vehicles, getting involved in the production and even fitting of the adverts, I can stick on a mean sticker! We advertised all over the UK and in Malta and Spain.

» Tram Adverts - Basically the above, but on trams.

» Airport Advertising - Poster campaigns in and around airports around the country.

It was an extremely valuable experience working in this area which taught me a lot about design. Although the adverts were huge, the message had to be read very quickly. Over the years, my ability to communicate the message clearly, became one of my strongest attributes which I have taken into all areas of design.

stuff i did at my second job

Wanting a change from the world of advertising I went on to work for a small local design firm focused on web & graphic design. Although it was obviously a different medium, the same ideals of clarity and clear communication were paramount. With web design, the viewer may be more captive than those viewing huge bus adverts, it is still very important to keep them interested in order to keep them viewing.

This is the same for brand design, and print design. For instance an overly complicated logo that isn't very easy to read, is not as effective as one that is simple. Print design also needs this logic applying to it in order to convey its message. At Feel Design I produced branding, print work and web layouts for a wide range of different clients in many areas of business.

now

I set up Eat Sleep Design in the autumn of 2009. With strong experience from my previous jobs, I have been applying this knowledge and these skills ever since. I've worked with a wide variety of clients, in all areas of business, all over the UK and in some case beyond. Working for myself I am free to explore my creativity and further my creative horizons. It allows me to utilise my photographic skills whilst being able to use my design skills in all aspects of design and creativity.

I have amassed a lot of regular clients through treating customers correctly, going the extra mile to produce stunning results for them. Alongside my usual client base, I do a lot of work for a local web firm creating their web layouts for their developers to build from. With these guys we are pushing the boundaries of modern web design and technologies.