After graduating in Graphic Communication from Loughborough University, I joined Dupree Creative‘s print design team, before quickly moving into website design and flash animation. After 8 successful years there, I was headhunted to work in MasterCard’s Digital Marketing Team.
As a web designer, I believe websites should not only look aspirational, but they must be function as well. They should be planned, designed and built with the mobile and tablet users in mind first. Responsive design is the best solution as you not only just have one website to update, but the design and layout is also at it's optimum usability for all tablets, phones, and desktops / laptops that have varying screen sizes. Google are even penalising websites now for now being responsive as they do not want duplicate content that mobile websites can create, but also want the best experience for their users.
I have developed in-depth expertise in designing ‘flash’ banners for many market-leading magazine websites including InStyle, LivingEtc, LOOK, woman&home, NME, Decanter, Rugby World, World Soccer, Golf Monthly and many more.
I'm not ashamed to say it, but I'm a bit of a Photoshop geek. I love the endless possibilities. Edibility is key, I'm not sure what people did before smart objects and smart filters!
Although print isn't my day to day anymore, I'm still called upon to create product catalogues and brochures. From managing and scheduling, to artworking pages, I still enjoy it. I do approach it with the same methodology as web design, making the most of nesting stylesheets and object styles.
I’m not always locked in a darkened room producing the latest catalogue or website – I do get to see the outside world from time to time and I don’t mean taking my laptop outside to work. My main passion is football (sorry!), where I play for local teams and managed an adult team too for two seasons. Sadly, my skills are more like a Sunday league version of the ‘try hard’ Phil Neville than a ‘fleet footed’ Paul Gascoigne. My prowess on the computer has come a long way since honing my skills as a child playing on my Atari 2600 (where I'm still the best at Joust! Although, my brother would argue against that).