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me and my creativity

Where to start. I am an all-round creative. Well that's the short version. Now for the long version.

Throughout school I was passionate about art, design, graphics and photography. There were computers in those days, but they had less memory than a calculator and animation in Deluxe Paint involved moving individual pixels frame by frame – I still loved it. During my spare time I programmed music in Basic on my 32K BBC B and later using OctaMED sequencing software on the Amiga.

I went on to study product design at university. I acquired a new understanding of 3D design, engineering and technical drawing. During the course I was encouraged to take things apart in order to see how they worked. I broke a lot of stuff, but I learned a hell of a lot too.

Continuing my hobbies of photography and music I also picked up the art of DJing and I invested in a substantial amount of music hardware (at that stage my bedroom looked like a mixing studio with a bed stuck in the middle).

After leaving university and spending some time living (and DJing) in the French Alps I began my first job in London as an IT consultant for a shipping company. My IT skills are self taught (a lot of what I do is) and my role involved investing in new hardware, networks, software, training and the optimisation of working processes, data management and communications. Although happy in IT I soon longed for a more creative role. Combining my IT skills and design background I created my first website. I never looked back.

I gave up my comfortable job in IT and joined a design agency called Future Internet Technologies (since acquired by AnytimeNow.com) as a 'web monkey' to learn my trade. I worked my way up through the design studio experiencing as many aspects of the business as possible, including SEO (search engine optimisation), marketing, branding, project management and business development.

Whilst at FIT I discovered Macromedia Flash and found that I had a natural flair for animation (presumably stemming from my initial pixel moving in Deluxe Paint years earlier). My animation skills also tied in perfectly with my ability to create sound effects and write digital sound tracks (now using professional software such as Sony Screenblast) and I began creating true multimedia presentations.

After designing many websites and animated movies I moved to an e-commerce company called AntLabz, part of Antfactory (now Nikko Antfactory), just as the dot-com world was going crazy. As senior designer I worked with technical architects on much more complex integrated projects such as bespoke intranet design, and designing user-friendly interfaces for data-driven solutions. I worked with the design teams responsible for the creation of the first websites for Ncorp, AccessStorage, BPP and the UK’s then leading internet incubator, Antfactory.

After the dot-com bubble burst I left London and travelled around the world (taking several thousand digital photographs on the way). I later settled in the Scottish Borders where I set up as a freelance new media creative (I use the term 'new media creative' because 'designer' simply doesn't cover everything I do). I have since regularly worked with Realise, Smarter Money, ReceptionBell.com and Crombie Anderson, taking on new media projects for the likes of Cantos, Edinburgh World Heritage, F&C, Fenton Tower, Halifax, Invesco Perpetual, Investec, JP Morgan, Kwik-Fit Financial Services, Schroders, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, Standard Life Investments and The Scotsman.

If you are interested in the freelance website design and marketing solutions that I have to offer, why not get in touch and see how my services can benefit your business.

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