Personal Profile
A passion for all things digital, with the energy and drive to deliver results and impact business across digital channels. Experienced freelance Digital Art Director and Designer based in London. A proven track record in a creative role, specialising in UX/UI and Digital Design Experiences.
Adept at establishing the conceptual and stylistic execution for a wide range of online projects and creative campaigns. Design with a focus on customer engagement, human interaction, balance and simplicity.
Constantly exploring new technology and pushing the boundaries of interaction design to further a brand through a user centred solution that both works and looks beautiful. Always committed to having an open dialogue with clients to help solve their problems or launch new products, with great style, through a combination of user experience design and strategic thinking.
Have had extensive involvement of working with a wide range of clients, UX, marketing, copywriting, development and technical teams. Running effectively with projects from conception through to launch. Have supported, mentored and lead teams of creative designers on a broad range of innovative projects, including, web, online channels, creative campaigns, interactive, social, tablet and mobile screens, print and retail solutions.
Education
Chelsea School of Art – London - M.A. Fine Art (1986 -1987)
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art - Dundee B.A. (Hons) Fine Art (1982-1986)
Specialist Skills
First-rate creative. UI and UX design with excellent graphic and technical skills, art direction, brand and corporate identity, communication design. User-centred design, usability/web & mobile UX, information architecture interactive media, graphic design, typography, digital media, mobile/content first design, online advertising, email design and digital marketing. Expert user with Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch & InVision and Figma. Considerable experience of authoring in Adobe Experience Manager (CQ5) Squarespace, Sitecore & Umbraco CMS. Actionscript 3. Good CSS3, DHTML, XML, jQuery and JavaScript, Wordpress, some ASP. Advanced photographic processes and digital image manipulation, photo-retouching, multimedia, sound and interactivity. Digital video and Flash video for web. Expert in web usability, compliancy and standards. Always try to keep abreast of new programming languages and technologies.
Awards
Transform awards Europe 2020
BrillIAAnt Use of Innovation (2018)
Internationalist awards for innovation in media (2018)
Gold w3awards (2017)
Awwwards site of the month (2017)
Interactive Media Award (2015)
Comenius-EduMedia-Award (2015)
Human Resource Executive ®’s Top Training Product of the Year Award (2014)
Distinction Winner – Mobile Apps and Websites, Education (2012)
Sitecore Site of the Year - Winner Best Higher Education Website (2011)
Learning Impact 2011 Gold Awards - Established Initiatives (2011)
Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Technology Awards Bronze Medals (2010)
E-Learning Award Silver Winner of Best online or distance learning programme – Education (2010)
Red Herring 100 Asia Top 100 Tech Startup (2010)
W³ Awards Gold Winner of General Website Categories – Education (2010)
WebAward Outstanding Achievement in Web Development (2010)
Davey Awards Silver Winner (2009)
CIPD Awards - Winner best interactive, finalist best website (2007)
SOCPO Awards, nominations (2005, 2006)
RAD Awards - Best Online Marketing Campaign (2005)
RAD Awards - Best Recruitment Site - Best Creative Campaign and Best Recruitment Website (Interactive Category) two finalist nominations (2004, 2005)
B2B Awards- Best Local Authority Website (2002)
Graduate Recruiters (AGR) - Best Overall Website (2001)
Product, UI/UX Designer & Digital Art Director (Freelance and Contractor)
August 2015 - Present
Worked for many in-house clients and agencies including: BT & EE, MOO, Xerox, Samsung, London Business School. JWT, Hogarth, Havas Helia, Samsung, L´Oréal, JWT, EPAM, OVO Energy, ThirtyThree, RKCR/Y&R, Mirum, Brave New World, The FA, Bisqit, We are Fearless, Azimo, EF Education First, Oxford Royale Academy, Aqueduct, Brothers and Sisters Creative, SectorLight, Jaques Vert, The Minimart…
Digital Art Director - EF Englishtown
September 2014 – July 2015
Englishtown were designing and building a lovely new website, as well as a whole bunch of top-notch landing pages using Adobe Experience Manager (CQ5) CMS.
My role was to represent and champion the vision of the Global Design teams and act as a bridge between Stakeholders, Sales & Marketing, UX, through to the various Development teams.
Acting as the voice of visual design within the Central Marketing team and have a commitment to challenging and tackling difficult work. Producing the highest quality consistently across EF Englishtown’s multiple digital channels.
The focus was on art direction and the creation of customer focused, industry leading creative work. As well as, collaborating across the business to drive up standards of digital creativity. A critical aspect of this role was mentoring and developing the design team to have the aspiration to produce work of the highest levels.
Senior Digital Designer - EF Englishtown
July 2012 – September 2014
EF Englishtown is an online English school, offering E-learning for adults. A division of EF Education First, Englishtown has worked with 1,200 companies and has 15 million users. When I joined this pioneering online educational business, I worked on a varied range of online design work and had special responsibility for mentoring the design team.
On a daily basis, my role as Senior Web Designer involved designing high quality, responsive websites and mobile apps across various platforms. The work played a key part in major client-focused projects across the company’s portfolio, and with how the company brand would be visually represented by working on marketing collateral and the company’s website and various digital channels.
Lead Digital Designer – Hult International Business School
July 2009 – October 2014
Reporting to the global director of design and development and working very closely with a team of web developers, copywriters, sales and online marketing managers. The initial focus for the role was to design develop and build from the ground up, phase one (ongoing) of the new company website - www.hult.edu. The brief was to produce a dynamic, database driven, content managed site. We managed to successfully achieve this in less than 14 weeks. On-going responsibility for ensuring the site accurately enhances and reflects the Hult brand. Maintain the site look and feel to ensure it effectively reflects and supports the company's overall objectives. Recommend user journey and strategic changes using a customer focused approach to enhance user experience and maximise sales conversion opportunities. Other projects include; design and implementation of emails campaigns and web banner advertising for Hult’s range of offerings. Propose and design enhanced website/microsite functionality, social media pages & applications, microsite and landing page builds, international store, customer journey improvements, improvement of existing workflow processes, mobile / tablet optimisation projects. Work closely with the Publications Department (offline) to ensure design consistency and creative integration through all media. Work with the Hult brand and develop more detailed website brand guidelines. Champion best practice in design and user experience.
Senior Digital Designer – EF Education First
(2007 to 2009)
Working under the Web Director and very closely with a team of web developers, copywriters, project and sales managers. Requirement to introduce and maintain the highest quality end product in interface design and user experience. Responsibility for the creative direction, visual identity and quality control of EF's Academic Programs & Pathways online presence. Design, development and maintenance of four main educational multi-language websites. Other promotional and presentational work ranging through internal and external websites, landing pages, microsites, email templates and banner ads. Responsibility for ensuring online presence accurately reflected the EF brand look and feel across the web and had consistency with all EF printed materials and branding. Expected to develop and design enhanced website/microsite features and functionality. Art direction on several key promotional video and photo-shoots.
Tutor - Putney School of Art
2006 – 2008
Taught evening classes in further education on web design for beginners, primarily using the Adobe Suite. Also specialist classes in Advanced Photoshop, Flash and Illustrator.
Senior Digital Designer - TMP UK
(2004 to 2007)
Worked with leading London Recruitment Advertising Agency as senior designer (overseeing team of 4) within digital team of 18, made up of web producers, project managers and developers. Particular responsibility to act as 'bridge' between digital, creative and client-facing teams and to mentor and motivate junior designers. Liaise closely with clients to formulate design briefs. Responsible for producing web solutions, from front-end interface design to final build. Concepts, art direction for online campaigns. Layout and typography, interactive and digital media, Flash design and animation, asset generation (photography, illustration, 3D, video, audio) for many leading blue chip clients.
Interactive Designer - BARTLETT SCOTT EDGAR
(2000 to 2004)
At the time, UK's second largest Recruitment Advertising Agency. Lead designer in creative digital team, working on a range of high-profile award winning online projects in both the Private and Public sector. Responsibilities included liaising with staff from other departments. Meet with and advise a wide range of clients. Maintain and build internal and external websites, production of high quality online projects & applications, CD-ROMs, Animation and Multimedia. Day-to-day responsibility for producing high quality designs and conceptualising corporate strategy and brand communication.
Webmaster/Freelance Web Designer
(2000...)
Webmaster/Designer for many corporate websites: designing & authoring web pages in HTML, CSS and Flash. Liaise and advising client on best design solutions, ensure that applicable W3C standards such as validity, usability and accessibility are met while offering innovative design solutions. Optimise the web architecture for navigability, take editorial responsibility for the content, quality and style of the site; find, create and install tools to create web content and check consistency. Develop and implement existing brands.
Senior Printmaking/New Media Demonstrator - Winchester School of Art
(1994 to 2000)
Responsible for safe running of Printmaking, Computing and Photographic areas within Fine Art as creative working environments. Provide specialist inductions and instruction to staff, undergraduate and postgraduate students in all aspects of Printmaking techniques, multimedia programs and digital reprographics: Intaglio, Lithography, Planographic and Screenprinting processes. B&W and Colour Photography, Video, Computer generated imagery and image manipulation. Control of equipment maintenance, health and safety, stock, record keeping and management of budget. Special responsibility for setting up, maintaining and development of the Fine Art area's Digital Media Suite and Web Sites.
Artist in Residence- Spelthorne College
(1992 to 1994)
Extended from initial one-year project. Position involved teaching Fine Art, Design and Computer Packages to Sixth Form College students: GCSE through A Level to GNVQ standard. Well-equipped studio provided an opportunity for students and the local community to work with a professional artist.
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