Design background

You can trust me to deliver results

I have been in business as a graphic designer for eighteen years. My knowledge and experience is wide ranging. My reputation is built on honesty and integrity in offering effective creative solutions.

From paint to pixels

I started my first company, Chromax Graphix, in 1991 at the age of 21. I worked as an Airbrush Illustrator fro the next three years, exhibiting my work all over the South East of England. I attended some highly prestigious venues including the Ideal Home Exhibition at Earls Court (London) and Convent Garden (London). I picked up commissions for Lotus Cars and the Royal Air Force. I also gained commissions to design logos and corporate identity which started to change my focus to graphic design for print.

I bought a new computer in 1993, I remember it well, it cost me a small fortune and was probably about as powerful as a mobile phone by today's standards. None the less it enabled me to get started in Desk Top Publishing. I actually spent all of my free time, over the course of twelve months, just sitting in front of the screen learning photoshop (version 2.0), and I got pretty good with it. What I really wanted to do was illustrate with my computer, which I duly did and soon picked up more illustration work, but that was all to change.

From designer to 'techy'

My Father, with whom I later joined forces, was working in the then blossoming IT industry. He thought that the Internet might become quite popular and could be a good thing to get in to. He was of course correct, but I had to overcome my initial reluctance and learn to hand-code HTML. There weren't really any tools powerful enough to do it all for you in those days, and as a designer I needed the flexibility that only hand coding can bring.

A year later, at the end of 1994, after messing about with HTML and Javascript and getting it all to present exactly as I had designed it in Photoshop, I put up my first web site. The work absolutely flooded in!

An E-mail marketing campaign of just 40 e-mails got me 10 clients - you can't do that today! That was enough to keep me busy for five years, right up to 1999. I designed and built literally hundreds of sites and designed the user interfaces for many online applications over that period. My design and technical abilities and most importantly my understanding of technical capabilities grew constantly.

With so many new businesses coming online I also had the opportunity to work on numerous branding and corporate identity projects, refining and honing my skills constantly.

Most notably I worked on all of Finnair's (Finnish Airline) UK websites, Fujitsu's European website, I designed one of the very first in-browser E-mail applications and designed a back-end application user-interface for voting in the Jersey States Government.

From Freelance to Creative Director

In 1998 so much work was coming in, mainly through word-of-mouth, that I began to build a pool of freelancers to take on specific projects or elements of projects. My Father and Brother were both working in the IT industry and we saw an opportunity to start a company, astutech ltd. astutech was incorporated in July 1999 and set-up as a website design agency, and we continue to trade.

We have worked on some highly prestigious contracts. Perhaps most notably was the development of Hoeseasons Holidays website. The brief was to design a website which carried all the content from their seven printed holiday brochures, which are updated every year and periodically throughout the year. There was also a requirement to hook all of this in to their mainframe booking system. We had around three months to complete the conversion of some fifty thousand (yes, 50,000) files in to an error free website in time for a TV campaign. We succeeded and worked with Hoseasons for many years developing new features and redesigning the website to fit with customer feedback and focus groups on usability. Times change and although astutech ltd still work with Hoseasons, they handle their website in-house.

Nowadays astutech is primarily a software company specialising in website content management software.

I am now in the rare position of being a graphic designer who actually understands the technical capabilities and restrictions of digital media and print.

Creative Director to Creative Consultant

Over the last three years I have begun to work mostly on my own again, as a graphic design and web design consultant. Whilst I still enjoy working with astutech, I need the constant challenge that freelance design brings. A big plus point is that I can go about my business in the sure knowledge that I have full technical support behind me with astutech.

During 2008 I worked with Busseys, main Ford car dealer for Norfolk, as their Creative (Director) Consultant. Busseys used an external marketing agency but were keen to bring all their marketing operations in-house. This was, in many ways, a daunting prospect for them as they had used an external Marketing Agency for many, many years.
Working closely with the Marketing director and Marketing Manager, I was responsible for overseeing the transition was smooth and effective with no break in service.

• I interviewed for and recruited a Lead designer who has had a real impact in the department.
• I trained existing marketing staff in effective communications, design and presentation.
• The website was redesigned.

I also worked with RPi Engineering in Norwich further developing their substantial Ebay shop. Again I interviewed and recruited new staff with the specific purpose of administering the shop.