A bit of background info about me, I’m a freelance graphic designer but to be fair, the age old term graphci designer doesn’t really adequately cover all the kinds of design work I get involved in.
I this page is quite copy heavy, but maybe somone out there wants to read it all !

My Kung-Fu.

Although it sounds rubbish, i’m pretty proficient in lots of design related stuff. I have designed countless websites, scoped and documented more functional specs than i’d care to remember and worked with various technologies to deliver them. I don’t class myself as a website designer though, as there’s so much more to what I do than just that. The web is becoming increasingly visual and motion graphic oriented, which is great for someone like me as i’ve worked with video since Apple introduced Quicktime, and from the early days of Flash.

The tools I use almost everyday are :

• Old favorites :  Photoshop, Illustrator, In-Design & Quark
• For 3D work : 3D Studio Max, Electric Image, Vray, Mental Ray, Z-Brush
• Motion Graphics : My favorite app, After-Effects with a generous helping of plug-ins
• Video : Final Cut, DVD Studio Pro, Media 100
• Web : Flash, TextEdit, CSS Edit

Ok, now for a bit (a lot) of background.

I’m a freelance graphic designer with 17 year experience working for some of the worlds biggest brands. I’ve done my time with a number of great agencies (Pilot interactive, Attik Design & Ripe Design) and continue to do so to this day. I’m now spending much of my time working freelance doing 3d design, graphic design, motion graphics, web design, interior & exhibition design, as well as working with ripe in Leeds, the company that I helped grow to where it is today.

My background is a little different to a traditional graphic designers, in that I became very interested in ‘new-media’ or digital media way before the internet became established. When I studied for my degree I became involved in learning about 3d design and interactive design using Macromedia Director and later, Future Splash Animator, which went on to become Flash. Needless to say i’ve always had a love for how technology can aid design and have used a vast array of skills and different technologies to create all manner of design solutions, ranging from websites, cd-roms, dvd’s, interactive presentations, 3d visualisations and animations, right through to traditional print. I like to think this range of skills and interests give my design work an edge and elevate it above the norm, take a look at a few of the recent pieces of work as I get them uploaded here.

If you think I could get involved on any projects you currently have on the go, or simply fancy getting in touch to discuss anything, drop me an e-mail

Here’s a brief history of the places i’ve worked to date.

I joined Pilot Design in Horsforth after doing my degree as a ‘multimedia’ junior (now called made by pi). This was a fantastic introduction to all things new as I was employed to work under Rob Yorke as a multimedia designer. Rob and I got on brilliantly and he’s still today one of my best friends. We worked together on all manner of projects, from interactive CD Roms, to stage managing and producing corporate events and conferences. It was indeed a sad day when I left Pilot, but the bright lights and cool things that were happening in Huddersfield at the Attik were hard to resist…

I joined Attik in Huddersfield in 1996 to kick start their AV and multimedia department. It’s hard to describe exactly what it was like at first as I was overwhelmed with the opportunity to work with such talented people. It was very much like a family atmosphere there, and everyone had a great time. I met some incredibly talented people, who to this day I rank as the best designers i’ve had the pleasure to know. Thankfully they have all done well and eventually moved on to do their own things, but the Attik still marches unstoppably on !
I worked from the Huddersfield office heading up the multimedia department, which meant I spent quite a bit of time in London too. I introduced the boys there to what could be done on a mac that didn’t end up on paper, video, 3d, motion graphics, adobe after effects and the Media 100 editing system. We did some amazing work and i’m proud of my small part in helping attik move away from print and into the digital era. I was lucky enough to work out of the New York office a couple of times too, which was an amazing experience for a young designer. All in all an amazing time, fondly remembered.

I joined ripe in 2000, after meeting Alex Murray whilst working for the Attik. Alex wanted to start up his own agency when he left the Attik, and frankly hounded me until I agreed to join him ! It was a tough decision as the Attik were just establishing themselves in New York and were looking to open in Sydney. But after much soul searching I decided to give it a go, quite possibly the best decision i’ve made to date.
In it’s early days, ripe was Alex, myself and Gareth Williams, a designer from the Design Clinic from the big smoke. We made a great team, with Alex’s business acumen and gift of the gab, Gareth’s solid print foundations and my skills in everything else digital, we were able to offer clients a new and unique offering. We produced the first DVD to market No.1 Deansgate in Manchester, we worked with Logica in the dot com boom years, we produced work for Next, Rover and bagged Crosby Homes as our 1st big retained account. The company grew and moved offices 3 times over the years, ripe become known for it’s innovative work and we broke into many new areas through my continued appetite to learn new and exciting technologies. We designed video and exhibition stands for adidas and Fisher Price, we have worked with Honda, Gossard and Alton Towers over the years and it’s frankly being hard work, but a real thrill to win business and see the company grow.