A career spent thinking differently and having fun along the way.
Creativity assumes myriad guises and is essential for the success of any business or professional challenges, be they in the design process, marketing-focused communications, addressing consumer needs, or solving any operational problems that organisations may have. Thinking differently and being flexible, adaptable, and innovative are traits I’ve willingly fostered and embraced throughout my career.
Getting to do what I love and doing it every day was a key driver in my desire to be part of the creative industry and led me to study graphic design at the then Natal Technikon in Durban, South Africa. It was an invaluable experience soaking up fundamental design principles and doing everything by hand. I’m ever grateful for the solid creative foundation it instilled in me. Not everyone has a clear path from A to B, and mine led to me gaining a Diploma in Interior Design before returning to pursue my dream in the creative advertising and design industries.
Being naturally curious, I relished the process of continually learning and exploring contemporary trends in design, the latest media technologies and methodologies as my career progressed. In the same vein, I immersed myself in the brands, products and industries that I had the opportunity to work with, adding to my ever-expanding knowledge base with which I could draw upon in delivering better results for my company and clients. With an exciting career spanning more than thirty years that has afforded me great opportunities to broaden my horizons, from my first love of graphic design, art direction, copywriting, creative conceptualisation, strategic thinking, and design processes in digital, print, photography, television and radio; to market research, media planning, digital marketing, corporate consulting, process mapping and operations, project management, product development and management, client and stakeholder engagement, new business development, sales, bid writing, business management, Income and expenditure forecasting and importantly people management.
Starting in the early nineties in South Africa and later in the Middle East, my career has been moulded by the creative environment of advertising and design, more recently here in the UK as a co-founder of a tech start-up. Every step of the journey has presented its unique set of creative challenges, problems to solve, advancements to forge, and goals to be achieved. Whatever the task or brief, I’ve relished the creative thinking and idea generation process to achieving the right solutions, whether in conceptual design, business strategy, management, or a project milestone. I find attaining those goals extremely fulfilling; it motivates me to work to my utmost ability.
As an adventurous person, I’ve always sought new experiences that led me to live abroad as an ex-pat, employed as a creative director and a communications consultant in Saudi Arabia and later established a boutique agency in Bahrain. An enjoyable perk of the job was extensive travel across the Middle East and internationally, which broadened my horizons even further. My experiences taught me effective cross-cultural communications, developing impactful multilingual messaging, advertising and design that engaged the target market. These campaigns were most often achieved and often exceeded our clients’ expectations. A crucial aspect of my work was developing trust with clients and key stakeholders, forming the foundation on which we could collaboratively achieve levels of performance and delivery that lead to a product, brand, and business success.
That same sense of adventure led me to join Falmouth University’s Launchpad programme and co-found a start-up to develop novel agricultural data management technology focused on sustainability. It’s been an exciting challenge that allowed me to employ a wide range of skills from branding to user experience design, strategic planning, business management, marketing, and new business development were always in constant need as we accelerated our growth.
I now look forward to new and exciting opportunities, whether purely creative design, digital marketing or contributing to businesses whose focus is sustainability and development of new technologies; and whatever appearance that may take.
Get in touch, I'd love to hear from you.