About
A creative professional re-emerging as an artist and printmaker. Personal brand values are creativity, integrity and resilience. But, I also value honesty and loyalty in self and others while being enthusiastic and boundlessly creative.
My story
Originally from the suburbs of north-west London, in 2003 my husband and I made a lifestyle choice to swap our 3-bed semi on a main road in Pinner for life on a farm in the North East of England. It's been an idyllic place to raise our three children and given us the work/life balance we hoped for.
Someone offered me a Muhammad Ali quote once that I rather liked, “it ain’t bragging if you can back it up.” So, after a thirty-year career as a creative director and designer successfully answering client's briefs (see some portfolio highlights here), I’ve chosen to close that book and return to making work that answers my own.
It’s early days, but I’m excited to be making prints again and externalising the many thoughts I have rattling around my head. Hopefully some of which will resonate with others.
Career summary
30 years’ creative direction, design, and team leadership in marketing, communications and digital. A track record of;
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developing B2C and B2B award-winning creative projects, marketing and communications campaigns, and digital solutions delivering to customer strategic visions
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shaping and managing brand identities for the likes of the Railways Pension Scheme – one of the UK’s largest pension schemes – and Railpen, responsible for investing £30 billions of pension scheme assets.
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working with blue-chip multi-national brands and SMEs from a wide range of industry sectors, including; finance, education, councils and political parties, IT and telecoms, rail, and retail
Education
After receiving a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Maidstone College of Art, I went onto a MA in Printmaking at Chelsea College of Art. A little later a Post-graduate Diploma in Computer Graphics at Central Saint Martins opened the door to a commercial career, and finally a CAM Diploma in Digital Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing cemented my professional qualifications.
See my LinkedIn profile for more detail on qualifications and career history.
Professional skills
A design thinker, practiced in applying customer insight to deliver right-first-time solutions. Core strengths can be summarised as:
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Bucket loads of creativity. Developing creative strategies, ideation, creative direction, quality-assuring output, and hands-on design
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Resourceful problem solving. Thinking laterally and using what’s available + smoke, mirrors and a healthy amount of faith, trust and pixie dust to make great things on tight budgets or with limited tools
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Building strong, consistent brands. Flexible to adapt to changing circumstances yet strong enough to stand the test of time
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Focusing on outcomes. Guiding customers to solutions they really need rather than just giving them what they think they want
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Seeing the bigger picture. Creative thinking which joins the dots that customers didn't even realise were there
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Attention to detail. Detail is important. “Good work is the culmination of hundreds of tiny details.” ‘Diary of a CEO’, Steven Bartlett
Artistic practice
Unsurprisingly given my professional experience, my artwork doesn’t tend to be rooted in any single genre or artistic tradition but draws on a wealth of art and design knowledge.
Together with a versatile and complementary approach to medium choice, digital and traditional print techniques, and other methods of communication, my work is allowed technical and stylistic freedom to appropriately convey what I want to say.
Customers
Here's just a selection of the companies and organisations I've been fortunate enough to work with.
