A move to the music industry

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EXP and Virgin Interactive Entertainment

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When a scout at my PG Dip in Computer Graphics show at Central Saint Martins invited me to do a 10-week summer placement working for a small company producing interactive music titles, I jumped at the chance. So, my first design job was in the music industry at a time when enhanced music CD’s were new to the market and the next 'must have' for big-name artists. During my placement the small Cambridge-based company was bought by Virgin Interactive Entertainment and moved to London.

 

I cut my design teeth on Peter Gabriel's seminal Xplora CDi. Whilst the graphics conversion work was pretty mundane, it led onto designing concepts, storyboards, creating proposals and interactive demo’s for enhanced music CDs. It opened the door to designing for a living and I didn't look back. Well, at least not until 30 years later.

 

Select achievements:

• “SULLEN”, Enhanced CD – Interface design, band logo and CD insert design. I created something very different to the slick computer graphics that dominated the market. Using handmade and tactile images the product had a visceral quality that reflected the band's raw music and persona.

• “FLUX” – Interface and effects design of a music effects application released for Mac and PC

• Event graphics for the 1995 Music Week Awards and Phoenix Festival Megadog stage