Updated, Jun 2026.
2 min read (I wrote it all myself, wow)
On updating my CV, I had the confronting realisation that I have now been making ads and marketing assets since 2014. That’s before AirPods, TikTok, or Spotify Wrapped even existed. I think many in the creative industry have had that one older colleague who reckons they remember chiseling type into stone during the middle ages, but the moist-eyed nostalgia of looking back on tools past is now happening to me, as I look back to when I first started coding marketing emails in dreamweaver.
All that to say, a lot has changed. The long list of technical skills and tools I’ve learnt in my career have grown and evolved hugely. From classic design tools with the Adobe suite, to video production and motion design in After Effects and Audition, the digital design era spanning Sketch to Figma with design systems and prototype previews, the dabbling in 3D with Blender, and now of course, AI. I will continue to be a generalist with a broad range of technical skills.
I have been experimenting with AI since first excitedly creating smudgy painting-like images with MidJourney V1. Those images looked like the sort of thing a criminally insane person would paint in an institution, and yet, four years later I am creating a TV ad “shot” entirely with AI (we can debate whether this is a good thing or not, later.) For all that technical evolution, the thing that hasn’t changed, and that I hope will continue to keep me employed until retirement, climate collapse, or someones gender reveal stunt that ends up causing an extinction event, which ever comes first, is IDEAS. My brain loves ideas, and is great at making them. Some are really good, some are just fine, but most importantly I enjoy playing with them.
I've done some cool stuff. I was an early joiner of a tech start-up doing dog food where I was learning and growing just as fast as the business. Being the brand guardian for IKEA at a big agency. Managed five very talented designers while running Trainline’s creative studio. I helped launch a campaign featuring a soulful ballad by Craig David to encourage people to take the train. I was part of a 20 minute high level discussion during a TV edit on whether our ads’ protagonist should audibly fart. It’s hard to say what I’m most proud of.
I’m looking for any brand / team / company that wants to inject some playful creativity into their marketing, brand, and ads. If you need a creative fixer that’s worn enough hats to put my hands to anything brand or marketing, reach out and touch base… (Personal Jesus?)
