Design-led creative director

Design thinking.
Creative vision.
Tech amplified.

Over fifteen years shaping how brands show up across advertising, motion, brand, experience and design systems – to building design teams that last.

15+
Years

50+
Brands

17
Agencies

My approach to design thinking was forged in top-tier agencies and tested inside brands. Most creative directors pick a niche and stay there, I prefer to create agnostically, shaping creative work that actually serves its purpose.

The creative start

The first five years of my career were spent in two fast-paced design studios – a period filled with rapid team turnover, business pivots, and relentlessly fast-paced work that taught me the importance of both speed and quality in delivering on a client’s promise. It was in my fifth year that I won my first award – ‘Best use of Data’ on a campaign for The Financial Times, that I knew what design strategy was capable of.

Working in such fast-paced environments saw me quickly develop the skills required to match the demands of the business: a keen respect for copywriting and its ability to elevate creative, and the importance of technology as a tool in amplifying brands.

As a successful creative director, I know when to prompt, and more importantly, when to pick up the pencil.

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The freelance years

Where my ambition
got its education

Eight years freelancing with top agencies across London, learning what creative ambition looks like from the inside. It’s where I learned that the best design doesn’t happen in isolation. By partnering closely with top-tier strategists and copywriters, I learned how to build visual systems that don’t just look great, but act as the foundations for massive, culturally resonant ideas.

I learned how the best ideas emerge from pressure, how craft is non-negotiable, and how staying on top means fighting for what’s right, not what’s safe. From Wieden+Kennedy’s relentless pursuit of cultural resonance, through the strategic digital precision of AKQA, to Droga5’s belief that the best work blurs the lines between art and design to make business and culture move simultaneously. For me these weren’t just jobs – they were an education in creative standards.

Neverland

Bright Spark

AKQA

Poke

Publicis

Leagas Delaney

Havas Helia

AMV BBDO

Droga5

Wieden+Kennedy

Grey

Possible

Motion Design Showreel

Mixed freelance works

The team building

Where curiosity became my greatest capability

After many years serving roles in a hands-on freelance capacity, it’s working client-side at giffgaff where I began looking at the operational infrastructure needed to deliver the systems, principles, and culture that teams need to do their best work.

My last two years have been spent in-house at giffgaff, asking a much harder question of me: how do you lead and grow a team that produces great work consistently? Not once, but repeatedly, at scale, and that care as much as I do.

I have scaled, and managed an internal team of 4, across art direction, design, motion, and digital, creating an environment where data-driven performance is a priority, and visual craft is non-negociable. Through increasing development, improving engagement, and opening communication, I have managed to

Overseeing the progression of team members from mid-level through to senior, and from senior through to manager, all with no team turnoverr.

Collaborating with cross-business teams helped to break down siloed behaviour between design, copy, and strategy, and through the introduction of a comprehensive design system we dramatically reduced the need for internal feedback, and significantly decreased our time-to-market.

The in-house design teams at giffgaff now shape how the brand shows up across all channels, how it adapts, and how it drives effectiveness at scale.

Technology as a tool

Where technology amplifies, not replaces

Over my entire career I have helped creative teams understand and adopt transformative tools and technologies.

Most recently this has included the adoption of AI workflows across giffgaff, such as using the node based generative platform Weavy to enable the marketing team to generate art directed images based off pre-designed creative system prompts; or using Claude Code to build a custom web app to assign and manage our studio resource, allowing us to cut a current provider and make our studio more efficient at zero extra recuring cost.

As with all new technologies, I believe the greatest benefit comes from being able to test them early, play with them, remaining open and curious to understand their capability, and where they can improve a workflow.

AI is moving at such pace that this is now more important than ever, a tool that was pretty rubbish a year ago will be dramatically different at this current time. I have a few go-to tools which are listed below, but I will always remain open minded, and curious.

Capabilities

Always hungry, always curious, and always hands-on

Creative Direction Design Leadership Art Direction Brand Strategy Visual Identity Design Systems Motion Design Campaign Creative Generative AI Design Operations Team Building UX / UI Direction Stakeholder Engagement Creative Mentorship Brand Consistency Digital Production Storytelling