A senior designer and creative manager, I work on design projects including branding, user experience (UX), web, front-end digital design, print, through to video production and photography. If you have a project you would like to discuss, please contact me below
Role: Creative direction, Lead designer, Project management
I was tasked with creating a new identity for the Thales Global Sales Kick Off 2021
Challenge
With the usual format of a live ‘real’ event out the window with Covid-19, the scope for this event was fluid. In addition to the unknown format, there was multiple senior stakeholders across the business involved in the planning of the event.
Approach
Below is an early presentation i put together showing two concepts;
Results
The final selected idea was concept 1 which i refined, added music and you can view below. This identity was added to all promotional videos and presentations within the event. The identity was then applied to multiple banners across the virtual platform for the event as well as social cards, email banners and app banners.
December 08, 2020, Tuesday
UX / UI audit and redesign
UX / UI
Role: UX / UI design
Thales required a refresh on one of their website templates for research landing pages. The brief was to give it a fresh new look and increase engagement. I looked at the performance on the page and performed a UX audit before creating a new design for the page.
The existing site
Research
It has been identified that there are 4 user personas that would access the site;
Understanding
The content suffered from ‘information overload’ and needed simplifying and organising in a way that would lead the customer through their journey in a structured way, leading them to the CTA. I started by making a list of observations on the page based on some stats from HotJar:
User Journey
I mapped out the existing user journey of the page to see where improvements could be made. It became clear that while the page initially had a clear journey, there were a lot of routes for the user to travel in about half way down and a lot of the routes sent the user away to another page or distracted from the main goal of the page. While the page tried to cater for all users that may have arrived in the right area, but not the report they wanted to see, it did not cater for the people who were actually in the right place.
The new design
A lot of the key data points were repeated in different ways on the existing design, adding noise and distraction for the user. In addition the other recommended assets also added distraction to the user, sometimes sending them away from the site and down a rabbit hole.
Below shows how the top animate on scroll banner works. It was possible to keep the file size for this to 0.9MB so the load time was not over a threshold defined by the web manager.
October 20, 2020, Tuesday
SafeNet product launch
Brand design / Campaign
Role: Creative direction, Lead designer
SafeNet, a data security company was bringing a new cloud data encryption product to market. ‘Crypto Hypervisor’ delivers on-demand, key vaulting and encryption services. My role was to come up with the creative campaign to launch the product.
Approach
Initially i attended a briefing meeting to understand the market positioning, competitor information and USP. I was then able to brainstorm ideas and create mood boards around this. I set up meetings with the key stakeholders and presented concepts.
After a winner was selected, we went through several iterations of the chosen concept before creating the final campaign imagery. Typography and colour palette was a key part of creating a professional visual that could be applied to multiple assets ranging from social advertising, banner adverts and email campaigns
Challenge
The biggest challenge was creating something outside of the typical corporate brand, but still retaining the SafeNet brand essence. Careful selection of colour palette and font treatment was an important part of retaining the brand essence.
Results
I illustrated an abstract cipher (a device that decrypts code) and integrated that around the typography so that the text and the graphics worked together to look like a key.
The cipher and typography design also meant that the design would work without the larger cloud shape.
I created a brand guide and multiple assets for the campaign so that other designers could create localised assets as and when needed locally, so that a universal standard was created for consistency. I also created a ‘campaign in a box’, making local teams self sufficient, in that they had everything they needed to localise or create new assets.
The deliverables included campaign imagery, brand guide, digital assets including a mobile friendly microsite, a suite of online banner ads for social and PPC, email templates and roll up banner designs – a campaign in a box.
The campaign was submitted to the American Inhouse awards and won gold in the campaign category. The campaign was also featured in the Creative Review news.
June 18, 2017, Sunday
Product launch campaign design
Campaign / Portfolio
Role: Creative direction, Lead Design, Project Management
Gemalto needed a launch campaign for a product called SafeNet Trusted Access, an authentication application that enables enterprises to provide single-sign on to cloud applications.
Challenge
Creating a fresh new campaign under strict corporate brand guidelines meant that I would have to think creatively to get this campaign to stand out, yet fit in to the rest of the product portfolio. Working between product marketing, field marketing and corporate marketing, I managed the entire process of the project.
Initially i created a series of concepts, below is one of those concepts, which eventually led to the final design.
Here you can see the colour scheme and how it would apply to a background design element. This looks like an abstract element, but it represents the different cloud software applications that you will be able to access using a single password using the Gemalto technology. I like this because it looks like a cloud and the layers represent well the the different applications.
I developed some icons that could be applied to the imagery to help convey the advantages of the software.
Below shows how these elements can combine to a photograph of someone using the application For added impact for advertising, i cut out the people, making them appear completely on the circle abstract pattern background, to help it lift off the page.
campaign graphic design elements combined for concept
Results
After many iterations and testing on internal staff, the final concept was selected. The deliverables included a campaign microsite, this was used for display advertising, social and PPC. I also designed a suite of online banner ads to be used for affiliate advertising, email design and event promotional design as well as a brand book, so that other designers were able to work on future materials.
The brand guide included digital advertising. To make this stand out more, digital advertising used a darker, corporate purple background colour.
June 18, 2017, Sunday
A virtual reality experience to make Gemalto stand out from the crowd at high tech trade shows
Campaign / Interactive / Portfolio
Role: Creative direction, User experience, Project management
Gemalto; a company in the cyber security industry, wanted to attract attention from visitors at Europe’s largest cyber security event; Info security. Working with the UK Marketing Director, we came up with the idea of creating a custom virtual reality experience to maximise the buzz around the event booth.
Challenge
The main challenge was creating something that would be fun to play, but also relevant to the key messaging. To make this project a success, we needed to create a buzz around it in the industry and go viral.
Approach
After selecting a VR agency, we came up with a theme for the experience that was fun, engaging and had the wow factor as well as being related to the industry. I held regular update meetings with the agency to help steer the creative direction of the experience as well as the UX of the game flow, stepping in on occasion to create elements inside the experience myself.
During the development of the concepts, we decided to use a TRON look and feel which not only made the experience feel futuristic, it also helped with 3D processing, as the graphics could be quite simplistic, with no detailed textures bogging down processing speeds. This meant that it could run on a laptop, rather than a large, complicated Rig meaning we could make it go mobile and be easier to ship to different events.
The key objectives to this project were;
Will people have a better understanding of what Gemalto does?
Is it simple enough to play, with minimal instructions? (so language was not a barrier, and simple to pick up and play)
Is it exciting enough for people to socialise it?
Part of a project like this also requires buy in internally, so while the game was being developed, i created a teaser video to help sell the idea into the Sales teams and global marketing to create some excitement around it.
Results
I created a campaign in a box so that field marketing manager could easily take it and have a whole campaign ready to use to promote it at their events. The campaign consisted of a logo, Promotional flyers, email templates, online high score table, hashtag for social, microsite and brand guide. As well as this, we purchased 2 VR laptops and 2x Oculus rift headsets which could then be shipped out to the different regions to use it.
The experience was later brought to mobile so it could be downloaded from the app store and Google Play stores. A PR campaign was created, offering prizes to the top scores that were tweeted using the hashtag #GemaltoCyberHero.
I designed a google cardboard as a giveaway / direct mail piece so people could play the game on mobile using a google cardboard and, working with a web developer, created a microsite that would display the top scores which you can see below
June 18, 2017, Sunday
Glasses Direct Rebrand
Brand design / Portfolio / Print design
Role: Lead designer
Glasses Direct, an innovative eyewear manufacturer created by Jamie Murray Wells, had a new round of investment and needed a lead designer to spearhead the rebranding of the company and translate this throughout all of their assets.
Approach
Working closely with the Marketing Director, I was involved in the research and planning of the new brand, attending focus groups and attending marketing planning sessions. The company wanted to shift from having a medical look and feel to becoming more of a fashion company. This immediately applied to their forthcoming catalogue, which traditionally had led to a surge in orders, so it was a very important piece of marketing for them.
Challenge
The role involved implementing a big change to an existing tried and tested approach. The production of the mail order catalogue traditionally spiked sales, so evolving this was one of the first jobs on the list. It is distributed to 100,000 addresses, so as well as re-branding it, other factors needed to be taken into consideration like making it it economical to post, so working closely with the printer was key to the success of this project.
Process
I began the project by creating a project timeline of key milestones, showing when the concept needed to be signed off, design time, final content received and when it needs to go to print. It then became more detailed as processes were worked out, like how I would receive images of the glasses and what work would need to be done to these images before they could be used.
Once this was done I created 3 concepts, each containing a cover design and 3 different spreads. After presenting these and iterating the designs a final concept was selected. Then I created the grid systems and master pages in Indesign for the different types of spreads which acted as a master templates so i could then get other designers to assist in laying out the content (necessary because of the times lines involved).
Results
Creating a personality for different sets of glasses was one of the re-branding ideas that came out of the focus groups as something that would encourage people to buy glasses. Capturing this was key, so working closely with the photographer to get the right shots of the models and the glasses, was very important to get right, while creating an easy to read, clear layout for the catalogue at the same time. Having weekly review meetings with the marketing team on progress of the design to get feedback and making iterations to the design to perfect it until the team was happy with the design and at the same time representing the new brand of the company
Portfolio
October 14, 2021, Thursday
Thales social media viral video
Video
Working with the Thales social media manager, I created a simple interactive game where the user had to catch
Working with the Thales social media manager, I created a simple interactive game where the user had to catch a screenshot of the data inside the lock. This proved to be the most viewed social post by Thales in 2021 so far with 44 comments, 100 likes and over 3000 views
Role: Creative direction, Lead designer, Project management
The annual sales kick off is Gemalto’s biggest internal event, operating in 3 locations globally, around 1000 internal sales staff, execs and keynote speakers are invited. Working with the creative director, marketing communications director, field marketing director and event management team, I conceptualised the event theme and visual strategy.
Challenge
With multiple stakeholders across the business all with different ideas, managing expectations and having open communication was crucial. The event visuals needed a central theme, that worked across vertical and product messaging. I set up weekly meetings with stakeholders, presenting concepts and getting feedback. Being responsive and productive to ensure the tight deadlines were met, was essential for the success of this project, as well as being sympathetic to everyones input and managing expectations. The visual theme needed to work across app UI, microsite design, marketing communications (email), stage design, hotel branding and digital.
The MoodBoard
I found this visual the most inspiring
Taking all the feedback on board, i developed the final concept, it came from an idea i had from the mood board above (highlighted in red), using a wireframe design overlaid on top of a photograph. The design could apply to any image as a template and encompass the event theme ‘transformation’ with Gemalto products as well as ‘transforming’ the sales peoples mindset. It was a visual play on transforming the object that you see in the image, and it could be applied to any industry, just as Gemalto encryption and authentication products can be applied to any industry as layer of digital protection.
The concept applied to a visual showing Gemalto products in the transport industry
After creating and and getting sign-off on the look and feel of the event, working with the event manager and marketing directors to understand what tools, platforms and their promotional plans were being out in place for the event. Understanding which platforms were being used and who was managing them, was key in ensuring quality and consistency across all the event communication.
Results
The branding was applied across everything related to the event. Deliverables included;
App visuals
Pre and post-event email communications
Microsite design
Presentation templates
Venue signage and graphics including escalator signage, column wraps, flags, internal archway, reception desk,
Stage design
Stage screen animations
Photo wall
Highlight video and photography, filmed and produced on site and shown on the last day of the event
Everything was produced on time in a very short time scale. The various global events had excellent feedback with a very strong, consistent visual branding used throughout.
Gemalto approached me to create an infographic to highlight key stats from a consumer research report they had run. The project included laying out a report and an infographic. The research focused on security of IOT connected devices and the public perception of that.
I worked directly with the PR manager on producing concepts and advised on how many points should be displayed and revising content to make the piece work better as an infograohic and below is the final piece.
Gemalto wanted a way to visually represent some key stats from a research report they ran. The research focused on what companies did with customers personal information and how it was stored. The results made for some concerning conclusions.
I worked directly with the PR manager on producing concepts and below is the final piece.
Creating awareness of a new A3 colour laser printer to the the creative industry. Konica Minolta genuinely had the best quality A3 printer in the industry and needed to get the message out there. They approached me to create an advert for Mac World, Mac User, Computer Arts and Creative Review to help raise awareness. I came up with several concepts, each focusing on different USPs of the printer, but the the selected concept focused on its ability to print to the edge without a border. The advert generated a lot of interest and the company received great feedback from the target audience as a result of this advert.
SafeNet Software Monetization division required a one minute video that highlighted the benefits of their product; Sentinel EMS. The video was to be used as a free giveaway on a microsite as well as being used for various other promotional activities such as at events. Below you can see the story board i put together, and if you scroll down the final version of the video.
Konica Minolta required an co-branded print advert for a trade magazine which was co-funded by the partner and Konica Minolta. The advert copy was initially supplied to me and i visualised several concepts and came up with a new headline for the advert. The selected concept can be seen below.
An infographic design was required to display the key information of an Access Management campaign for Thales which highlighted how different employee personas have different requirements for authenticating into cloud applications. The infographic needed to highlight the key information and promote the white paper as well as the social game which was created as part of the campaign.
The infographic was designed in such a way it could be sliced up into smaller chunks so that it was easier to share on linkedin.
My role: Graphic designer
Working with the product marketing manager i acted as an advisor to the content as well as the designer. This is what i came up with.
Water Rower, a new company in the fitness market had a requirement to produce some promotional materials for various events. This is the roll up banner design i created for them.
I designed a report showing the results from a global research piece aimed at the retail industry. I created infographic elements to make the complex data easier to digest and more interesting to digest and used imagery related to retail to make it more relatable to the target market. in addition to careful colour selection to make it an easy to read document.
My role: Art direction, designer
Gemalto inside spread brochure designdetail of layout design for brochuredetail of layout design for brochure
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I found this visual the most inspiring
