The Kinsale Sharks Awards are Ireland's most enduring international creative awards event, having been in existence for over fifty years, and held in the beautiful fishing town of Kinsale. I was asked to take a trip over and be a speaker as part of their education events this year. It was an honour to be included amongst the ranks of previous speakers, including Paul Burke, John Hegarty, and Mike Scully.
Thanks to all involved, it really is a wonderful location, and a great bunch of people.
In June, I learned that a project I worked on while at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners on the Bay Area Council's 'Talk, Read, Sing' project, won a D&AD graphite pencil. The project was amazing fun and involved a huge amount of design and illustration work, as well as a huge amount of personal satisfaction due to the nature of the job in hand – helping the children of low-income families in a meaningful way. It comes on the heels of the same project having won two silver awards at the American Advertising Awards which again, is a huge honour.
Thanks go to all involved.
I was lucky enough to be honoured once again this year with a mention in the 2015 Drum Designerati list of the top 100 creatives across all disciplines in the UK. Thanks to whoever nominated me, I really appreciate it.
I've indulged myself a bit over the past year.
First off, I moved over to California and worked for GS&P, then shifted a few blocks down the street to Stranger and Stranger. It was fun and I've enjoyed every minute of what's been a fine adventure, but lately I've found the pull of home getting stronger. California is a wonderful place and I love it, but it'll never be home. So after a lot of soul-searching I've made the decision to move back home to Scotland. The decision was made much simpler though, as I've been offered the opportunity to work with the amazing D8. I'll be taking up the role of Design Director in their beautiful studio in Glasgow and will be working there full time upon my return in March.
In my view, D8 have been at the top of the tree of studios at home for years now, and over that time I've got to know the guys pretty well, so being offered the chance to work with them is an honour. Their client list is one of the best around, and they back that up with beautiful work. I can't wait to get home and settle into things.
Since moving to California back in March, I've been working with renowned advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners, working for great clients with even greater people. It's been a lot of fun and I'm incredibly proud of some of the work I did there, including the identity for this season's NBA 'Everybody Up' campaign, winning the pitch for eBay's first ever global campaign, and most of all the wonderful 'Talk, Read, Sing' campaign for Bay Area Council. But all good things come to an end as they say.
As of November, I'm leaving GS&P for Stranger & Stranger to take up the role of Design Director in their newly opened San Francisco studio. It's an opportunity to create great work with one of the most influential design companies in the world, responsible for some of the most award-winning and iconic packaging and labels of recent times. Goodbye Goodby, hello Stranger.
I was recently honoured to be named in the inaugural Designerati list, organised by industry magazine The Drum. The list is a collection of the top 100 UK designers working across all disciplines in the creative industries and is compiled through suggestions from The Drum's annual Design Census, so it's nice to know that you've been nominated by your peers. Being part of a list that includes the likes of Jonathan Ive, Wayne Hemmingway, and Dan Germain is incredible.
I was also interviewed by The Drum as part of the accompanying publication. Thanks guys, I'm truly honoured.
I've been working on my own for a long time now and while I love what I do, and who I do it for, I love working directly with other people too. Work is the most fun when I can collaborate with others, develop ideas in a team, and pull other skill-sets into my work. Also, to be quite honest, I miss simply having other people around at times. Freelancing is after all a solitary life.
With that in mind, I've been offered a way to scratch that particular itch, and as a result, I'll be relocating to San Francisco in March to join the design team at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. Becoming a part of another company isn't something I had considered but when the likes of GSP come calling, you make time to have a conversation with them. Responsible for some of the most well known and most successful campaigns over the past 30 years for the likes of Adobe, the NBA, Comcast, Cisco, Doritos, and the iconic 'Got Milk?', they have one of the best pedigrees in the creative world.
Anyway, although I'm technically joining the 9-5ers I'll still be pursuing my own projects when I can, so if you have an interesting project I'll still be here to talk to about it.
I'm very pleased to announce that I'm the proud recipient of The Certificate of Excellence from the Type Director's Club in New York. I was awarded for my work on 'All that is solid melts into air' for Penguin and am honoured to have had this work chosen to be part of this famous competition.
The Type Directors Club has spent over 65 years uniting and celebrating typographic leaders from around the world. Through their annual competition, they are able to highlight the best of the best typographic work in both communication and typeface design from studios and individuals both in the US and internationally.
The TDC Annual is highly respected within the design community—many consider it the highest honour and most prestigious accomplishment to be featured on its pages.
I know I certainly do.
It's been a while since I had a chance to post some updates but I was really pleased recently to have the pleasure of working with the incredibly talented animator Johnny Kelly on a series of spots for The Salvation Army. I've been a fan of Johnny's work for a while now since I saw his fantastic piece for Chipotle and although my involvement in this particular project was very small (I did the end title lettering), it was a privilege to work with him on such a worthy project.
As well as that, I've been keeping busy with some nice projects for Virgin Atlantic, Eurostar, Cancer Research UK, and the iconic Mr. Kipling, who I can confirm, does indeed make Exceedingly Good Cakes. I'm also putting the finishing touches on an artist line of clothing graphics for a client in Australia, created the identity for a new brewery in London, and designed the branding and packaging for a new small batch vodka brand launching in the US any day now.
Additionally, I've been trying to take the time to do some personal work and have been invited to be a part of a few exhibitions next year which will see me showing a different side to my work on both sides of the Atlantic.
All of this means I should have plenty of new work to show in the new year, as well as a rather big piece of news, but in the meantime, I'd like to take the opportunity to wish everyone – clients, collaborators, suppliers and friends – a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year!
I'm proud to announce that my work for Ballantines has seen me placed as a Winner in the Creative Quarterly 33 Awards in the Professional Illustration category.
The Ballantines work has been well received everywhere and as always, it's really humbling to see it ranked alongside work by people I really admire, so thank you to CQ for letting me be a part of things.
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