I'm a designer—pretty good at making things pretty, but also pretty sure that I'm pretty crap at pretty much everything else. Making shit pretty seems like a rather flippant cop-out.
But I can't claim to be an intellectual so more often than not, it is an apt description of what I do every day. I've always considered design to be a form of communication that relies on acute intuition, in the same way that you know not to say fuck in front of your grandparents.
And just like decent manners, design has a few simple rules: follow them or bend them just enough that you can get away with some next-level post-rationalisation. Job done. Don't break the rules, because that's art. I have been truly blessed to have learnt a great many of these rules from some of the best creatives, working at some of the world's best and most awarded agencies. With no formal education, I showed up to work for the first 5 years every day with the clear expectation that I was going to get fired that day — because who the hell gets paid to make pretty things?! — so I tried to learn as much as I could about craft and considered design and communication that delights from the super smart people around me while I still could. I didn't get fired, but that wild panic to absorb everything has never really gone away.
My first ever job was in 2008 at AIM Proximity as an interactive designer. In 2011 that role evolved into interactive art director. Later that same year I moved to DDB Group's newly formed RAPP Tribal as a digital creative. 2012 saw a very brief stint client-side as lead UX designer at Vodafone New Zealand, before taking a role at Consortium as digital lead. And at the end of 2014 I left to become a freelance designer, working primarily on a super secret startup that will be realised soon enough.
I've started working primarily in digital design, but for the last few years I've been focused on brand & print design and motion graphics. Most recently, I've begun learning to use 3D rendering software for use in design. For now, though, I want to keep doing and learning new things and new ways of working as a designer and communicator.
With the exception of stock assets and unless noted otherwise, everything on this website is created by me — which accounts for some projects looking incomplete. I can't take credit for something I hadn't made myself, so it's not displayed here (which, hopefully, gives a more honest representation of what I do). If you'd like to work together, please do get in touch.