I am currently working as senior web designer at SMRS, an advertising agency in Manchester, England. My portfolio of work includes projects for both private and public sector clients, including large national businesses and institutes of higher education.
Before getting involved in graphic design, I was a fine artist/photographer/printmaker working within the fields of fine art and art education. I have also dabbled in the music and club industries, working as a professional club DJ and promoter throughout the 1990's.
After graduating with a BA Hons Degree in Fine Art, I spent the early 90's continuing my activity as an artist, producing and exhibiting my work, which mixed traditional printmaking processes such as silkscreen printing and gravure with photography and, what were then new, digital imaging techniques. This was my first introduction to the personal computer and Photoshop. To help fund my practice as a 'new media artist' I worked as a part-time lecturer at Staffordshire University teaching digital imaging, photography and printmaking. In 1993 I helped set up the University's Digital Imaging Centre and was one of several artists exhibiting in 'Beyond The 'Wow' Factor', an exhibition of digitally manipulated art, which was shown at New York State University, The Royal College of Art and Staffordshire University.
During this time I was fortunate enough to be able to collaborate with other artists on projects that were exhibited both nationally and internationally, usually working as a screen printer, darkroom technician or digital artist.
By the mid 90's I was working full-time in the Art & Design School at Staffordshire University whilst juggling involvement in running a successful club night and DJing. It was a combination of my growing knowledge of digital imaging software and artistic flair that led me to design the clubs flyers, posters and advertising, whilst at the same time getting involved in the design and production of the Art & Design School's publicity materials. Thus began my transition from fine art and photography to graphic design and desktop publishing.
I continued in the same vein of work through the late 90's, developing my skills and experience in graphic design, desktop publishing and computer software. By 1999 the world wide web had made a huge impact on everyone's lives and after being asked to assist a friend with the design of a record shop's web site, I got the opportunity to design for the web and never looked back.
In 2001, after designing web sites for a band, record label and management company, I landed a full time job as a web designer with The Design Unit at City College Manchester, where I got to work on web sites and multimedia projects for schools, colleges, local government and businesses. These included commercial web sites, intranets, promotional DVDs and online learning resources. I was heavily involved in the development of the main City College Manchester web site, which was runner-up for a Heist Award in 2007.
Since starting at SMRS at the end of 2008 I have been busy working on various advertising campaigns and recruitment sites for clients such as Sky, Thomas Cook and Skipton Building Society. My main involvement is in front-end design and xhtml/css development, along with some multimedia Flash work and project planning.
