About Me

I started out as a journalist on a national magazine, but quickly found myself more interested in how the pages looked than what they said. What I didn’t realise at the time was that journalism gave me something I still use every day as a designer, the knack of telling a story. How to hook someone quickly, say only what matters, and get words and images working together to persuade.

By 2006 I’d gone freelance as a graphic designer, working with small businesses across York and Yorkshire on logos, brochures and whatever print projects were going. Back then, print was more popular and people still got excited about a new brochure.

After a while though, I got bored. Design started to feel a bit predictable, and I found myself wondering what else was out there. In 2017 I closed the studio and promised myself it was for good. I jumped into street food instead. Open the hatch, serve, close the hatch, go home. Compared to design, it felt like the antidote. It was physical, fast, and refreshingly straightforward. Of course, I later discovered that not all that glitters is gold, especially when it rains.

That was the revelation. There is no perfect job. Life’s more like a raging sea and we’re all just trying not to get tipped out of the boat. So I decided to row with two oars instead of one. These days I split my time between design and my street food business, Mr Hot Dog. Each balances out the other. With design, I don’t have to chase every enquiry because street food fills the gaps. With street food, I don’t have to take risky bookings because design does the same. It keeps me sane.

Design-wise, I cover websites specifically using the Squarespace platform, branding, packaging, print, large format and interiors. More recently I’ve been diving into consumer behaviour and the art of persuasion, which neatly ties back to those journalist days. It’s part strategy, part design, part psychology. I’m not sure it matters what you call it. What matters is that it works.