Steve had worked as an Art Director and Creative Director in advertising for over twenty years. You may not pick it. His attitude is as young as his looks.
While his craft and care may be considered ‘old school’, his recent focus on customer experience puts him right in the moment of modern day marketing.
Be it a branded content series, contemporary design piece or global pop-up shop, Steve’s approach is the same; considered, measured and handled with care from strategy, ideation to execution. He puts himself in the heart and mind of the customer every time. It shows in his ideas and the way they are presented to his clients. And man, does he make things look good. Even with a few hours. Or little budget.
A quiet thinker and intuitive human, Steve brings out the best in everyone around him. His team love him for it. And his suppliers and partners come back for more. Steve’s genuine nature, impressive creative and business smarts builds natural trust with clients. Time after time this results in client’s extending their scope of work within the agency.
Steve will never be the loudest voice at the table. Instead his presence is felt in every inch of the work he creates. And his penchant for donuts. Again you may not pick it. Steve is that intriguing mix of solidarity and surprise.
Put more simply, here are the services and skillsets that I offer to my clients:
CREATIVE CONCEPT
My training has always been in creative thinking, and finding solutions to creative briefs for advertising campaigns. I’ve trained as an art director my whole career, starting at Award School and continually learning every single day working for ad agencies. Before I decided to work for myself and directly for clients, I was a Creative Director.
ART DIRECTION
To me this means the wholistic visual direction of any piece of communication but in context of overall idea which is born from insight or a strategy. It covers the identity of a campaign, the direction of a photographic shoot or the vision of a store fitout or experience. But always keeping an eye out for communicating an idea. The key is often working with great people who are experts in their craft and helping to steer their work in a cohesive direction. But especially these days, most jobs don't allow for specialist crafts so I try to be a self-sufficient as possible. Either way, I love any opportunity to craft the work.
DESIGN
I believe that good design will always make work that much better. Even in a day of quick turnaround and tighter budgets, executing type, images and layouts with a considered eye will always be worth the effort. I’ve always been hands-on, designing in Adobe on Macs, trawling for typefaces, inspiration and that elusive stock image. Creating presentation mocks and visuals to pitch an idea is my normal day. I’ve built up strong retouching skills through the years and have dabbled in building simple websites where I can.
PRODUCTION & ART WORK
I started my career in the studios of agencies, and always stayed close to the production process. I've probably worked with some of the best production people in the industry and tried to soak up an understanding of the production process. What this means, is now that I'm working for myself and to clients directly, I often work right to the end of the process and deliver the finished art to clients, with a sound understanding of what's required by printers and suppliers. This means when I come up with an idea, it's also with the view of how to produce and execute it. And obviously if I can't do it myself, I'll know someone who will.