I am a freelancer based in Surrey, UK serving clients across sectors in the UK and abroad. I've been a brand and design strategist for 20 years and a brand designer for 25. My approach to brand design is strategic and straightforward, I offer pragmatic creative solutions to the challenges faced by companies in achieving brand positioning with impact and aligning user experience and customer experience to brand strategy across all digital and offline touch points.
What I do
Brand strategy
Design strategy
Brand architecture
Brand identity design
Website design
Editorial and brochureware design
Presentation media design
Corporate communications and collateral design
Marketing and social media content design
Campaign concept and design
Digital product and platform design
UX & CX (user experience & customer experience) research, strategy and design
Packaging design
Digital and print production and implementation management
Brand programme and project management
What I've done
Before moving to the UK I ran my own small strategic brand and design agency in Cape Town for 15 years, ID&B (Identity & Brand). ID&B specialised in drawing out the brand's unique characteristics and qualities for true distinction, and communicating the company or product's authentic value across audience segments. A human-centred approach that enables deeper brand connectivity regardless of the complexity of the brand proposition, or the scale and scope of brand segments, activities and touchpoints. ID&B partnered with companies of all sizes across all sectors, unpacking brand personality, purpose, and proposition and developing and maintaining the brand position across channels and touchpoints. Through ID&B I had the privilege of working with entrepreneurs, start-ups, scale-ups and companies expanding their global presence as well as global brands, institutions and the public sector.
Before ID&B, I worked for large global branding agencies such as FCB, Brand Union (Super Union) and TBWA, in Johannesburg. These experiences gave me a deep and broad skillset in structuring complex strategic branding systems for large-scale global organisations.
Before that, I worked for a legendary master typographer Gerhard Schwekendiek, a designer of distinctive handcrafted fonts who developed many timeless classic brands, logotypes and their fonts. Under the mentorship of Gerhard, I learnt how to build brands from the ground up according to precise analytical research-based methods. This experience provided me with foundational knowledge in building, evolving and managing human-centred brands that build and reinforce meaningful connections regardless of shifts and dynamics in the market and consumer landscapes.
