I’ve always been interested in expressing complicated ideas in the clearest way.
I started out in magazine journalism in 2005, while working towards my critical theory MPhil at Cambridge. By 2006, I was Deputy Editor of a national property magazine. The following year I was approached by a publisher, and went on to do three humour books, which led to some lovely writing collaborations and things like a column for BBC Comedy.
I began podcasting as a hobby in 2008, and have never quite stopped (more on all that here.) In 2009, I launched a silly, geeky show with my friend Roo. Shift Run Stop had some amazing interviewees and some really committed listeners, and I’m still reaping the benefits of the contacts I made then – and the skills I had to develop.
Around that time I worked as a copywriter for some digital agencies in London. It was the ‘Nathan Barley‘ kind of era. It was clear I didn’t fit in with that scene very well, but I was always inventing stuff on the side, and other opportunities were emerging.
My artistic breakthrough came in 2012 when I won a creative technology contract, and left agency life behind to become an artist. For the next six years, residencies and workshops took me all over the UK, and sometimes abroad. I created a wonderful thing called Hack Circus that I won’t explain here, but it involved some highly ambitious, subversive and experimental events and a magazine. I have written about it elsewhere.
Another highlight was being selected as Rambert‘s first digital artist in residence, and later exhibiting at The Lowry. Some of the testimonials on here say nice things about my creativity.
As your prize for reading all this, I’ve popped some pics of my creative work in the gallery at the bottom of this page. They won’t make much sense out of context, but I invite you to enjoy the bright colours.
These days I try to channel my interests into more useful projects. I work for a range of media, academic and corporate clients, producing everything from lengthy regulatory documents to energy industry reports and financial history podcasts.
I regularly write longform features on all sorts of things for high IQ society Mensa‘s membership magazine. Read them all by getting into the club, or find samples here.
And somehow I now work for two Scottish financial history organisations: the Library of Mistakes, and the Adam Smith Global Foundation. Most recently, I completed this in-depth historical book for the Dragon School, to mark its 150th anniversary.
Well done reading this far; I appreciate your attention.
My career has been a wild ride. But I hope it’s obvious that what I really do, and always have done, is organise information.
I am always open to project ideas and new people. If anything there sounds interesting, let’s have a chat.
