Waitrose Ltd
Later on, I ran a large design team for Waitrose, who had their own weekly newspaper. It was a dream job; I could combine my passion for amazing food with all the fun of running a creative newspaper team. The briefs came thick and fast, and were always varied and interesting. We had the most amazing team of designers, picture editors, the very best photographers, stylists and set builders who specialised in all sorts of genres - from food, to portraiture, still life, and celebrity - to help us to produce awesome content.
Covers, covers, covers …
Running a creative team for a weekly newspaper brings relentless pressure, and I was constantly thinking up my next cover idea. Whatever the brief, we’d always come up with something eye-catching and original using photography, illustration, or maybe a typographical solution. I was lucky enough to work with many talented people to help me achieve these.
After going to press every Monday evening, we’d get straight to work on the next issue. We would discuss the news stories coming in and select those to pass over to the pictures team so they could start working on possibilities while the story was being written up. We had to foresee the potential for any necessary shoots (which take the longest) and start pulling it all together. These are some of my favourite articles.
Best of the rest
I spent many fantastic years working for all sorts of newspapers, magazines and publishing houses, including The Independent, The Guardian, John Brown, Ink, Think, and Nat Mags. I’d sometimes work directly with clients, too.