TL;DR - About Me on Spotify
ABOUT ME
I started my career in the building industry as a painter and decorator, then as a carpenter and partitioner. For years, I worked on refurbishing some of London’s top advertising agencies—from Allen Brady & Marsh to Young & Rubicam, Publicis, and Grey. That’s where the creative spark was lit.
Determined to break into the ad industry, I found my way to the prestigious Watford Copywriting & Art Direction course—and was lucky enough to be accepted.
Under the legendary Tony Cullingham, I was pushed to think creatively, strategically, and without limits—a foundation that shaped my entire career.
From there;
I got my first break in a WPP boutique agency, working on TV, Radio, Posters, and Press across all client accounts.
I impressed a creative director with a wooden Trojan horse portfolio, which landed me a job at Jung von Matt, Germany’s #1 creative agency. There, I launched Deutsche Post’s stock market debut and even learned German—passing my motorcycle test in the language.
I ran the VW creative account as the Group Creative Director at DDB Berlin.
I premiered the Doug Pray film Art & Copy, which led me to work with StrawberryFrog to pitch, win and launch the Emirates’ global rebrand. As Global Creative Director, I flew worldwide to lead the ‘Hello Tomorrow’ campaign, transforming Emirates into an aspirational global brand.
My next move was Staples. I was hired as European Creative Director as part of the management team for Staples’ first European in-house creative agency, unifying B2B and B2C brand identities across 17 markets.
In 2018, I launched Craigology—blending strategic creativity with brand transformation to help in-house teams, SMEs, and startups scale and thrive.
Since 2023, I’ve fully invested my career in AI innovation, working as a GenAI Creative Director and exploring how AI redefines creativity, leadership, and personal development.
Hands-on experience working with complex brands with multiple moving parts and projects
In-house creative leadership, leading in-house creative
As Staples' European Creative Director, I led the super-talented in-house creative department, transforming the tired and lackluster print-based work of catalogues, brochures, and flyers into a fully integrated, sales-driven brand communication agency serving 17 countries. Over 30 creative teams, producers, and creators managed everything from ideation to creation to production. Above the line, digital, retail, and contract, Staples' creative work maintained a strong linear thread through every piece.
To achieve this, everything within the Staples agency changed to operate as a full-service strategic creative agency: the people, the processes, and the business/agency relationships.
Productivity soared. The Staples C-Suite loved the energy, and we loved our output. Collaboration increased, as did the budgets and the scope of projects. Staples' sales revenue rose by €126 million during my two-year tenure.
Global work for global clients
Winning a global account can be intimidating, but it's also an opportunity for learning and growth. As the international creative director, I knew this would be a challenge while being a fantastic experience.
Despite the challenges, we worked hand-in-hand with the client. Through teamwork and hard work, we crafted and launched the Hello Tomorrow integrated brand campaign in over 150 markets worldwide.
The result: The Emirates brand grew by $398 million to more than $4 billion, making up 40% of the total enterprise value, the highest contribution of all Middle Eastern brands.
This experience taught me invaluable lessons and introduced me to a remarkable group of talented professionals who worked tirelessly to achieve a shared vision. Taking on the Emirates account was the most significant challenge of my career, and it yielded the most important rewards.
BEFORE 'CONTENT'
THERE WAS ADVERTISING
Before the invention of the smart phone, social media and 'content', there was just creative advertising.
Advertising was (and still is) a craft. It takes a learned skill to generate original ideas, design eye-catching layouts and execute engaging, customer facing communication. Nowadays there are secondary plugins and apps trying to do that, albeit with predictable, generic results.
I still care about craft, I still care about an idea. I still like to create ads but today's businesses are looking to move at faster speeds. "Content is King" and advertising is becoming more bland & mainstream. Wallpaper is the result.
Let's start going back to stopping people with creative ideas, not a TikTok dance or a movie meme!
Below is a selection of my advertising work from 1996-2009. Fun times, great experiences & Dobbin!
VOLKSWAGEN
Translation: Small but tough. The Polo.
Translation: Small but tough. The Polo Fun.
Translation: Easily detachable guest seats.
1989 litres of storage space. 39 places to stash stuff.
FLIRTMACHINE
“Thomas”
If you look closely you’ll see the hero of this commercial is none other than me!
It was a great day shooting which saw me being sent to hospital in an ambulance with a dislocated shoulder after ‘the dive’ I did across the camera to knock the gun out of the guy’s hand. Ouch!
VOLKSWAGEN
VW Touran - ‘Neighbours’
A sweet woman takes her chances to kindly welcome the hot new neighbour on her street…
Shot in German, this is the English voiceover version.
HEINEKEN
Heineken - Meet You There
One December, I spent my whole Christmas travelling back and forth to the retouchers to finish this campaign.
Presenting to the client in January, Heineken was ecstatic with the results and rolled out a huge toolkit for the European market.
Canon - Euro 2008 Packaging
Canon was one of the sponsors for the 2008 European Championships. This was the packaging execution for in-store promotion and communication.
CANON
COCA-COLA LIGHT
Blurb
Coca-Cola Light - "Optimist Campaign"
With so much negativity going on it the world, Coca-Cola wanted to make an uplifting campaign for their product Coca-Cola Light.
We delivered a 'Light News' campaign where the news was no longer doom and gloom, instead it was positive and colourful.
PATTEX
"Toys"
The brief for this campaign was non-existent.
The ad agency, DDB Berlin, wanted to create some award winning work (that was the brief); come up with award winning ideas for our adhesive client; Pattex.
I came up with the idea and passed this over to a junior art director to create the campaign. He was very happy to be involved and bring the idea to life.
Tagline:
Since 1923. Pattex.
DEUTSCHE POST
“Big Apple” "Fast Fashion" "Clockwork"
The Deutsche Post TV commercials began the launch of the German Postal Service on to the German stock exchange in 1999.
At the time, the German public thought Deutsche Post simply delivered packages and letters, so these commercials were made to show the vast extent of the company’s global business. Produced in German, an English V/O was created for the international market.
Shot on location in New York, Milan & Hamburg.
RICOLA
“Funny Spots”
Ricola had previously done well known quirky commercials in Germany.
‘The Funny Little Swiss Guy’ had become a cult figure.
Here in this spot we had to use him again, but this time it was for the Spanish market.
A different approach with the same sense of humour.
SONY HOME VIDEO
‘Swan Princess 2’ - “Frogs”
My very first TV commercial.
The brief was tough. The first 'Swan Princess’ TV commercial had featured both children and adults so we weren't allowed to use them in the new TV ad.
We decided to use 'live frogs’ instead. The reason for this was simple: One of the main cartoon characters in the film was a frog, so it seemed like the logical solution.
HOLMES PLACE
Holmes Place was opening a new fitness centre in Berlin. I made the campaign without a brief and then presented it to the director of communication at the fitness centre. They liked it so much that I was given free membership for a year. Holmes Place then ran the ads in the Ex-Berliner magazine.
ANTI DRINK-DRIVE CAMPAIGN
ENGLISH PUB SIGNS
The traditional English pub usually has a memorable name with an iconic pub sign to go with it; The Kings Head, The White Horse, The Queen Victoria
I took this simple idea and translated these scenes into gory pub signs reminding people of what can happen when you drink & drive.
I have approached 2 UK anti drink-drive charities & 3 UK Police forces with this campaign only to be told they don't have the money to execute and run it.
