As a passionate cyclist and long-time admirer of Transport for London’s iconic visual identity, I was absolutely thrilled to be invited to pitch for the TfL x Santander Cycles campaign by the incredible team at VCCP / Girl&Bear.
From the first brief, there was an exciting sense of possibility what started as a vague creative direction quickly turned into a studio buzzing with sketches, ideas, and energy.
Creative Brief & Direction
The core of the brief was clear:
VCCP wanted a bespoke typographic approach that stood out no repeated letters, full of character, and rich in detail. The visual language needed to resonate with the book cover/poster aesthetic, while working with the dynamic photography style.
We explored a wide range of styles, from cut-paper forms to expressive brush strokes, always circling back to the balance between personality and function.
Design Challenges
TfL serves a diverse and wide-ranging demographic, so two key technical considerations were at the forefront:
Colour accessibility, ensuring palettes met contrast and inclusivity standards.
Legibility, the custom typography had to read clearly across multiple formats, sizes, and environmental conditions.
There were also a few technical constraints on implementation, but working closely with the VCCP team allowed us to problem-solve quickly and creatively.
Collaboration & Results
Working with VCCP was genuinely fun and deeply rewarding. Their openness to experimentation and their clarity on strategic goals made for a seamless process. We managed to meet the requirements of multiple stakeholders while keeping the creative spirit alive.
Special thanks to the amazing in-house design team for their support.
Reflection
This project brought together so many things I care about my love of cycling, a long-standing admiration for TfL’s design heritage, and the chance to create something fresh, and accessible.
Big love to the whole VCCP / Girl&Bear team.
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We created this little badge guy as part of the Nike Move To Zero Campaign. The brief was to create a badge, illustrating the 25K plant a tree initiative.
The badge is shown in earned and unearned state.
Explorative sketches in black /white before settling on our final little guy!
The badge was created in 10 seasonal colour-ways. To be used across various digital platforms
Working with Nike London Creative Studio on the exciting design brief for the Lionesses, Women’s World Cup 2019. It was not that long ago Women’s football was barely noticed by the masses. And this year it was so empowering to see more people genuinely supporting and watching the tournament games. The many patterns and designs eventually used for the campaign came together in a very diverse, inclusive and powerful way. Applying fragmented graphics with slogan lead type with personalised customisable Jerseys and promotional print material.
Umoja (Kiswahili for “unity”) as part of the Kenyan Nike Runners helping Runners Campaign. August NRC badge created for Nike Running Club.
The badge is shown in earned and unearned state.
Poster designs visualizing climate emergency, for for the climate change charity Project Pressure founded by Klaus Thymann.
Goals and Challenges. Go further this year by defining where you are at and where you want to be. January NRC badge created for Nike Running Club.
The badge is shown in earned and unearned state.
Arte Opera Logo created for the European art’s and culture channel Arte. The playful brief was to create an abstract chimera based on 6 most famous international opera houses for the Arte Opera section. The task started with looking at a culmination of well established and incredibly ornate buildings, then distilling them down to a single abstracted form.
The Guardian Guide, calligraphy typeface to frame the Cover Portrait of the award-winning, British spoken-word artist, poet, George (George Mpanga)
Podcast identity for the branding agency Lippincott (Live on Spotify, Apple and Iheart ). Several identity routes was created, before the final route was selected.
Artwork created for New York Times. An article about how women are coining and co-opting titles for their closest companions.
Visual language for the Audi A6 Enhanced Driving Campaign. The brief was to create a set of visually strong symbolic metaphors forming a cohesive suite of monotone info graphics.
Type exploration design, for Nike.
Type Experiment with gold skin.
Leave Yourself in the Dust. The moment you commit to chasing beyond what you thought possible, and pair that promise with innovation. NRC Fast Pack Badge created for Nike Running Club.
The badge is shown in earned and unearned state.
A fun project created in collaboration with Studio Usher for the innovative contemporary Off Broadway Theatre SohoRep.
Artwork and animation created for The Financial Times Climate A-Z The visual was used multiple online platforms and print.
Who doesn’t deserve a cheer along the way. June NRC badge created for Nike Running Club.
The badge is shown in earned and unearned state.
Typography solution for the cover of an all time Classic, Roots by Alex Haley, Penguin Vintage. It was important the cover was in style with the graphic Vintage cover selection. Pleased my signature ink black and white came to life on this particular title.
We Fly logo development for Nike Running Club. The brief was to create a street graffiti inspired logo to reflect the inclusive aspect of running.
( Photo Morten Laursen )
Branding for the new radical sustainable fashion brand Walk on Moons. The brand has set out on a very challenging but also exciting closed loop path of only using 100% recycled materials. We are sure they will make a strong sustainable mark in future.
Animation created as part of logo and identity development for Walk on Moons.
Bold and Bright! Type design for the avant-garde off-Broadway Soho Repertory Theatre.
Cover design for Gallmeister Publishing, Le Silence by Dennis Lehane. A power full story about racial desegregation, antagonism and fracture. The brief was to create a visual supporting the narrative of the book.
Typeface and word marks for the Mizuno AW21 Global Running Campaign. Creative direction by Jamie Brunskill, Photography by Richard Allen. Produced by Paragon Projects.
T-shirt designs for the innovative designer Junya Watanabe’s own line under Commes des Garçons. Its always very exciting to work with Junya as his designs are often very distinctive and deconstructive pieces of clothing.
I was approached by Nike London design agency to help them find an expression using type that resonated with the young urban London demographic which would feature in an advertising campaign produced by Wieden + Kennedy. I went through several sessions of rapid prototyping with the design design agency to find the right mark that clearly expressed the narrative both Wieden + Kennedy and Nike were looking for ‘Nothing beats a Londoner’ and ‘LDNR Nike’ logo. It was important the marks created were authentic delivering the right tone of voice that connects with the core audience.
My understanding of the narrative was to celebrate the variety sports (national and street) participated by young athletes in London whether they were amateur, hobbyists or semi professional. Focussing on the grit and determination needed to endure the challenges of the urban terrain.
"Nothing beats a Londoner" campaign by Wieden & Kennedy for Nike has won the Grand Prix at Cannes Lions for the inaugural Social & Influencer category.
A series of icons created for The Omnichannel Survival Guide for the new retail reality by Chris Tanner.
A project pushing boundaries and challenging the known. Work created in collaboration with Studio Usher for the innovative contemporary Off Broadway Theatre Soho Rep.
Working with Nike London Creative Studio and Studio Creative Jamie Brunskill, I was briefed to develop a visual and visually strong typeface which could underpin the direction of the campaign celebrating and honouring the legacy of Serena Williams. An inspirational poem by Peckham local, Bridget Minamore formed the main part of the narrative in Nike’s latest limited-edition launch heralding Serena William’s status as an honorary Londoner.
Ongoing online social media campaign, celebrating the uniqueness of the Cadbury Twirl. Advertising agency VCCP contacted me to help them realise the build of an emotional connection whilst celebrating the uniqueness of the product with its core customer base.
The creative draws attention on those quiet moments of reflection and snapshots of real life where the customer’s mind wanders, pondering on some of life’s most unanswered questions.
Two friends, Myles and Sarah, take a few minutes out of their day and start to think about some of life’s biggest conundrums: ‘What makes it so Twirly?’ Working with VCCP on this we went though a prototyping process of bespoke mark making with the aim to engage a new younger shopper whilst retaining the core singles audience.
Detailed ink pen drawings created for the cycling brand Brooks England, to reflect the vintage Brooks aesthetics and quality, the pioneering brand is best know for.
Illustrations series created for the Financial Times Tech column
Working with Heather Palisi at Simon & Schuster, New York on creating a typography solution for The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed. A call-to-action to everyone out there who wants to fight back.
A mix of conceptual illustrations. Metahors, ideas and semiotics. Artwork published and unpublished.
Visual design for the Broadway rock musical Jagged Little Pill. Collaboration with Agency SpotCo and Nikky Linnemand.
Talking about climate change and global warming, what does heat do to our brains and emotions. There is statistic evidence that unstable temperatures tend to be correlated with conflict and mental wellbeing deteriorates during warmer periods. Illustration done for the Financial Times.
Logo design for the movie poster ‘The Model‘. A Danish thriller drama film directed by Mads Matthiesen, production by Zentropa. Photo by Signe Wilstrup at Tomorrow Management
No words needed lol.
Type design, exploring the grid. Artwork created for Jaguar Magazine.
Working with Head of Zeus on creating a new typography solution for the books By Force Alone and The Hood. A retelling of Arthurian myth from World Fantasy Award-winner Lavie Tidhar.
Cover design for Vertebrate Publishing, We Can’t Run Away From This by ultra runner Damian Hall. In this book Damian examines the the impact of running in our climate and ecological emergency. The brief was to create a visual supporting the narrative of the book.
Unused We Fly logo development for Nike Running Club. The brief was to create a street graffiti inspired logo to reflect the inclusive aspect of running.
Dennis Lehane, Le Silence Limited Edition cover. Published by Gallmeister.
Working with Penguin Vintage on creating a new typography solution for the colorful redesign of the thirty one Philip Roth titles.
Artwork created for Women in prisons magazine.
Unpublished type airbrush experiment.
Ink lettering on paper. Unpublished.
Artwork created as part of a collaboration project ‘100 Beer labels’ with the brand agency Thoughtfully Agency.
Ink lettering with a digital treatment
Designs and branding for the sustainable children’s brand New Generals in Copenhagen. We think the brand might have been ahead of its time.
Experimental artwork done for the innovative contemporary off Broadway Theatre SohoRep.
This work did make the cut in the end, maybe next time!
I was approached by Parcel design to help them find an expression resembling the ergonomic chair design by Allseating, who design seating solutions for every situation. The chair designs aims to make the seated position more productive, because one is never still. We came up with a series of hand drawn abstract shapes bending in all directions to reflect the main headlines of the exhibition
Optical Illusion illustrations created as part of a speculative project.
Personalised limited edition perfume bottles for Givenchy Play as part of perfume launch
Package Design development for Coffee Pimps.
Unused
Exploratory branding for Martinos Woodfired Pizza.
