About me

Creative direction and integrated brand strategy

I think of myself an entrepreneurial strategic creative fire starter

I have made it my duty to get inside and work with a wide gamut of channels and agencies in brand communications. I have developed a rather unique and broad perspective to creatively engaging and communicating by working alongside some great people and companies over the years, such as

Saatchi & Saatchi, where I was a consultant Associate Creative Director, was just one part of my advertising collaborations as a contributor to strategic integrated proposals and day to day projects. Albion, where I was a senior creative, is where entrepreneurial creativity was pushed by me as well as happily taken up in an open integrated ideas agency. Ketchum Pleon, where I was a consultant Creative Director / Strategist, allowed me to share my broad agency experience while helping to develop long term ideas and strategies for various global brands with a PR perspective. Slipmode, where I was creative founder partner, is where I collaborated with design and communication innovation in a lab environment with few boundaries

I thoroughly believe that my diverse creative background has helped open me up to be a highly capable creative catalyst in these ever evolving times for brand communications, customer relationships, and brand innovation

With all of this experience developed in over 15 years of collaboration as a creative thinker and doer, it has helped me guide the story of brands through unbound creativity, perceptive and insightful research, and my strategic sensibilities

I have been getting stuck in with saatchi & saatchi, the red brick road, imagination, albion, wcrs, vccp, momentum, Ignite, winkontent, tbwa/pw, ketchum pleon, george p johnson, leyline promotions, bright blue day, 2mrw, figtree, emi, apart, ministry of sound, push, euro rscg skybridge, gravity, monocle, laughingboy, ny-lon, q-sound, filthwear, rbs churchill, elastic, frontroom, cambridge university, razorfish

and helping the conversation with 3skypephone, nokia, htc, visa, jaguar, green giant, t-mobile, old el paso, ford, honda, k-swiss, miller beer, monocle, specialten, jordans, p&g, tesco, nespresso, wrigleys, intel, absolut, barclays bank, barclaycard, american express, axa, vestas, land rover, churchill insurance, bt-fon, blackberry, joost, wella, pantene, london 2012, gla, 46664, apart, cotswold outdoor, dove men

while developing alliances, curating opportunities, and creating my own ventures

Feel free to contact me to see what I've been up to and let's have a chat

a little bit more about me

my background is eclectic and it started in fine art. I studied painting and sculpture at Kingston University in the early 90's. I exhibited in group shows as I followed my existential creative utopian dream and kept myself in pocket by assisting the late artist Eduardo Paolozzi who became an important friend and mentor to me

the artists way of life lost its sheen, along with my beard and lack of money, and I started a career as an art director designing film sets for movies, television, and commercials. Having input alongside the scriptwriters, directors, and cinematographers set new collaborative and visually creative standards for me after the more solitary artists way of life. It is here that I learnt to create layers of stories within my designs, and in essence this branding led me to get more involved communications

the rich world of design and advertising switched from the background to the foreground in my creative career through evolution. In 2003 I co-founded Slipmode as a platform for being in a creative team and as a brand communications studio working directly with our own clients and white labelling for agencies. we enjoyed working on many varied projects and briefs which led us to come up with concepts and designs for viral films, brand films, giant digital screens, guerilla marketing, international motor show car launches, music events, and branding. (we even had a show at the ICA)

from this springboard I worked with various amazing, and not so amazing, creative agencies where I learnt that there were many ways to peel an onion, and sometimes pontificate 'what is an onion

on a more personal level, I enjoy entering jams and chutneys into competitions, as well as getting stuck in with my local community, and occasionally I dust the cobwebs off my guitars to inflict pain on my fingers and my wife's ears. My garden is determined to convince me that I am not green fingered, I think it may be winning, but the jury's out

nice talking with you, I hope to do it in person next time,

Chris

Skills

creative direction, creative strategy, digital , concept development, brand development, entrepreneurial skills, art directing & copywriting

Sector Experience

integrated brand communications:, advertising, digital, experiential, pr, design / brand

Clients

2mrw, 3skypephone, 46664, Absolut, Albion, American Express, apart, AXA, Barclaycard, Barclays Bank, BlackBerry, bright blue day, bt-fon, Cambridge University, churchill insurance, cotswold outdoor, Dove Men, Elastic, EMI, euro rscg skybridge, Fig Tree, filthwear, Ford, Front Room, George P Johnson, GLA, gravity, green giant, Honda, HTC, Ignite, Imagination, Intel, Jack Morton, Jaguar, joost, jordans, K-Swiss, ketchum pleon, Land Rover, laughingboy, leyline promotions, London 2012, miller beer, Ministry of Sound, Momentum, Monocle, Nespresso, Nokia, Ny-Lon, Old Elpaso, P&G, Pantene, PUSH, q-sound, Razorfish, rbs churchill, Saatchi&Saatchi, specialten, T-Mobile, tbwa/pw, Tesco, the red brick road, VCCP, Vestas, Visa, WCRS, wella, winkontent, Wrigleys