Please find below selected links to some of my work. N.b. some of my work is/was confidential or ‘internal-facing’ so this is by its nature a partial portfolio. Also this page is not chronological: it starts with outward-facing journalism, then writing for culture/behaviour/organisational change, then general UCD projects and concludes with my books + bio details. For ringing endorsements of how terrific I am to work with, see what they say. 😊
Long form journalism
The secrets of the chief design officer Piece commissioned as part of the The Design Economy, a broad in scope ‘thought leadership’/marketing campaign exploring the implications of the future of design for the Design Council. This particular piece generated a wide response, several new business enquiries for the Design Council and was syndicated and translated into Chinese for publishing in China.
Reinventing death for the 21st century Part of the same series. Widely republished, linked to, and used as the basis of a symposium at MoMa. Also part of this series: Will the Internet of Things set family life back 100 years?
‘How to stop killer robots taking over the world (2014)’On Superintelligence, AI and killer robots From 2014, an early report into the threats associated with the complex world of advanced artificial intelligence. Features interviews with Nick Bostrom, Jaan Tallin and others. At this time the ‘control problem’ and advanced general intelligence were niche topics. I didn’t write the headline…
‘Arctic Inc.’On the bleak fate of polar bears. Piece exploring the impact on the flora and fauna of the Arctic of increased industry and shipping. For Weapons of Reason.
A Nation of Shopkeepers Piece on the relationship between the high street and artists, and its place in the English psyche. For Creative Review.
Copywriting, internal narrative + messaging
Ermenegildo Zegna (creative copywriter: part-time retainer October 2014- May 2018)
• Client was Edoardo Zegna, Head of Omnichannel and member of the - then family-owned - business. He had recently returned to the family business having worked at Everlane. I was employed initially as a ghost writer to help articulate new narrative and vision for the company’s digital offer and develop a distinct tone of voice for online.
• Creating internal narrative documents for presentation to CMO and C-suite level
• Role developed into content lead and working with larger team of designers, copywriters and merchandiser on creative copywriting for worldwide digital campaigns across channels
• This work was part of a 64% increase in net profits in 2017 as part of the digital transformation between 2014-2017
Google/Projectsbyif
‘SLSA’ data security of open source components microsite. Content strategy and creative copywriting for SigStore
Ikea / Superflux | Assembling our future | COP26 Copywriting for an exhibition to bring to life IKEA’s work to become Climate Positive at the New York Times Climate Hub during COP26 in 2021.
Coco di Mama | Branding / copywriting Creation of the ‘Italian to go’ tagline and other in-branch point of sales supergraphics for Italian themed premium food chain in the City of London
Ghost writing / helping tech teams communicate what they do
Government Digital Service, Department for Education, Department for International Trade
Shortly after the UK’s Government Digital Service was formed Russell Davies (an ex adman, from Wieden + Kennedy) joined to help the director with its internal and external comms. He hired a handful of writers and filmmakers and it became a highly effective internal ’propaganda’comms unit, helping to both articulate and shape the culture of digital transformation in government. I was one of the creative writers between 2015-17, and then worked in other departments on similar work. Much of the work was internal presentations, posters, videos etc, with some outward facing work.
Ghost writing for senior members of Governmental Digital Service https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2016/04/18/what-we-mean-by-service-design/ https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2016/02/29/lets-talk-about-service-patterns/ https://designnotes.blog.gov.uk/2016/04/22/the-different-types-of-design-in-government/ [Writing about rewriting content for carers] (https://servicedesign.blog.essex.gov.uk/2018/07/13/rewriting-content-for-carers-what-we-found-out/)We’re all user researchers nowWhy we do show and tells[Ghost writing for product lead at Department of International Trade] (https://digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2020/11/23/great-gov-uk-turns-four/)
Other UCD projects
Department for International Trade, Lead Content strategist Redevelopment of great.gov.uk into a logged-in personalized content platform Nov 2019 — Jan 2022
In the febrile atmosphere of the runup to Brexit / the UK exiting the EU, I worked in an initially small team to develop the conceptual, design, technical and content structure for a platform designed to help first time exporters make fewer mistakes. We developed a mix of componentized content management system and external data feeds to provide the right information at the right time in the right place. Content was personalized according to 2 main vectors: goods user wanted to sell (classified by commodity code) and destination of export (classified by country). Work included:
• working closely with taxonomist on conceptual grounding, developing taxonomies and content models and working through practical and technical challenges
• working with platform lead to develop and communicate new vision for great.gov.uk and editorial lead on an alpha of this next phase. Part of senior product management for platform redesign involving a team totalling 30-40.
• running an editorial team of 10+ through an MVP/Discovery period into systemizing processes for producing large amounts of personalized content https://digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2021/07/28/personalisation-how-we-put-the-user-at-the-heart-of-our-content-on-great-gov-uk/ which supports UK exporters
• developing design patterns for learning design lessons and videos and animations as well as designing process systems to enable us to ‘scale up’ production, using continuous cycle of producing prototypes, refining and scaling up, see: https://digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2020/11/23/great-gov-uk-turns-four/
Content design lead on Future Import Tariff Tool and Check your commodity code services
• End-to-end content design of a service launched in December 2020 to inform people of what future import tariffs would be at the end of the Brexit transition period.
• Adapting work for great.gov.uk which used APIs to map plain English product description to commodity codes (language match followed by disambiguation questions) as a better user experience to find correct commodity code, rather than browsing through tables.
• 3 weeks briefing to launch.
Books and publications
A Steak in the Economy: why food entrepreneurship is so important to the economy, and how best to support it Editing, ghostwriting, art direction.
London 2012 Velodrome: Design in Pursuit of Efficiency Monograph produced to document the 2012 London Olympics Velodrome by Hopkins Architects.
V&A FuturePlan: Transforming the world’s favourite museum of art and design Monograph telling the story of the V&A’s transformation, editing and ghostwriting, with Moira Gemmill, Sir Paul Ruddock, Sir Mark Jones, Gwyn Miles.
Sacred Spaces Contemporary Religious Architecture, Phaidon, 2015 Book exploring contemporary religious buildings from around the world.
Employment
Writing, editing and consultancy, Freelance. December 2013 — ongoing
Head of Content, Dezeen. Dec 2013 — May 2014
AJ Publications Editor, The Architects’ Journal, July 2012 — Dec 2013
Senior Editor, June 2009 — July 2012
Critics Editor, Jul 2008 — Jun 2009
Features and news writer, Nov 2007 — Jul 2008
Editorial Assistant, The Architects’ Journal, Jul 2006 — Nov 2007
Deputy Editor, The Oxford and Cambridge Careers Guide June 2005 — October 2005
Editor, Founder and Publisher, MEAT Magazine, Feb 2004 — Oct 2009
Education
Social and Political Sciences, Fitzwilliam College, The University of Cambridge, 2002 — 2005 MA Hons (Cantab.)
Foundation Diploma in Art & Design: New College, Durham, 2001 — 2002
A-Levels and GCSEs St Leonard’s RC Comprehensive, Durham
Awards
British Society of Magazine Editors Awards (BSME) 2013, Editor of the Year (Branded Content), Shortlisted LSL Property Press Awards 2013, Architecture Writer of the Year BSME Awards 2012, Editor of the Year (Customer Magazines), Shortlisted Guardian Student Media Awards 2004, Small Budget Publication, Winner