Hello

Design reflects a lot of my interests. I have written songs since I was 11, and went on to study music at university. I was the first winner of the Freddie Mercury Scholarship, which let me write a lot of songs, play gigs, build my own website (probably where it all started) and last but certainly not least: learn to produce. I never forgot how excited I was by what technology could achieve with a bit of perseverance and creativity, and figured making digital products might spark the same awe.

I started as a hybrid developer/designer, and I was right. Building and designing products is exciting. It fulfils the part of me that loves figuring out why people do what they do, how they might do it, and turning that into something real. Something hopefully always useful and perhaps sometimes fun, but definitely always better than it was before.

The people closest to me would tell you I am grossly pragmatic and value efficiency. I will find the best way to do something. This could be a boring way to be thought of, but I guess it makes me at least somewhat decent at my job.

Outside work this looks like trips to the Lake District that cater for a few different fitness levels and activity preferences, or finding a place to live in London that meets everyone's budget and commuting hard lines. It's looked like holidays that bookend a week in the middle of nowhere with a weekend dander around a historical city, or one that leaves us with memories of following cairns and following turtles on the same day. It has looked like a tiny bedroom with an Ikea loft bed and a music station set up underneath, and cramming part-time hours during university to spend the summer gallivanting around Asia.

All that is to say, I take great satisfaction in finding the best answer based on the hand at play. There are joys in working from either a blank canvas or a room with a dodgy finish and a random item of furniture you didn't want and have to work around.

I'm grateful to get to do that at work. I love being a designer, and am happiest in a high-performing team of people I can learn from, and almost race with together.