I live and work in the Pennine village of Marsden, Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to be based here and feel sorry for all the poor people who live in cities.
My career over the past few years has been a lot of fun and hard work in equal measures. I've been either self-employed or had my own company for most of my working life, and launching The Design Mechanics in 2006 was the culmination of my desire to change how the graphic design industry works.
As a graphic designer I feel I've little else I want to achieve: I've worked at every level from artworker to creative director on quarter of a million pound projects. However the challenge of creating a whole new type of business in my industry has been phenomenal and I'm looking forward to the next step of expanding the business in 2011.
Even though I am now more focused on growing a business rather than being a graphic desiger, I still enjoy working with the kind of companies I have a huge empathy with. This is why I launched Northern Skies in 2009 so I could continue to work with micro-businesses, charities and organisations working in the arts and education.
On a creative side sometimes I take photographs, sometimes I draw, paint or play the piano and guitar. Sometimes I take on challenges such as “Novl Cuisine” when myself and another graphic designer produced a poster a day for 365 days.
And finally I have to mention my two amazing children. They are one of the main reasons I am so driven. My parents worked hard to give me more than they had in life, and so too do I for Daisy & James.