After graduating from Preston in 1994, Steve worked at London design agency Bull Rodger for clients such as Lloyds Bank, Warner Bros and BP Chemicals. Then spent a couple of years running Earth ( a small design company with a comedy name) in 2001 he joined ico and has been responsible for cross media campaigns for Bosch and advertising for international flooring company Armstrong. More recently, he has worked with Penguin to create a collection of online tools to help young children make their own stories through play and helped develop the Science of Survival exhibition at the Science Museum.

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The Disciples of Design Q&A

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Q How and where did you secure your first job?
I started working in design at a company called Bull Rodger after spending a couple of months there on placement, so getting the placement led to my first design job.

Q Did anyone ever ask you what degree grade you got?
I’m not sure if anyone has ever even asked if I had a degree. (Although I was once turned down for a job as a cleaner as I had no buffer experience).

Q Did you do a placement year? If so how was it?
Yes I did it was a year of knocking on doors, sleeping on sofas and meeting at the white horse in soho on a Friday to catch up with other Preston folk (no mobiles, email or social meedya in them days).

Q What / who inspires you?
I’m inspired by all sorts of things, from interesting art to beautiful buildings and just about everything in between. I’m lovin’ Geoff Darrow’s Shaolin Cowboy and still think fondly of Oscar Niemeyer Serpentine Pavilion (he was 95 when he designed that, there’s hope for us all).

Q Do you think being a Preston student has benefited you in any way?
Massively, It got me a foot in the door on a few placements and ultimately a job in graphics and introduced me to Old Tom, pub golf and a great bunch of folk with who I have had and am having a fantastic time.

Q Were do you get your ideas from?
The internet, isn’t that where everyone looks now? I think its really a combination of a childishly overdeveloped sense of curiosity and the various distractions that living and working in London with two small children provide.

Q What’s the best and worst thing about your job?
The best thing about graphics is that you get to think about things from different perspectives. It can be refreshing to ask daft questions or see if you can find a new way to look at a problem. The best thing about the job I have at the moment is that I’ve been exposed to and involved in lots of varied work, from naming and branding to virals and ideas for interactives. The worst thing can be difficult clients, although the more difficult they are, the funnier it can be  “I want the cover in pearlised suede” or  “There’s so much purple in this it looks like a supermarket.” are actual quotes from client meetings.

Q What is the most unusual thing you’ve done in your career?
Forcing a junior designer to step back a bit while balancing 5 floors up on rickety scaffolding and an upturned bucket on his head was an interesting afternoon, as was filling an entire design studio with crumpled sheets of paper (thanks to his Royal gingerness Adam Thomas).

Q What do you look for in graduates and their portfolios?
Something different, something that shows how much they enjoyed researching a problem and coming up with a solution that fits. Something memorable really.

Here’s some work wot I have done with the fine folk at ico

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Portfolio

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Client Vinspired
Project Voicebox

Voicebox is an initiative that gives youngsters an opportunity to voice their true feelings on topical issues.  The website uses online data visualisation techniques to bring the statistics to life. An additional part of the project is the Voicebot; a letter-writing robot, installed at the Houses of Parliament, that writes out the cares of young people for the attention of politicians.

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Client V&A
Project Village fete

We devised an interactive game based around the idea of racing ‘battery’ hens to freedom. Through the use of hidden technology, our custom-built robotic chickens were controlled by the frenzied movement of flapping participants. See the chickens in action here.

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Client Bosch
Project Product launch

For the launch of a small but powerful professional cordless screwdriver we enlisted the services of Vinnie Jones and mobile phone cameras.
Shots of Vinnie with the product and the strapline ‘Try this for size” together with actual-size cutouts of the product were distributed in-store and customers were asked to photograph themselves using the cutout with their mobiles. An overwhelming number of entries and more than a little naked flesh made for a fun packed promotion.

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Client Wellcome Trust
Project Wellcome Collection

The brief was to create installations that would intrigue visitors and get them to question preconceived ideas of biomedical data and what it means to be human.

The Biometrics exhibit takes biomedical data, fingerprint, iris scan, heart rate, height and age and transforms this raw data to create a unique personal ‘bio-identity’. This can then be emailed and used by the creator as their own personal logo.

The other one is a ‘facial-average generator’ which takes aphoto of each visitor and blends with all previous participants to create an ‘average visitors face’ – by combining this with personal data.

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Client Paddington development corporation
Project Residential apartments

The task was to come up with an attractive and aspirational proposition which would excite prospective residents.Our answer was to create a simple, but memorable concept based around the  act of walking, highlighting the development’s proximity to central London This idea was then carried across a massive t communications programme that included literature, a website, a viral campaign, signage, press advertising and the design of the marketing suite.

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Client Armstrong world industries
Project Rhinofloor

The challenge was to create a captivating proposition for cushioned vinyl flooring. though that an online commercial might just fit the bill . We hired a film crew, laid a new floor in a domestic kitchen, bought two cases of whipped cream and 20 bottles of ketchup and  spent a long day making a mess.

To maximise the impact of the launch we created a point-of-sale pack for retailers featuring stickers and posters. We also commissioned the delightfull miss Williams at ‘Rude’ to interpret the theme on tee shirts.

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A rather large thank you to Mr Lloyd for participating. Credit to Jared Pegler for the silver surfer shot.