Editorial

radio times / magazine

In its centenary year, Radio Times magazine continues to be one of the strongest performing magazine titles in the industry – the third-biggest seller in terms of numbers, and the most profitable. The weekly deadline can mean that turnaround times are sometimes eye-wateringly tight, with little time to explore multiple treatments before the chief sub is firing an email your way. Good process management is vital to carve out the time and space to conceptualise, and it's essential to focus creativity where most effective. The older demographic of the readership eschew unnecessary adornment and fuss, therefore features concentrate on strong photographic or illustrative visuals and expressive type to convey narrative and meaning.

More info

State surveillance drama The Capture, starring Holliday Grainger, depicted a world of near-total observation. This unsettling image aimed to convey the invasiveness and sense of claustrophobia of constant scrutiny, both within the show and in the nature of celebrity. Photography: Mark Harrison; Prop Styling: Propped Up

visual concept / photoshoot / styling direction / art direction / reprographics / typography / layout

More info

A thirteen-page special produced in collaboration with BAFTA to celebrate the best of the year's television, ahead of the 2021 ceremony. After two years of awards ceremonies conducted over Zoom during the pandemic, the theme celebrated the return of the red carpet as the great and the good of television got their glad rags back on. Photography: Elisabeth Hoff

visual concept / photoshoot / art direction / typography / layout

More info

Aidan Turner appeared as a clinical psychologist in thriller The Suspect, so it only made sense to reverse roles and put him on the couch himself for an accompanying feature. Being Aidan Turner he looked effortlessly hot in repose and we kept the styling clean and modernist as a marked contrast with a lot of his previous work in period pieces and costume. Photography: Robert Wilson

visual concept / photoshoot / art direction / typography / layout

More info

A feature for JK Rowling's detective drama Strike. The image of the two leads, which combined several frames to create the right balance of mist and murk, was shot on a remote woodland set at the end of a cold November's day, with the rather experimental use of a couple of smoke bombs and a leaf blower. Photography: Richard Grassie

photoshoot / location recce / art direction / typography / layout

More info

A collaboration with BAFTA ahead of their 2022 awards season. With television enjoying a golden age and now legitimately competing with the big screen for stars and stories, I wanted this celebration of contemporary talent to appear as if they'd walked right out of the classical Hollywood era. Photography: Rachell Smith; Prop Styling: Propped Up

visual concept / photoshoot / art direction / typography / layout

More info

Shot at the 'living museum' that serves as the Peaky Blinders set, this tightly-directed walking shot opened a feature on the show's female characters. That Tommy Shelby's face is partially obscured was deliberate in order to foreground the women, despite them flanking him. Photography: Robert Viglasky

photoshoot / location recce / art direction / typography / layout

More info

Anne Robinson has a fearsome reputation. It is well-deserved. I was just about able to persuade her to take a break from the withering look she was giving me long enough to take this shot for the beginning of her stint in the host's chair. I couldn't resist the headline treatment. Photography: Mark Harrison

photoshoot / location recce / art direction / typography / layout

More info

A feature interview with actor Rowan Atkinson as he revived the role of the French detective, Maigret. The headline treatment, with smoke curling through the contours of the words, plays on his character's signature pipe-smoking.

typography /reprographics / layout

More info

In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Paul Merton fronted a documentary on his boyhood hero's seminal album. So, with plenty of moustache glue at hand, with the we dressed him up as all of the fab four and recreated the inside sleeve. And, because we couldn't resist, for the cover we also recreated the famous Peter Blake album art (see Covers). Photography: Andy Earl

visual concept / photoshoot / art direction / typography / layout

More info

A selection of additional layouts for Radio Times magazine. Photography: Ray Burmiston; Mark Harrison; Richard Grassie; Nicky Johnston

visual concept / photoshoot / art direction / typography / layout

monty python / book

To mark the anniversary of Flying Circus, Radio Times teamed up with the Pythons to produce a book making use of RT's vast unseen photo archive. There was a considerable amount of prep work; organising the material, a lot of which were physical prints and negatives; structuring the content; sifting through dozens of scans of Terry Gilliam's beautiful original illustrations; and talking with and presenting to the Python's representative. The aim was create something which felt in keeping with the show's subversive, freeform humour – a Pythonesque book, rather than a book about Monty Python. The feedback from Terry's daughter, who oversees their interests, was probably most satisfying: "Honestly, I get so many designs coming through that have no sensitivity to the material... that these are a breath of fresh air!"

More info

The front section of the book, which introduces the Pythons with a fitting lack of deference and seriousness.

art direction / client liaison & presentation / picture research / flatplanning / typography / layout / client proofing & sign off

More info

A section of series of scene-setting essays, which needed to have a little more structure and a nod to a grid in order not to alienate traditional Radio Times readers.

art direction / client liaison & presentation / picture research / flatplanning / typography / layout / client proofing & sign off

More info

The meatier middle section is a photo-led scrapbook of the many rare or unseen photographs from the Radio Times archive. As these pages make up the bulk of the book, to vary the pace they were punctuated with a series of colourful splash pages of articles from that accompanied the series at the time.

art direction / client liaison & presentation / picture research / flatplanning / typography / layout / client proofing & sign off

More info

Bold, colourful openers divide each series, aiding navigation and providing an opportunity to showcase Terry Gilliam's gorgeous illustrations.

art direction / client liaison & presentation / picture research / flatplanning / typography / layout / client proofing & sign off

More info

The back of the book featured expanded profiles of each member's post-Python career, and was an opportunity to showcase Radio Times editorial from down the years, and also to take some liberties with headlines.

art direction / client liaison & presentation / picture research / flatplanning / typography / layout / client proofing & sign off

b.there magazine / headline

I freelanced for a couple of years, working on diverse projects and magazines in various different sectors. This opener for b.there, the inflight magazine for Brussels Airlines, remains one of favourite pieces of editorial work from that time. It's not often that you get the opportunity to indulge your avant garde side with such wanton free-form abandon.

More info

An expansive quote headline to open a feature on avant garde fashion in Belgium.

typography / layout

man london / new launch

One of the more peculiar projects that I've worked on. An entrepreneur, without any previous experience in publishing, set about launching his vision of a men's lifestyle magazine aimed at affluent, high-net-worth individuals. He pulled together a small team, spent a minor fortune at the Apple store, and we set up office in his Marylebone flat, creating a new title from a standing start in a very short space of time. I came in, oversaw the design direction and produced the first issue – which was launched at a private members club in front of a wall of Fabergé eggs (of course) – before handing over the reigns.

More info

Spreads from the launch issue of affluent men's lifestyle journal MAN London.

product creation & launch / art direction / flatplanning / typography / layout

the times / newspaper supplement

This supplement for The Times newspaper was produced as part of a commercial partnership with the then National Call Centre Awards. Creating positive, cohesive and engaging pages of call centre listings was a challenge. You're working against people's broadly negative perceptions of them, and they don't lend themselves to glamorous, attractive content – especially when your image budget amounts to a Shutterstock subscription. The job called for some lateral thinking, in the form of some inexpensive props I could reasonably put on expenses and photograph myself, plus some calls to PR departments for freebies. The typeface (Soho) had to do a lot of the heavy lifting in bringing the pages to life.

More info

With no available image budget, the supplement judiciously used a mix of stock photography, PR images and self-shot images to create a cohesive product that didn't feel out of place within a national broadsheet newspaper.

product ideation / art direction / flatplanning / picture research / photography / typography / layout