Find the useful idea
Clarify the audience, the commercial objective and the role creative needs to play.
Brand & Creative Lead
Brand thinking, made tangible.
Multi-disciplinary brand and creative leader with over 15 years of in-house and agency experience. Brand management, creative direction, design and content systems built to stay distinctive across every channel and touchpoint.
Work in context.
Selected work across strategy, experience and execution.
Current work at easyHotel spans brand strategy, guest experience, campaigns, imagery and scalable production. Earlier projects show how that approach adapts to different briefs.
How I Work
Where commercial clarity meets pixel-level craft.
My work sits where brand strategy, design craft and customer experience meet—from the business problem and audience insight to the typography, imagery, motion and systems that make an idea work in the real world.
Stay close to the craft
Shape the route, then build the design, imagery, motion and production-ready assets.
Design for continuity
Create systems, templates and toolkits that help teams move faster without diluting the brand.
Current role
Brand & Creative Lead at easyHotel.
Brand & Creative Lead · 2023–present
My remit connects brand strategy, guest experience and hands-on creative delivery across UK and European markets. These projects show different depths of that work—from early thinking and collaborative product development to campaigns, imagery and scalable production.
- Reach
- European markets
- Channels
- Digital, CRM, social, OOH and on-site
- Delivery
- Concept to production-ready assets
- Partners
- Marketing, Digital, Commercial, HR and Development
Project stream 01Campaigns
Campaigns and hotel launches
Developing concepts and visual routes, then delivering high-volume creative across paid media, social, CRM, web, OOH and hotel touchpoints.
Project stream 02Brand systems
One brand across multiple markets
Owning imagery and brand consistency while building reusable templates, toolkits and workflows that improve quality, pace and everyday application.
Project stream 03Guest experience
Brand embedded in the product
Working with Construction and Development and representing Brand within the Product Committee across new builds, refurbishments, guest rooms and communal spaces.
Project stream 04Content
Hands-on content and art direction
Creating graphic design, photography and video, directing external specialists and using performance insight and stakeholder feedback to strengthen the work.
01 / Brand strategy & development
Loyalty Rehaul
Project LeadBrand strategyCustomer journey
I contributed research synthesis, competitor analysis, strategic positioning and naming exploration. I also helped consider how loyalty could appear across the guest journey.
Full public-safe presentation available on request.
02 / Content automation
Scale creative without losing brand control.
I identified a production bottleneck: one campaign idea had to become many sizes, channels and market versions through repetitive manual work. I led the research and implementation of a content automation platform to make that process more scalable.
Creative operations · platform implementation
From production problem to working system.
ResearchBusiness caseStakeholder alignmentVendor negotiationOnboardingActivation
I compared platform options, made the case to senior stakeholders, worked through supplier terms, coordinated onboarding and resolved early issues. The platform now helps turn a master asset into controlled campaign variations across formats and markets.
My role: project research and implementation, business case, senior stakeholder alignment, supplier negotiation, onboarding, issue resolution and application to campaign production. The diagrams are public-safe illustrations, not a platform interface or a claim of measured savings.
03 / Brand experience & customer journey
Hotel room and common area redesigns.
Shaping the places and moments guests meet the brand.
Three connected strands of product development show different depths of the same remit: bring guest insight, brand intent and practical scale into decisions made with specialist partners.
3.1 / Bedroom product
Translate guest insight into room decisions.
Reviewing pain points and creative routes through a brand and customer-experience lens, including artwork, colour, comfort and scalability across different footprints.
Guest insightBrand inputProduct committee
3.2 / Common areas
Design for arrival, connection and flow.
Contributing guest review and competitor perspective, then challenging concepts for first impressions, zoning, materials, traffic and operational fit.
JourneyShared spacesCollaboration
3.3 / Wall art
Bring local storytelling into the room.
Developing creative routes and a repeatable art-direction system, then briefing and reviewing an artist-led pilot. The artist created the final artwork.
Art directionLocal relevanceScalable system
Scope note: these are public-safe concept-development excerpts, not launched product photography or interior-design claims. Interior partners own their design specifications; I contribute the brand and creative perspective.
Full public-safe presentation available on request.
Pre-stay CRM · supporting case
Make the journey before arrival feel connected.
CRM designTemplate systemCustomer journey
Visual direction and reusable email templates helped connect pre-stay communications with the wider brand. The samples show the design approach, not a performance claim.
My role: visual look, feel and template design created in Canva and Figma. A Braze specialist implemented the templates and journey.
Digital guest journey
Give an app relaunch a recognisable voice.
Launch campaignApp StorePaidOn-siteMotion
A coordinated visual rollout for the relaunched app, spanning App Store presentation, hotel collateral, paid creative and onboarding motion.
My role: launch campaign creative and channel assets in collaboration with Digital and Commercial teams.
04 / Campaigns & launches
Ideas that move between places and platforms.
Hotel openings, relaunches and partnership campaigns need an idea with enough character to travel—then a disciplined production approach to make it work in every format.
4.1 / Partnership campaign
Make a sweet escape feel like a brand experience with Tunnock’s Tea Cakes.
Tunnock’sArt directionPhotographyDigital creativePR partnership
Led by our PR Manager, this hugely successful partnership needed imagery and digital creative with enough personality to work across channels. I worked closely with him, photographed the campaign myself and created digital assets that made the collaboration feel tangible and human.
My contribution: campaign photography, art direction and digital assets alongside the PR Manager. The physical room concept was created by others.
4.2 / Refurbishment & relaunch
Turn a product update into a reason to look again.
CroydonProduct committeePhotographyOOH / DOOHPR
The Croydon story runs from input into the refurbishment through new photography and a visible relaunch across station media, digital channels and a PR campaign. I worked with our PR Manager on the launch’s art direction.
My contribution: brand input in the product process, creative direction of the reshoot and campaign delivery with internal and external partners. Interior design and build were collaborative specialist work.
4.3 / Multi-market campaigns
Make one brand legible across Europe.
OOHMotionLocalisationLaunchesProduction
Hotel and destination messages adapt to different cities, media and audiences while keeping the brand recognisable.
My role: creative leadership, design and production across market adaptations, working with colleagues, agencies and media partners.
4.4 / PR activation · supporting case
Give a small occasion a memorable visual hook.
Afternoon teaPR collaborationArt directionPhotographyDesign
Working closely with our PR Manager on a short turnaround, I art-directed the activation and personally designed and photographed the assets. The result brought product, personality and content together without losing the brand’s consistency.
05 / Photography & content direction
An image library with a point of view.
Lifestyle imagery is more useful when its purpose is clear: show the feeling of the stay, make people and places relatable, and create a consistent visual language that teams can use across markets.
5.1 / Lifestyle imagery strategy
Show the guest experience, not just the room.
Visual strategyAudience planningCreator briefs
I shaped a visual and content framework for a more useful library: who and what to show, how images should feel, and how creators could turn the direction into repeatable work across channels.
01 / Comfort
Ease of the stay
Practical and welcoming, with the room shown in use.
02 / Connection
People & place
Togetherness, discovery and the energy of travel.
03 / Relatability
Human moments
Candid, inclusive and attainable casting and scenes.
04 / Relevance
Current culture
Distinctive styling and treatments with cultural awareness.
My role: visual and content framework, audience representation, art-direction approach and creator brief for the wider team.
5.2 / Imagery strategy & production
Direct for real people, real places and repeat use.
StrategyArt directionShoot planningProductionUGC
The work spans the photography brief, shoot planning, on-set direction, selects and practical preparation guidance. These examples show both the creative result and the system that helps reproduce quality.
My role: lifestyle imagery strategy, creative direction and photography contribution with photographers, retouchers and hotel teams as each brief requires. I also shoot hotels and PR campaigns myself when the occasion calls for it.
06 / Creative operations & brand governance
Make good creative easier to repeat.
Guides, templates and practical workflows are part of the creative output. They help a lean team produce work at speed without letting the brand fragment across markets or touchpoints.
Governance in use
Turn brand intent into everyday decisions.
Brand guidelinesColourSignagePhotography prep
Selected excerpts from the working brand toolkit show how identity, environments and content production are made clearer for many teams—not just the design team.
My role: brand guardianship and creative input to these working resources, with specialist and cross-functional collaborators. This is evidence of the remit, not a sole-authorship claim for every manual.
Multi-market production
Build once, adapt with care.
TemplatesLocalisationFormat systemsWorkflow improvement
A campaign family shows how a consistent idea needs to flex across square, wide and vertical formats. The creative operations work behind it includes reusable assets and more pragmatic tools for a lean team.
Motion in the system. I apply hierarchy, pacing, legibility and brand recognition to short-form motion, digital OOH and paid formats. I make straightforward animations in Canva and Premiere Pro, collaborating on more specialist execution.
Design & brand application
Details that carry the brand.
Posters, in-room pieces and other collateral turn a brand system into useful, well-made moments across the guest journey.
07 / Earlier work
Different briefs. The same curiosity.
Earlier projects span technology, hospitality and place-based storytelling, showing how a brand-led approach adapts to different challenges.
Niflink
I worked alongside a project manager and external agency as an internal brand representative for a technology start-up rebrand. I contributed to agency selection, brand sprints, naming and slogan exploration, briefing, and feedback on identity, video and wireframe iterations. I then used the rebranded assets to create further content.
Art directionBrand strategyAgency collaborationVideoSocial
Profitroom
As Profitroom launched in Africa, I branded its first South African roadshow assets by bringing its established identity together with local heritage-inspired patterns and colour. The gallery also includes selected wider Profitroom event and digital work.
Roadshow brandingLocalisationEvent designDigital assets
Tourism Trade Exchange
Identity and website structure for a tourism start-up, from early concept to a useful development foundation.
IdentityWeb UXWireframing
Wild Coast South Africa
Collaborative art direction and narrative shaping for regional storytelling, connecting place, audience and visual tone.
StorytellingArt directionCopy
Earlier work · by project
Hospitality, consumer and brand-building.
Earlier work organised around the project, contribution and skills involved. Select any image to see it at full size.
02 / MULTI-BRAND
JH Group: building an in-house design capability
JH Group · Head of Design & Social Media · 2017–2022
Joined as the organisation’s first in-house designer and progressed to lead design and social activity across hospitality, property and consumer businesses.
- Scale
- 29 entities across multiple sectors
- Systems
- Brand guides, templates and toolkits
- Delivery
- Web, social, email, paid media and photography
- Leadership
- Mentoring, agency management and staff training
03 / SOCIAL-FIRST
Max & Willow: from pet account to product-led brand
Founder & Content Creator · 2015–2022
Built a social-first pet brand by connecting photography, video, audience insight and community engagement with product development and national brand partnerships.
- Platforms
- Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and owned channels
- Content
- Photography, video and social storytelling
- Growth
- Community, products and campaign partnerships
- Role
- Strategy, identity, creation and delivery
Strategy & experience
Thinking made visible.
Brand foundations, audience thinking and UX structure translated into identities, journeys and useful tools—not strategy left sitting in a deck.
Start-up · Web UX
Tourism Trade Exchange
Supported a tourism start-up from concept through identity and website structure, creating the brand and wireframe foundation for development.
Commercial foundations
Research that gives creative a job to do.
Built a core-business framework for the JH Group, developed annual marketing-trend analysis and turned audience insight into practical content pillars for hospitality brands.
Story & place
Wild Coast South Africa
Collaborative art direction for a regional storytelling project, shaping copy and narrative, guiding creative iterations and connecting place, audience and visual tone.
Motion & video
Design principles, set in motion.
Motion as an extension of the brand system: typography, hierarchy, pacing and story working together. Practical experience includes Canva and Premiere Pro, foundational After Effects knowledge and an understanding of Lottie for lightweight digital animation.
TAME campaign motion
Translating a static campaign route into an animated digital asset through type, pacing, visual hierarchy and branded transitions.
Wursthaus promotional motion
Short-form campaign animation balancing bold typography, product focus and pacing for social delivery.
Treat Box social story
Social-first product storytelling using playful transitions, packaging, rhythm and a clear sequence of information.
Selected archive
Earlier work, chosen for relevance.
Hospitality marketing, brand systems and multi-format campaign work from earlier roles and freelance projects.
01 / Hospitality B2B
Profitroom campaign assets
A coordinated suite of trade-facing creative spanning exhibitions, award communications, print and display—designed to make a hospitality technology offer clear across physical and digital formats.
02 / Brand system
Niflink rebrand and product direction
Helped research and select the external agency, joined the brand sprint and shaped naming and slogan routes before briefing and guiding the work across identity, explainer video and UX/UI. Continued as the internal brand advocate, turning the new direction into social, sales and day-to-day materials.
03 / Product launch
TAME digital campaign and motion
Shaped the early brand identity and product wireframe, then carried the route into App Store and Google Play creative, paid and social layouts, display advertising and animation for launch.
Capabilities
Broad by experience. Focused by brief.
A combination of strategic judgement, hands-on making and the systems needed to deliver consistent creative at pace.
Brand & strategy
Brand DNA, positioning, naming, creative routes, audience definition, research and brand sprints.
Campaign & content
Social, paid media, CRM, web, OOH, copy, launch activity and always-on content.
Digital & product
Web design, UX/UI, wireframes, app-store assets, WordPress and working HTML/CSS knowledge.
Craft & production
Typography, layout, packaging, photography, art direction, video editing and motion.
Systems & leadership
Guidelines, templates, toolkits, creative reviews, workshops, mentoring, agency management and QA.
Tools and foundations
Adobe: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Lightroom and Premiere Pro · Also: Canva, Figma, WordPress, Mailchimp and HubSpot.
Motion: practical Canva and Premiere Pro delivery, foundational After Effects knowledge and strong design judgement applied to type, pacing, hierarchy and story.
Education: BA Media, Communication & Culture—Graphic Design major and English Literature minor—with ongoing learning across motion, digital tools, marketing and photography.
Photography & content
The eye behind the system.
Photography has always been part of the way I build brands—from hospitality and food to products, pets and social storytelling.
I work across concept, shot planning, styling, capture and selection, or direct external specialists when a brief needs a larger production.
Working approach
Senior thinking. Sleeves rolled up.
- 01
- Start with the briefFind the real problem, define the audience and connect the creative decision to the business need.
- 02
- Build a visual routeTurn strategy into a clear creative idea that can stretch across formats without losing its character.
- 03
- Make it work everywhereDesign systems, templates and toolkits that protect the brand while making teams faster and more consistent.
- 04
- Stay close to the craftMove comfortably between creative direction and hands-on design, photography, video and production.
Career foundations
Agency, in-house, freelance and founder-led.
Experience built across different kinds of teams and businesses, from hands-on studio delivery to multi-market brand leadership.
- 2023–now
- easyHotelBrand & Creative Lead
- European hospitality brand leadership, creative delivery and guest experience.
- 2017–2022
- JH GroupHead of Design & Social Media
- Built and led an in-house capability across 29 hospitality, property and consumer entities.
- 2015–2022
- Max & WillowFounder & Content Creator
- Developed a social-first community into a product-led brand and partnership platform.
- 2014–2017
- The Support RoomHead Graphic & Web Designer
- Design and digital delivery in a fast-moving agency environment.
- From 2007
- Freelance practiceGraphic & Web Design
- Independent brand, campaign and web projects alongside studio and in-house roles.
About
Built for fast-moving teams.
A hands-on brand and creative lead with 15+ years’ experience across hospitality, consumer brands and agencies, spanning B2B, B2C, D2C, direct-booking and marketplace-adjacent environments.
Comfortable balancing strategic leadership with delivery from concept to production-ready output. Collaborative and pragmatic, with a strong focus on brand consistency, content performance and scalable creative systems.
Curious by default and happiest close to the craft. Photography, travel, animals and the changing shape of technology keep the work fresh; Max & Willow also gave me the chance to build community partnerships and support animal-welfare initiatives.
Creative direction
Campaign design
Brand systems
Photography
Video
Motion
Stakeholder collaboration
Contact