Oh Hey! How are you??
Excellent, really very good, thank you.
Give us 3 words that describe you best:
Patient, Persuasive and Pedantic.
So, can you tell us what it is you actually do?
I’m the designer at i-D magazine. I am also a partner in JamJar Flowers, my sideline project.
…and you're how old?!?!
29
Nice! How did you get into this?
I studied graphics at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design and worked my way through a string of graphic related jobs trying my hand at allsorts, before meeting Art Director Kate Law, during a work placement at Elle. She had been i-D’s Art Director and was returning to the position and asked me to go with her. It was a great opportunity and now I get to work with the one and only Mr Terry Jones, who was and still is one of my graphic heroes. The rest of my colleagues here are fantastic and incredibly talented, so I feel very lucky to be part of such a creative team.
The flower business came from my love of the garden and being outside. I couldn’t sit in front of a Mac everyday and working with flowers delivers the same satisfaction as design – it’s an extension, working with shape and colour. So I split my time between the two, which is exhausting but more rewarding.
What’s the most exciting thing you've done in your career so far?
i-D’s amazing, because you arrive at work in the morning and some one will ask you – do you fancy going to this… there’s a screening of this… can someone go to this opening? Which if you have the energy after a (very) long day is very cool. But some of the highlights have been meeting my creative heroes, Tim Walker, Neville Brody, Nick Knight, Paolo Roversi, Kylie…
What’s been your dullest job?
You don’t just walk into an Art Department, you have to put in the laborious work of scanning, resizing etc for the people that you want to work with. I worked at a model agents for a couple of years, running their art department which was great, but I did so much scanning, I have a phobia of it now.
Where do you look/go for inspiration?
I find that I have a few key books that I always go back to. Wink – by Terry Jones, Flora by Nick Knight, anything by Richard Hollis. But inspiration comes from absolutely everything. Galleries and online are great but everything around us has been designed, a book, a chair, a phone, a piece of packaging. To coin an i-D phrase ‘Open Your Eyes’.
What took the most balls?
Moving to Switzerland with a boyfriend, to live in the mountains and edit ski films for schools. It was a bit of a blag as I had never edited or snowboarded before, so definitely a gamble. But it was brilliant.
The best advice you have for new graduates about to go into the 'real world’ is…
Work experience! Try everything and make an impression, at i-D we always remember the people who ask questions and take an interest. Offering to help and doing things without being asked will get you far.
Arrogance will make you more enemies than admirers and manners are everything and retaining them under pressure is a skill. Working on a magazine, the art
department is the last stop before print, so if others haven’t kept to their deadlines,(which happens constantly), it effects you massively!
Also when designing, always assume there is a mistake in your final piece. This sounds negative, but it forces you to check and check again and I guarantee you will find something. Perfection is key when it comes to print as it’s expensive to rectify.
**Make sure to pick up the latest copy of i-D & checkout some beautiful floristry here.**
