MoodShare is a tool for creative professionals which solves the thorny problem of not being able to read other people’s minds. Instead, we believe that collaborative mood boards are the best way to get consensus around an idea and it’s execution.

MoodShare was conceived in the Summer of 2009 out of my frustration with certain parts of the creative process. Six weeks later, I had quit my job as Associate Creative Director of R/GA London with no Technical Co-Founder, but no end of stubborn determination to see it made.

In early 2010 James Robb joined as my co-founder, and by March that year we were one of the 80 teams (selected from over 1,000 applications) pitching to Paul Graham at YCombinator.

It has been a roller-coaster ever since, and we have learnt the hard way why there’s lots of talk within adland about creating product but very little action. Quite simply, there is a vast gulf of understanding between knowing how to make (and be willing to support) digital products as opposed to knowing how to make advertising. To say that we’ve learnt a lot would be a phenomenal understatement.

We went closed Alpha in December 2010 and open Beta in March 2011, just in time to present as part of the UK Trade & Investment delegation to SXSWi. We grew 1200% that month, and since then we have been growing consistently at 35% month-on-month.

Welcome to the end of the beginning :)

MoodShare. Selling ideas just got easier

Headspace is a startup that aims to make meditation an indispensable tool for modern life.

Working alongside the core strategy team at BBH London, my role was to source and direct a team of super talented freelancers. In a few short months we created everything you can possibly imagine for the new brand – logo, tone of voice, explanatory illustrations and animations, guided meditations, films, emails, Keynotes, stationery, books, and of course an entire website and iPhone app.

Creative Director – Zoltan Csaki
Strategy – Emma Caldwell (BBH)
Strategy – Ben Shaw (BBH)
Production – Alice Bullimore (BBH)
Illustration – Cristina Guitian
Animation – Ewen Stenhouse
Design (Web) – Ghazwan Hamdan (Maek)
Design (Print) – Alicja Pytlewska
Design (iPhone) – David Black
Copy – Clare Aitken

The-Affair was the first fashion brand in the world to be inspired exclusively by literature.

Co-founded by myself and David Black in late 2007, the brand is a response to the mindless mindless hip-hop and pop cultural references that define streetwear. We decided instead to recognise and target the discerning intellect of men who read.

With no experience in e-commerce, yet no intention of creating a traditional wholesale business model, we applied what we knew about building other people’s brands online to our own.

Knowing that we would have no physical presence on the high-street, we created the first version of the website based on the simple insight that fitting rooms have full length mirrors for a reason. We decided to shoot every model in glorious 360 degrees to mimic the actual experience of trying the shirts on. It was awarded the FWA Site of the Day, and suddenly we had a business.

Since then it has been a daily roller-coaster of gut-feeling, wrong assumptions, expensive mistakes, innumerous long nights and weekends. But I wouldn’t trade the experience of seeing strangers wearing your product for all the money in the world.

The-Affair. Fashioned by Literature

Boredom Is Your Fault was an outlet to hone my critical thinking and writing about the advertising industry for many years. Discontinued in January 2010 owing to time commitments, but the ethos still serves as a personal manifesto.

Begun in January 2006, its an uncompromising filter of the best creativity that our little globe has to offer – be it art, design, advertising, music or fashion. In other words, its an archive of all the coolest stuff I come across over the countless hours I spend scouring the web. Its the space where I can say what I think about other people’s work whilst shameless promoting my own.

The logo was intentionally created to mimic the magnets you get as a child to play with on the fridge. And in many ways that is part of the manifesto – to look at the world as with the eyes of a child. To constantly be in awe of everything around you.

It was the first wordpress theme I designed and coded. It was always my intention to release it into the wild, but my coding leaves a lot to be desired ;-p. Many thanks to Chris Blackburn for his help in this department.

Launch boredom is your fault

Volkswagen UK partnered with 4 illustrators across Europe to create a series of de-cals for the New Beetle. Apart from a microsite, it was decided that VW actually needed a new brand to best communicate the concept behind the project. After many proposals, ‘Art’ was (unfortunately) chosen. From this point it was a small, logical step to use the gallery metaphor for the microsite.

Launch Beetle Art

Article published in Computer Arts magazine about branding in the digital world.

My position was – and still is – that brands can and must interact individually with the online consumer. It is no longer enough to design a logo with only the printer in mind because a rigid set of guidelines cannot effectively communicate with an increasingly fragmented audience. Online, flexibility is key, and the most successful brands respond to their audience, give them feedback, and grow and change over time. In terms of creating marques that embracing this flux yet retain a consistent message, the only way is to create systems as opposed to static logos.

Read the full article