“I’m passionate about the role of design to do good, not just as a tool to make the rich richer. As visual communicators, we possess powerful skills to inform and persuade, which I believe can be used to make a difference.”
“I studied graphic design for my first degree because wanted a creative job, and ironically, I was avoiding following my family into the teaching profession. However, it seems like it was in my blood because when years later I was invited to guest lecture, I loved it! For a while I both taught and designed part time, but when I moved near Brighton ten years ago, I made the step to teach fulltime. I continue to find it exciting and rewarding.
“I’ve worked as a graphic designer, as an art editor for a large publishing company, and I founded a design agency specialising in visual promotion for charities and NFP organisations. This background has given me broad experience of design for digital media, which informs the multi-disciplinary aspect of the course. I’m proud to have recently become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).
My passion
“I’m passionate about the role of design to do good, not just as a tool to make the rich richer. As visual communicators we possess powerful skills to inform and persuade, which I believe can be used to make a difference. I look for opportunities to explore this in the work that my students undertake, for example as personal manifestoes that reflect the university’s global challenges agenda and the UN Sustainability Goals, or through taking part in the RSA student design awards.”
Advice to students
“My main advice to students is to do what you love, not what you think you are supposed to do. I look for this spark when meeting prospective students and reviewing portfolios. Students who study Design for Digital Media are often those who want to combine different design skills, for example both illustration and graphic design, or motion design and video editing. Anyone can learn the digital programmes, but not everyone can approach it imaginatively. We encourage students to combine print and digital media, to explore and be confident, to experiment with new ideas, and we support them to map their own creative direction.”
Find out about studying Visual Communication at Brighton
