As a boy I was inspired by my father’s Halina 35mm rangefinder camera. To me it was a piece of fine engineering and I felt privileged whenever dad let me take a picture with it. I was sad, therefore, when doing some research for this that Halina cameras were considered poor quality; no matter, it set me on a path that has lasted a lifetime. Thanks dad.

The youngest of 3 boys, I grew up in Harlow, a post war Britain new town just north of London for families displaced by the London Blitz. Dad was a bricklayer, so moving to a town sized building site was a smart move. A smart mum move as we later learned.

Childhood was good, we weren’t rich, but we wanted for little. School was ok. I was an average student. I leant more towards creative and making subjects but oddly I also loved English and maths. It took me many years to appreciate what I had. For me creativity is not making nice things, rather it’s an aid to analysis, intuitiveness, planning, and problem solving.
I had a narrow view of what I might do as a career. A foundation course at art college would, I thought, provide the answers. I liked the discipline of graphic design, looking back it tapped into a skill set I was barely aware of. The fine art element of the year was mostly life drawing, which to be honest, I wasn’t great at. But there were moments where the freedom to experiment gave me a glimpse of another self. The purpose of the fine art department was to nurture candidates for university level courses. At the time around 1 in 8 youngsters attended university. The number from working class backgrounds would have been even fewer. I just wanted to work and so to me it seemed logical to pursue the graphics option of another 2 years at college.
from college I made it into several London design and advertising agencies before starting my own design company in SoHo, London. It was nothing too grand but it grew enough that eventually I was doing