“My formative years in England really had a profound effect on me and have stuck with me to this day. I got loads of encouragement from my parents at home, but I remember primary school in the early to mid 80s being much the same. It was a time for my classmates and I when you were heavily encouraged to be creative and told that you could be anything you wanted. The year 2000 was on the horizon and there was a wild excitement about the future. Television was huge! The imagination of children’s programming and the subversion that I only recognized much later, had a great effect on me. Sports, particularly football, was a major passion of mine and is what introduced me to graphic design before I even knew what it was. At that age I was constantly drawing and writing. I was obsessed with the supermarket, TV commercials, product packaging and logos. This also carried over into sports as many sponsors started to appear in the football landscape in the form of logos and word marks.”
“Moving to New York in the mid 80s was nuts. Having seen the social, political and racial strife up close as a kid in London, NY was no different. I attended high school in Yonkers, NY which was deemed the most segregated city in New York State. That landed me smack in the middle of ‘bussing’ which is government-forced integration. These were times where us teenagers were attacked by adults. The harsh social and political climate that came with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reegan drew a huge response from youth in the UK and US which manifested in music and art. Fast forward to today and I still use that experience in everything I do. I don’t mean celebrating ‘the good old days’ – I mean by understanding my own path, I get a better understanding of what’s happening now and have some kind of idea of where we are going culturally. I’d like to think that my best work is in front of me, so it’s important to stay hungry and objective. “
