My design career.
In 2001 I graduated from the University of Pretoria after completing my honours degree in design (BA Fine Arts Information Design). During my final year I started my first job which was an apprenticeship at South African History Online, a history and cultural studies NGO. I learned the art of visual narrative from the founder Omar Badsha (a well known South African photographer and struggle activist). I helped him lay out photographic books and exhibitions, we would discuss sequencing and flow and he taught me how important it is to have a “golden thread” that ties a story together to create meaning. I worked on our website and with the Department of Education to produce printed, online and interactive history learning material. Omar was an incredible mentor to myself and the other people working at SAHO, including my good friend and local photographer Liam Lynch.
In 2005 I won the Oppikoppi design competition and was commissioned to create the corporate identity as well as all the print and online collateral for the annual music festival. Inspired by this success myself and a partner formed The Born Kreative - a small and dynamic agency whose work spanned print and digital media (above and below the line), graphic design, illustration, animation, multimedia, web and interactive. We produced viral videos to market ourselves and eventually became the primary digital supplier for VWV Massive (a specialist events and product launch company) and won them accounts like Rand Merchant Bank and Telkom. We achieved great success but after 4 years I felt I needed a change and after visiting beautiful Cape Town for Design Indaba I decided to relocate here.
In 2009 I joined RamsayMedia as the website designer for the Automotive cluster (incl. CAR magazine). I worked there for 4 years, designing and developing websites, mobile apps, interactive games and online advertising material. I also conceptualised and built an interactive rate card which sales staff used to sell print, online and video advertising and which led to a notable spike in conversion. I also created video content and motion graphics for digital presentations and pitches. I enjoyed my time there but in 2013 a corporate restructure meant I needed to look for something new. I secured a position at 24.com, the digital arm of Media24, and some highlights included designing the 2014 South African national elections website, the FIFA World Cup 2010 microsite and deep diving into agile methodology and SCRUM. I really took to this iterative way of working and soon became the Head of Design’s second in charge, leading sprint planning sessions and reporting to product owners in his stead.
In 2014 I was headhunted by DStv (a Media24 internal move) and became the design lead on an all star agile team formed to work on key strategic projects. Here I learned about design principles and how to run design workshops from DStv’s Head of Design. When the Cape Town team was disbanded due to structural changes within DStv I joined UX specialists Immersion UX, where I won Old Mutual as a client through my client liaison and UX/UI design efforts. I was offered a position to head up the Cape Town office but had another offer on the table which felt like it would be better for my growth as a designer.
This opportunity was to work with Jack Kruger at Sanlam on a disruptive insurance product called Go Cover. Jack was a bit of a local UX legend and I knew I could learn from him. I would be part of the Liquorice on-site design team and service the UX and UI design needs of various business units at this progressive corporate. I took the leap and joined in November 2017. My responsibilities included ownership of the Sanlam Reality app, the design of the Go Cover app and the conceptualisation and design of several new insurance products and also the improvement of all Sanlam’s web/online properties. Highlights included launching the revised version of the Go Cover app, learning from Jack about successful go-to-market strategy and how to build products that make people’s lives better. I also designed an end to end death and disability product that changed the way Sanlam worked with their intermediaries - I took the grueling policy application process and digitised it, using stored variables and a chat interface to reduce the pain of application. It was a huge success and I was invited to the top floor to celebrate when it launched.
Having had this success working for a big financial I decided I would like to move away from corporate and look for something that allowed me to make more of an impact socially. I saw an ad for a senior design position at Prodigy Finance and I became excited to contribute to their vision of democratising tertiary education by offering student loans with zero collateral. I joined a high-functioning UX team as their UI designer and was tasked with standardising the various UI’s via the creation of a unifying design system called Isotope. I enjoyed this job immensely but when the company restructured in 2022 I felt the need to seek out a new challenge and landed at Bluegrass, where I am the lead designer and work closely with stakeholders, run workshops and deliver intuitive and engaging customer experiences via conversion-focused interfaces.
My working style
I am highly collaborative and my stand out strength is gathering information from stakeholders and using that to drive design solutions that engage and delight. I like to take time to immerse myself in the problem space before ideating. The divergent thinking phase usually encompasses product discovery and jobs to be done workshops, sketching and storyboarding (I am a competent illustrator), lo-fi prototyping and early user validation. I spin up high fidelity designs in any of the prominent digital design tools (Sketch, Figma, Penpot, XD). I am a modernist - form follows function - and I leverage proven methodologies, best practice and a highly developed conceptual ability to solve user problems. I believe a user interface is a conversation between a human and a business/system and I craft that conversation to be easy and flowing. I am excited about the fields of AI and the interfaceless interface. I love typography and all forms of visual communication (including the visual and performing arts) and I am happiest when working on something meaningful and helping to achieve social impact.
My management style
I love working as part of a dynamic team with other passionate people. I am comfortable in a mentorship role, have a lot of patience and know how to get the best out of a fellow creative/team of creatives. I love leading a team towards a strategic vision.
