With a proven track record of over 30 years, I’ve gleaned extensive international experience both on the beaten track (Paris, London and Singapore) and off (Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan); with a wide variety of clientele – from small grassroots organizations (Morobe NGO Kibung) to large corporations (Cadbury Adams, Loblaws Inc, Weston Foods, Kraft Food, Mars Inc.); with work ranging from small, one color, single sheet brochures to large-scale space branding work.
My experience has helped me develop a knack for anticipating client needs, as well as over delivering on their expectations. The quality of my work and my working style has created long lasting relationships with my clients, which in many cases have lasted a few decades or so.
I’ve been an artist and illustrator for as long as I can remember. I won my first award, first prize at the National Agricultural Exhibit at Kitana Private School in Zambia, at the ripe old age of six. From there I forged on, becoming the artsy kid in high school, then the inevitable fine arts major at York University, then the equally inevitable “I can’t deal with the art world anymore, so I’m moving to Paris to study Business Communications and Public Relations” Master’s student.
When I graduated from the European University in Paris, I took my Outstanding Student Achievement Award and headed off to Sri Lanka. My uncle had always been heavily involved in the NGO world there, and it had long fascinated me. It made sense to me to take my newly found communications skills and help local NGOs craft their stories and get them out.
I combined my Asian art history education and graphic design skills from my BA with my communications training from Paris to work with several local and international NGOs in Sri Lanka. The work ranged from illustration to brochures, full publication design, motion graphics, filming and presenting. It was a great time, with amazing opportunities, and it came to a crashing end when SHE left.
I went back to Toronto to lick my wounds and ended up working with a few local NGOs. In one of their offices, I saw an ad for a CUSO volunteer placement in Papua New Guinea. I applied, and I got the gig.
Before I knew it, I was in PNG, first working with a small NGO and soon with the National Alliance of NGOs in PNG, under an AusAID-funded scheme. There I learned how NGO communications really work: how to tailor them to specific cultural contexts, and how to present information in ways that appeal both to the overseas donor and the worker on the ground.
After my placement in PNG, I moved to Singapore for a while to work on the Art, Design and Media Library at Nanyang Technological University, where I worked on graphic elements of the project, including signage, wayfinding systems and space branding. Then I came back to Toronto, settled, and was tricked into corporate work by the indefensible Melodie Barnett.
Since then, I’ve worked for several major players in the consumer packaged goods market, including Cadbury, Kraft, Mondelēz, Kraft Heinz, Mars and Lactalis, as well as Loblaws, Weston Bakeries, Ball Packaging and, finally, McDonald’s. I was turned down for a job at my local McDonald’s at 15, so after 40 years, working for them (in a very different capacity) felt like a dream fulfilled.
On a more personal note, SHE and I got back together after a few years, and we now have two grown kids. They’re big and doing their own things, and I find myself wanting to move out of the corporate world and back to where my passion first lay: NGO communications.
If your organization has a story to tell, a report to design, a concept to illustrate, or if you just want to collaborate, I’d love to hear from you.