About Paul

I started out back in the 1980’s working as a Senior Archaeologist with the Museum of London. As well as digging a lot of deep holes under buildings in the City of London, writing reports and contributing to several publications, I got very interested in computer graphics and programming. Back then, I used an Apple II and Pascal (programming language) to make lines and dots fly around the screen in 3D. I also learned an early version of AutoCAD on a very slow PC.

With the arrival of the colour Macintosh and Postscript in 1987, I decided to try my hand at my other long-standing passion – illustration. Combining my skills with a pencil and paint brush, I set about teaching myself Adobe Illustrator ’88 and Aldus Pagemaker. I read everything I could find about graphic design and typography and eventually started trawling my portfolio around central London agencies.

I had the amazing fortune to meet with Alan Sekers and Algy Williams, two extremely talented guys, who at the time ran Imagine, London’s first digital agency. I helped them with their design and illustration work as well as setting up their training wing. We helped many other design firms get their heads around the transition from traditional ‘lick and stick’ to digital techniques. I learned a huge amount during the few years that I worked with them. At the same time I found myself doing a lot of editorial writing for magazines such as Mac User and PC Pro, doing reviews and features as well as editorial illustration. As the ‘multimedia’ era arose in the early 1990’s I spent time developing a number of digital assets and fonts for commercial use.

By the mid 90’s computers had got considerably more powerful and I discovered my first 3d applications. After much research I decided that Maxon’s Cinema 4D was for me. I also started playing with Adobe After Effects, two applications that I’ve been using ever since and still love.

Nowadays I get involved in all sorts of design and illustration/CGI/graphics-based projects. When larger projects demand it, I work with several talented freelance associates. I also do lots of photography, occasionally video camera work and editing, and motion graphics as required by clients.

I’m always happy to meet other creatives for a chat, relish a challenge and am always looking to learn new techniques and skills.

Feel free to get in touch if you have a project that you’d like to chat about or connect with me on LinkedIn.