Want to learn the creative Adobe apps?
Want to Get Better with Adobe Creative Apps?
I offer personalised training in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Adobe Express for both individuals and creative teams.
Whether you’re looking to improve everyday workflows, learn advanced techniques, or upskill your team, training is tailored to your experience level and goals.
You can also find me speaking and teaching at events and workshops throughout the year — online and in person. Visit the Videos, Press, and Speaking Events pages to see examples of my teaching and presentations.
Personal Stuff
Creativity has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Even now, the smell of crayons or Play-Doh takes me straight back to those early days, and I still can’t walk past a stationery shop without being tempted by fresh notebooks, pencils, and pens.
As a kid, I made my own comics by cutting letters and images from magazines and newspapers, sticking them together with whatever glue I could find. Most of my pocket money, along with what I earned from my paper and milk rounds, went straight into comics and art supplies. Saving money never really stood a chance.
That love of drawing, design, typography, packaging, and beautifully crafted things has stayed with me ever since.
I didn’t follow the traditional route through art school or university. Instead, I went straight into the world of design and marketing after leaving school at 16. Over the years, that journey naturally evolved from creating design work into teaching others how to create it too, which is something I genuinely love doing.
Alongside training and speaking, I also work as a graphic designer for a leading UK cookware brand, which keeps me closely connected to the creative industry and the realities of day-to-day design work.
The Computer Years
Then computers entered the picture, and everything changed. I became fascinated by desktop publishing and was lucky enough to experiment with early Macs and QuarkXPress while teaching myself design on some very early PCs. I would collect every free design program I could find from computer magazines just to learn and experiment.
Discovering Paint Shop Pro opened up a whole new world and gave me the ability to bring photography into my work. Not long after that, I managed to get hold of Photoshop 5.0 and quickly became completely hooked. Around the same time, I also started working with Macromedia software through my job, and from there my passion for digital design just kept growing.
Most of what I learned in those early years came through self-teaching, long hours experimenting, and absorbing everything I could from books and magazines. One day I came across a US magazine called MacDesign and instantly loved it. That eventually led me to Layers Magazine, Photoshop User, and the community around NAPP, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
That community became a huge part of my creative journey. I learned an incredible amount through Adobe, NAPP, and later KelbyOne. In 2009, I contacted NAPP to ask if there could be more support and resources for UK members. That conversation unexpectedly led to me becoming their official UK Evangelist and attending my first Photoshop World in Las Vegas in 2010.
Since then, I’ve spent more than half my life working across the design and marketing industry, both in-house and freelance, always driven by a genuine love of graphic design and creative technology.
More recently, I spent four years as the Training & Community Manager for Astute Graphics, one of the leading developers of Illustrator plugins. Although I’ve since moved on to new projects and opportunities, I still teach Astute Graphics tools independently as part of my training work today.
My Design Life
I have attended 8 Photoshop Worlds, a speaker at 6 of them, I have recorded ten classes for KelbyOne on InDesign and Photoshop and always look forward to teaching my live classes at Photoshop World. I am also a regular contributor to Photoshop User Magazine (since 2018).
I got to design my first ever book cover for a #1 best selling book on Amazon, The Photoshop Workbook by Glyn Dewis on Peachpit (thank you Scott Cowlin and Ted Waitt). Since then I have designed Glyn’s three follow up books, Photograph Like A Thief , The Photoshop Toolbox and The Photoshop Workshop as well as Alan Hess’ new book, Make Great Photos.
The incredible experiences I've had and the friendships I've made through my connection to KelbyOne often make me feel like I'm dreaming. I truly am very fortunate! I've appeared on the covers of two photography magazines and been featured in several top Photoshop and photography publications. I've created artwork for comedians and TV/radio personalities, and I still design for a football fanzine for free. My ever-growing book collection might be starting to annoy my wife, but it's an amazing collection!
A huge shout out to Scott Kelby for believing in me and becoming a close friend. Nancy Massé for getting me onboard back in 2009. All the KelbyOne team for making me feel part of the family. To Glyn Dewis, Alan Hess and Aaron Blaise for our brotherly friendship. Jon Bessant at Certitec for being an awesome tutor when I first dug deep with InDesign. I am inspired by so many great people and designers, you are never too old to keep learning! I am also a very proud Adobe Community Expert and Certified Professional in InDesign and Illustrator!