craig oldham: over-the-top-in-detail-cv

Well, seeing as you're obviously in the mood for a good read (after all you did click on the detailed option) I thought I'd tell you a story about my career so far. But before I start, if this is already too much text for you then I suggest that you jump ship now and go back to the CV page (click here to saw through the digital bars and escape to the freedom of the world-wide web) or if your quite enjoying this, sit back in that comfy chair, get the feet up, and have a nice read of this.

Now, I'm not going to give you the full schabang here, after all I'm sure you're not bothered about my first baby steps, the first Batman action figure I got or the first time I kicked a ball through the kitchen window and ran like the wind to escape the right hand of a furious parent, so I'll just have a lovely gloss over that stuff. Right.

Born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, youngest of three—eldest: our Wayne; middle: our Clare; youngest (and most spoilt in the latter's eyes): of course, me. Always loved drawing stuff, usually violent scenes of my favourite super heroes smashing stuff up, or the most super car ever (complete with guns and all)—you know, boy stuff—and I used to draw clowns for my mum, for reasons best known to me at the time, but I forget.

Educated, very well I might say, at Burton Road junior and infant school for the best part of my young and ignorant life. Played for the school team—terribly—and won a colouring competition when I was, erm, I think eight-ish (I'll check with the old dear on that one) that gave me a massive winnings of a £10 voucher to spend at ASDA. Goes without saying that I bought actions figures with it.

Grew up.

Educated further by the good staff at Holgate Grammar School, again in Barnsley. And it was here that I was formerly introduced to Graphic Design, by my teacher Phil Green.

Phil was a great teacher. You have to know that I studied, what the ever-wise curriculum called, Graphic Products (whatever the fuck that is) at GCSE. So, when Phil was supposed to be teaching us all about slapping a logo on to as much packaging as our hearts could desire, he was teaching us all things baseline, x-height, ascender and descender, and so-on and so-forth. A great man who started me on the journey.

Anyway enough of school. I made off with 9 GCSE's: 3 A's, 4 B's and 2 C's.

Off to college. It was A-level time.

At Barnsley College I studied AVCE Art & Design and the bog standard A-Level in Graphic Design. In my first year I took the carousel approach to the course—having a dabble in any discipline I could get away with. I looked at Fine Art—had a paint—and I looked at Graphics. I looked into Photography—literally—and failed miserably at fashion. Meanwhile, I did some hard-nosed Graphics over on the A-Level.

The main thing I took from my first year on the AVCE was that I should experiment as much as I can and this filtered through into my second, and final, year where I majored in Graphic Design on the AVCE and took a more experimental slant in the A-Level (supported massively by my then tutor Mary Ledgard).

A couple of words on Mary: Fucking Great. There you go. I wont mince about how Fucking Great she was as I doubt she'd approve but she had a profound effect on my development and my decisions on Graphic Design. She taught me to question anything and everything and not accept the norm. She was, and still is, an energetic character to whom I owe a lot.

I'm reaching for the tissues so hang on a second.

PAUSE

Right I'm back now. Sniff.

So, two years doing some crazy Graphics I managed to con Jon Unwin, course leader of the Falmouth College of Arts Course, to let me on. They made an unconditional offer to study in the sunny corner of England and off I went to Cornwall.

Leaving my sobbing mother behind, in all honesty, I struggled with the transition in my first year. I don't know why it just felt like I had a lot of things that I had a problem with, although I still enjoyed the work for the course. Who knows, maybe I just missed home, I don't know.

The second year was good. I got Mafalda Spencer (Daughter of Herbert, the Typographic Legend) as my tutor and she taught me things about type that I just didn't know could possible exist. I also loved how refreshing she was—as spade is a spade (I think that's the right expression)—and I did some nice stuff and still managed to get in some experiments.

Some other bits and bats happened in my second year. I met John Mathers, then of Enterprise IG, for an interview for their education initiative. And I got in my first placement at Creative Leap.

I went to Creative Leap in February of 2006 for two weeks and had a good time. I worked on some nice packaging stuff and met some great people (hello Richard). So much of a good time that they invited me back in April… then in May. After May I said hello to Design Bridge for a couple of weeks. Had a great time there in their lovely studio with their lovely staff doing lovely work.

I also got to go to Scotland for the first time when I went to Navyblue to show Jon Evans my work—and I gratefully accepted an offer of a placement with them over Christmas in Edinburgh of my third year.

Another year down and then I struck gold. I got Jon Unwin as a tutor. Jon was a great teacher and taught me more in a year than I thought I could take in. I had a really good third year and did some great work (how humble of me eh)—so, by great I mean I enjoyed it. I also got to work with the other great tutors like Bryan Clarke—of former Lewis Moberly glory—and Mark Woodhams.

Remember Navyblue? Well I went there over Christmas and I had the best placement that I have ever had. It really was great: just like the Scots. It also started a good friendship with Jonathan Evans, one which I still treasure. After Christmas , all galvanised I decided to get my act together, beat the queue and get my work under peoples noses. I packed up my PDF, complete with the greatest hits, and tried to see people in my Spring break. I sent work to The Partners, The Chase, Landor Associates and others. The three mentioned got in touch with me and I went to see them in Spring. I was lucky enough to arrange placements with all three for after graduation, and I now focussed on the final push of the third year safe in the knowledge that I had somewhere to go after college rather than getting seduced by shelf stacking at Tesco and watching Murder She Wrote on the afternoon off.

Then the big had struck twelve and that nervous time came. It was time for me to flee the nest.

After a successful exhibition at D&AD New Blood I set out into the big world with a placement at The Chase, in Manchester first, and boy was it good. I met some great folk, Lionel in particular, and did some lovely stuff. Then after a month or so and an awkward Landlord, I made my way South to the studio of The Partners.

The two weeks here were my most productive to that date. Not only did I work hard on their work but I went all extra curricular and saw people after hours. I got to see Carter Wong Tomlin, Landor, Fig Tree, Saatchi & Saatchi, Hat-trick, 300 Million, Four IV and some others. All good.

But then I got a call.

"Craig, hello it's Line from The Chase."
"Ey'up Line, how are you?"
"Great kid, listen, I want to offer you a placement, could you come up for about six weeks or so and see how it goes?"
"Line, thank you, I'd love to. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

Bags packed, train booked, flat mates sorted, mum told, border crossed: back to Manchester.

The six weeks at The Chase came and went and I was offered a job as a designer at The Chase. Can you believe that? I couldn't, so I asked "Where do I sign?".

They told me: so I did.

Since then I've enjoyed many aspects of my career. Although I've struggled sometimes, I've managed to do some great personal work alongside enjoying my time at The Chase and doing some good with them.

Personally I think the most rewarding thing I've undertook since leaving college is The Hand.Written.Letter.Project where I got to talk to all of my heroes. I've enjoyed the fight between myself and my website (which has been featured on some great blogs like NoisyDecentGraphics, SwissMiss, The Serif, ManyStuff, TypeNeu, FormFiftyFive, AisleOne and Speak Up to mention a few) and I've also got to do some things just to satisfy the visual curiosity.

Work-wise I have worked on some great stuff. I enjoyed doing the Hasgrove annual report and the Riverlife Diary. My team also got a D&AD in book award for the Manchester Evening News Moving Card and a feature from the Design Council for another job (Johnson Matthey Identity).

I've done a few lectures: one with Wally Olins, one of my own doing back at Falmouth, one in Bolton. I was also pencilled in to have a go at Pecha Kucha but I got a case of the man flu and had to cancel—which really pissed me off. I've also had a dabble in-front of the camera helping some lovely folk out by giving my two penneth on The North South Divide and its relevance, or not, on the Design industry.

I've brushed up on the software, here's my league table:
I’m advanced in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. I rank intermediate with Quark XPress, Dreamweaver and Premier and I have had a play around with Flash. And, I can still use a pencil and paper.

Well that's about it apart from saying that I'm still learning anything and everything and I love it. I just wish I didn't need sleep so I could do more. No, on second thoughts I like my sleep too much.

But if you still want more (and I be surprised if you did because if you got here you have seen more I's than a sailor sees water) here's some schpeel on the companies I've had a working relationship with and some linkage to them.

companies

The Chase
With an international reputation for creative excellence, The Chase is currently ranked as the number one agency for print design, number three overall for creativity in the UK, and has appeared in the D&AD Annual every year since its foundation 22 years ago. Working under co-founder Lionel Hatch, I have been involved in projects covering the entire design spectrum.

The Partners
The Partners has established a creative reputation and has been voted the UK’s number one creative agency for 16 out of the past 22 years. I undertook a placement with The Partners after graduation and it was a great insight into their ‘third-brain-thinking’: one which helped my own approach towards briefs and questions.

Navyblue
Navyblue are an established design group with offices in Edinburgh, Leeds and London. Their experience in print is thorough and varied and over the years they have collected many awards for their design and its effectiveness. I gained experience in working under this knowledge and working projects through many creative disciplines such as Digital and 3D.

Design Bridge
Design Bridge are a consultancy known for their creative work across the branding and packaging sector. Whilst with Design Bridge I worked on different projects at different stages in the design process working mainly on packaging and identity briefs.

Creative Leap
Creative Leap are a branding and communications agency based in London. They are currently ranked in the Top 10 consultancies by the DBA and have won numerous Design Effectiveness Awards. I worked with Creative Leap throughout 2005 working on a variety of projects in many stages in of development.

published and exhibited work

21 Years of The Chase: The wood that doesn't look like an elephant.
A book showcasing work designed by The Chase over their 21 year history. Selected work I was involved in includes Hasgrove, Manchester Evening News, York St John and The Football Museum Poetry Book, among others.

Made in Bunch
I participated in the collective re-design of Bunch design’s identity by producing a visual reaction to their existing elements in any creative form. See Bunch Chapter II.

Johnson Matthey—Design Council
The new identity I worked on for Johnson Matthey Colour Technologies was selected by the Design Council to have a detailed case study written concerning the effective impact the new identity had on its business. Have a look on the design council's website.

Mao Mao Publications. Published late 2008.
I wrote a brief (okay, very brief) 'party piece, for a forthcoming publication on Invitation and Promotional design.

Lectures and Talks

Wally Olins in the chair event: Guest on speakers panel. March 2007.
Celebrating the DBA’s 21st anniversary I was invited to take part in a new lecture series focusing on the past, present and future of the design industry by posing questions to it’s leading figures: mine was brand guru Wally Olins.

12 IN 12
I have given the lecture on 12 things that you might learn in your first 12 months as a designer, to students of the following colleges and Universities:

University College Falmouth (April 2008).
University of Bolton (May 2008).

The North/South Design Divide. April 2008.
Gave my comments, on the record, for a documentary concerning the North/South Divide in design, if there is such a thing.