
I'm a creative director and brand expert specialising in translating corporate strategy into enduring brand identities and successful campaigns. Understanding business challenges, opportunities and what success looks like is where all my work begins. My inquisitive, collaborative and positive approach then allow for the creation of solutions that make a real difference.

Summary and skills
Summary
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Brand, visual identity and design professional with proven experience in the creation and development of new and existing brands.
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Strategic thinker able to overcome complex objectives with solutions always trained against business needs.
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Creative and resourceful with a hands-on approach to implementation.
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Passionate about delivering positive and lasting change.
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Committed to delivering to the highest standards.
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Diplomatic with the ability to work with challenging stakeholders.
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Over 20 years working on brand/visual identity across global businesses Citi, AECOM and ISG.
Skills
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Creative direction, design and copywriting.
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Brand creation and strategy
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Programme planning and project management.
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Successfully work alongside Boards to help them engage stakeholders to achieve business success.
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Business planning and budget management.
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Clear communicator and presenter.
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Team leadership, training, mentoring and inspiring teams.
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Supplier procurement and management.
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Hands-on technical proficiency including AI.

Professional experience
Freelance Creative Consultant
Sep 2024 – Present (8 mos)
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Place2: Inception branding, visual identity and design for communications for an incubator business planning to operate in the construction sector.
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Segro: Brand and creative identity consultancy and concept design work for Segro, a London based international property investment and development company.
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Dragonfly Trust: Development of visual identity and pitch deck for the launch of a new third sector trust, facilitating social enterprise learning schemes for corporate clients.

ISG Ltd | Group Head of Brand
May 2011 – Sep 2024
(13 yrs 6 mos)
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Rebrand no.1: Rebranded the global business as part of a strategy to unite multiple legacy businesses under a single masterbrand with new brand proposition and visual identity.
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Change management: Developed, planned and conducted a full change programme across the new entity to establish an ‘inside-out’ brand including the recruitment of a network of brand ambassadors and conducting a series of road-shows.
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Brand management: Developed an internal ‘self serve’ approach to brand through the introduction of an on-line set of templates and guidance and led the procurement and implementation of a 3rd party company wide digital asset library.
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Team management: Built and managed an in-house design function to service group and reduce agency dependency.
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Creative direction: Creative direction and design for all projects across group including print, digital, video, motion graphics and photography.
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Marketing campaigns: Worked with marketing lead to develop and conduct an integrated marketing campaign to address a market perception challenge. The resulting work won the CMA’s ‘Best Campaign for under £25,000’ award.
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Driving efficiency: Drove an efficiency programme including the procurement of all promotional merchandise under a single supplier with the introduction of an e-commerce platform to automate purchase process.
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Rebrand no.2: Rebranded business in response to new leadership comprising new vision, values, brand spirit and visual identity. Ran focus groups to inform approach and subsequent brand road shows to embed.
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Instilling culture: Worked with HR to build a strong culture and employee value proposition based on the new vision and values.
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Training: On-going brand training to all new employees with roles involving visual asset output.
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Brand programme: Led programme to bring our people focussed vision to life through the introduction of stakeholder story telling to sit at the core of brand. Programme ran for 3.5 years with 75 stories published attracting 70,000 website page reads.
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Sales pre-positioning: Developed ‘out-of-home’ and ‘cross-over’ advertising campaign to target geographical clusters of sector specific clients as part of an integrated pre-positioning strategy.
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Thought leadership: Created branding framework to deliver an on-going series of international content campaigns and conceived the visuals for each. The campaigns received three Corporate Content Awards.
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Brand strategy: On-going work with board to evolve brand strategy in accordance with long-term business strategy. Led brand intelligence through commissioning external brand audits and integrating brand into customer experience reporting.
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Brand inception: Named and branded ‘Yondr’, a new datacentre developer business.
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Social value: Conducted introductions to brand and design for various external communities throughout my tenure.

Incorporating Davis Langdon
AECOM | Design Manager
Jan 2007 – May 2011 (4 yrs 5 mos)
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Built a centralised in-house design function capable of both the management and development of the company’s visual identity and the design and production of all marketing communications.
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Consolidation, management and communication of the existing visual identity.
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Brought all design work in-house including flag-ship documents such as the annual review.
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Conducted the design aspect of a global re-brand including brand audit, design and implementation. This project achieved ‘runner-up’ for a sector national award.
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Global management of the resulting visual identity.
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Developed a comprehensive visual and production system for the firm’s bid documentation.
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Led and conceived design for a phased visual identity transition from Davis Langdon to AECOM.
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Team, supplier and system management.

Citi | Senior Designer
Jul 2002 – Jan 2007 (4 yrs 7 mos)
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​Worked within a busy, large internal design team servicing the group’s graphic communication requirements for both corporate and consumer businesses across the European business. Responsibilities included: the design for, and management of large international design jobs, art direction and overseeing of temporary designers, development of brand guidelines and promotion of the teams services to prospective business areas within the group.

"Jonathan is a rare thing. Someone who is brilliantly creative, but always provides solutions that come from a deep understanding of business drivers and strategy. This means that when you work with Jonathan on brand, you know that his creativity will have legs – providing legacy and platforms that brands can grow from for the years ahead. Whether you’re a start up starting with a blank sheet, or an established brand embarking on an evolution, I can’t recommend him highly enough. If you’re a Board member and want amazing creativity and real-life experience without the unnecessary frills and extra costs of a major agency, you’ve come to the right place."
Richard Hubbard - CMO, ISG
Further experience
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Lockside Software
Rebrand contract
Dec 2001 – July 2002 -
Totem Communications (New Zealand)
Senior Designer
Mar 2001 – Sep 2001 -
Abbey National (inc. First National Bank)
Senior Designer
Sep 1997 – Nov 2000 -
Compass Computer Group
Marketing Design Spec
Sep 1993 – Sep 1997
Education
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Northumbria University
HND in Business Studies with Visual Communication
1991-1993 -
West Surrey College of Art & Design
Diploma in the Foundation of Art and Design
1990-1991 -
Wrekin College
3 A-Levels / 7 GCSEs
1985-1990
Interests
Many of my interests are design related
including painting, boat building and racing, theatre set design, landscaping and furniture design. My design for a future mode of urban light transport, commissioned by Bristol Advanced Transport Group, is now in service at London Heathrow’s Terminal 5. On the sports field I have represented England at croquet.