What: Consumer magazine (dummy)

Where: Kenya

My role: Design and project management

Africa’s second-largest media group came to Shakeup Media to help launch a new magazine and newspaper pullout offering insight and analysis into Africa’s politics, society and culture. Through several iterations of the structure and design, we created a well-paced, engaging publication that could be put together each week by a small team on a tight budget.

The final design combined traditional typography and strong grids with bright colours and engaging graphics to create a balanced, fresh magazine. Though never launched as a magazine, The Africa Review lives on as a digital platform.

What: Academic report

Where: London, UK

My role: Designer and project manager

In order to let the brilliant photography and numerous graphic elements take the visual lead, I kept typography and page furniture understated and clean. By incorporating a large amount of space into each page, I was able to prevent the copy feeling too dense while providing room to incorporate charts and graphs in useful positions around the text.

Keeping to the understated tone of the whole publication, I used elegant, single-colour chart styles to prevent pages feeling cluttered or data-heavy. A section of full-page colour photos offers a change in pace and a strong visual statement of the report’s central argument.

What: Local newspaper

Where: Yorkshire, UK

My role: Lead designer

The central challenge in redesigning the Keighley News was to guide readers through the large amount of content on each page. We used bold typography and dynamic images to draw the reader’s focus to the main story on each page. Effective labelling guides readers through secondary stories, while briefs and picture stories are used to keep story-counts high while reducing pressure on space.

The result is an accessible, breathable, highly readable local newspaper. The Keighley News went on to win Weekly Newspaper of the Year in the O2 Yorkshire and Humber media awards, with the judges praising in particular its design.

What: Daily sports newspaper

Where: UAE

My role: Designer

Sport 360 is a new daily sport paper, launched by Gulf Sports Media in UAE, reporting on a huge range of sports, from the UK Premier League to local camel racing. Our key concern was to create dynamic pages with a lot of impact and a lot of interest. Keeping photography to the forefront, we mixed big, bold typography with detailed graphics and secondary material. Another key consideration was navigation; with so many different sports covered, a clear labelling system was essential. We used this to our advantage to introduce a range of bright colours, while keeping each individual page clean and uncluttered.

What: Consumer magazine

Where: London, UK

My role: Intern

Interning at the world’s best-known women’s magazine in 2008, I had the opportunity to lay up fashion and beauty pages, columns and celebrity interviews. I created fresh, interesting pages using Cosmo’s trademark bold typography and dynamic photography. I often worked with pages encompassing many different elements, which I tied together using strong structure and visual balance.

Other magazines I interned with immediately after graduating include Esquire, Psychologies and publishers Incisive Media.