My best advice – "never be too proud and don’t be a dick"

Bridging the gap between a strategic consultancy and design agency, Bravedog creates and re-thinks branding and websites for companies, products and places.

We nailed our first Bravedog gig in 2012, the year London hosted the Olympics, and PM Cameron famously left his daughter in a pub!

But I’ve been ‘in creativity’ since building alien spaceships with Lego and drawing stuff as a kid.

My art teacher advised me not to take GCSE Art. Pah! (I’m sure she meant well).

Not one to be discouraged, I’ve spent the last three decades working in design, helping brands to be better, more relevant, more confident, more viable, more loved in roles I’ve cherished. You get an indescribable feeling when you create something new from scratch or fix a broken business through its brand. The team and I love being tested to dream up brilliant solutions.

And I’ve always been responsibly irresponsible in how I think and do – it’s better for clients when we work with the brakes off

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The cork-popping moments stay with you, like transforming how Virgin Atlantic did in-flight menus. Saving them bazillions in printing, weight and fuel. Growing a huge football programme publishing business and launching a world-first digital ticketing platform for fishing. Going into business with Gordon Ramsay and his father-in-law (long story). Turning down a dragon (sorry James). Giving Dick and Angel the tools to cash in on brand Chateau. And a lifetime of other creative adventures like these that shaped and changed possibilities for people like you and me.

It’s not always been good. After making some poor choices, I went bankrupt in 2007 and had to sell our lawnmower to buy food. The grass went berserk, but we ate, and I learned lessons you won’t find in a prospectus. That taught me what’s important. We eventually lost the house along with its long grass, but I bounced back. You don’t do that on your own. Guts and resilience only get you so far. If nobody loves you, you’re fucked.

I wasn’t born a business leader, and I never think of myself in that way, not honestly. But we all start with the capacity to learn and apply ourselves to things.

I guess if being a leader means taking responsibility for one’s actions (and other peoples mistakes) and being prepared to take risks, even lose everything in pursuit of a purpose, then I might be close.

All leaders have flaws too. The best ones acknowledge them and look to others for help.

If I could share two pieces of advice to anyone starting out or even an established business owner, I’d tell them, “never be too proud” and “don’t be a dick”. The rest they will figure out themselves.

Where next? Forwards. Always forwards. I’ve got one or two ideas swimming around, clients to help and things I want to do before I get old, so watch this space.

This is me.