The annual London Design Festival has become a huge event since it began in 2003. Now 450,000 design fanatics come from 75 countries to visit installations, exhibitions, talks, events and parties. This year I was the editor of Icon’s guide to LDF – a 164-page pocket book, distributed at tube stations throughout the week-long event – highlighting exciting events along with interviews with designers. I had the pleasure of talking to Domenic Lippa of Pentagram, lighting designer Flynn Talbot, architect Andrew Waugh, musician Beatie Wolfe and V&A artist in residence Rachel Ara.
PORTER
Net-A-Porter employed me for a month to work on the annual Incredible Women feature that appeared in the Fall 2017 issue of Porter and lists the most innovative and inspiration women of the year.
NEW OLD AT THE DESIGN MUSEUM
The Design Museum’s first exhibition of 2017, New Old: Designing For Our Future Selves curated by Jeremy Myerson, looked at how designers can help people lead fuller lives in old age. I edited the official 176-page catalogue.
WIRED: THE DESIGN ISSUE
For the past two years I have been a regular freelance contributor to Condé Nast’s technology title Wired. In the October issue, Wired collated the best in design and I wrote about a few of the latest innovations in interior design.
PERSONALITIES
While working at the Telegraph I commissioned art critic and broadcaster Alastair Sooke to write about his love of land art. Also actress Phyllida Law, actor Julian Rhind-Tutt, sports commentator Brian Moore and food writer Thomasina Miers among many others.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Aviva supports street children around the globe and helps to provide day centres for them. One of my first commissions at the Telegraph was to send a journalist out to India with a photographer to visit some of the centres and spend time with the children. This appeared in the broadsheet and co-ordinated with a film that Danny Boyle and the National Theatre were promoting.
HOW TO LOVE BRUTALISM BY JOHN GRINDROD
Published by Batsford, this is John Grindrod's third book and out on 5 April 2018. He takes a light-hearted look at the concrete buildings that evoke such strong feelings. I particularly love the illustrations. I helped to edit this book.
ICON
This monthly magazine documents the latest architecture, design and products around the world. During the time I sub edited pages at Icon, Justin McGuirk was editor.
BRANDED CONTENT
I covered a six-week period of working on the digital hub at M&S Style & Living. This site is updated daily with inspiration and features along with social media, meta data and email newsletters.
HARPER'S BAZAAR
I was commissioned by Harper’s Bazaar to write about Sotheby’s Vintage Fine Jewels auction for the February 2015 issue.
NOPE TO HOPE AT THE DESIGN MUSEUM
I edited the book to accompany the exhibition that opened in March 2018 at the Design Museum about how graphics, such as internet memes, posters and protest placards have shaped political messages in the past decade.
WOOD AWARDS 2017
The awards are the UK’s biggest competition for excellence in architecture and product design in wood to recognise and promote craftsmanship and the use of a naturally sustainable material. The magazine lists the shortlisted projects, the inspiration and information on the build along with interviews with the architects. It is not only distributed at the awards event but is available at other events and with sales of Elle Decoration and other like-minded titles.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Barbican Estate in London. Published by Batsford books, Stefi Orazi shows the 100 different designs of flats within the complex and interviews many of the residents to document how living on the estate has changed over the decades. I edited the book that came out in October 2018.
DOLCE & GABBANA ICONS:
1990-2010
This 608-page luxury title is an indepth study of the Italian fashion house and the two designers at its helm. I edited this book, and later, another collectors’ book about David Gandy written by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.
JAMIE
Editing recipes is a particular skill that requires cooking knowledge to both entice a reader with delicious descriptions, while creating comprehensive instructions. I have extensive experience of this having worked at Jamie Oliver’s magazine, Olive, BBC Good Food, Delicious and for brands such as Tesco and Waitrose.
WALLPAPER* CITY GUIDES
Phaidon publishes Wallpaper*'s City Guides. I joined the team in 2017 to contribute the revised issues for Lisbon and Florence.
BRITISH VOGUE
I worked on the sub editing desk at the fashion title for a year.
GHOST WRITING
While at the Telegraph I ghost wrote numerous features for interesting personalities including extreme activities enthusiast Ben Fogle, Professional Master Chef judge Monica Galetti and designer James Dyson.
DIGITAL EDITING
I worked for the fashion house the month before London Fashion Week September 2017. During my time at Burberry I worked on the editorial elements that accompanied the exhibition ‘Here We Are”, a collection of photography that showcased a sense of Britishness, at Old Sessions House in Clerkenwell, including two exhibition guides, display copy and digital copy for the website and email invites.
STRELKA INSTITUTE FOR MEDIA, ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Based in Moscow, the institute is a non-profit international educational project. Over two years, I worked freelance sub editing documents, programme information and essays.
DISEGNO
I met Johanna Agerman Ross when she was deputy editor of Icon magazine and she asked me to help her launch her new venture in 2011. Disegno is a daily news site, selection of salon workshops and a collectors’ magazine about the culture of design. Initially just a hard-working team of four freelancers, we worked evenings and weekends alongside our full-time jobs to get the magazine launched. I edited the first six biannual issues and returned recently to edit the latest now quarterly issue.
MONOCLE CITY GUIDES
The city guides from Monocle were launched in 2015 and published by Gestalten. Each covers the lifestyle’s brand favourite places from routes for early-morning runs to independent stores. I worked on the first three titles including the London edition.
FEAR & LOVE AT THE DESIGN MUSEUM
In November 2016, the Design Museum opened its doors at its new Kensington High Street residence for the first time. The headline exhibition explored the idea that design is deeply connected not just to commerce and culture but underlying issues that inspire fear and love, and showcased work by Hussein Chalayan, Rural Urban Framework and Christien Meindertsma among others. I edited the official 240-page catalogue that was produced with
RED
As chief sub editor, I managed a desk of four sub editors. I oversaw the editing and accuracy of the magazine and I was the last person to sign off pages and send them to press.
CASE STUDIES
Researching and sourcing good case studies makes for engaging editorial content and gives the brand's values a voice. When Nivea launched its natural range I commissioned health journalist Anna Magee to interview 12 women who enjoyed simple and organic lifestyles and the features ran in Stella magazine each week for three months.
ONLINE CONTENT
While working at the Telegraph I commissioned copy and short films for all media platforms – daily newspaper, weekend sections, magazines and online. When Lexus launched a luxury hybrid in the UK the company sponsored the profiles of 15 up-and-coming creatives from architects to mixologists to novelists that I sourced to appear in the Telegraph and as online videos. Readers could view the features online and vote for their favourite. During the six-week period that the editorial was running, 123,000 people visited telegraph.co.uk/amazing and 87% readers requested a brochure or a test drive.
PROJECTS WE LOVE
This beautiful-looking title is an annual selection of Swedish company Bolon's global projects they have worked on and loved, and want to share. I interviewed 15 architects from Korea to Australia about their commercial projects, design and choice of material.
THE GLOSSARY
This high-end independent magazine was launched last year about fashion, beauty and culture in London and is distributed in boutique hotels, restaurants and private-members clubs in the city. I worked with the team on its fourth issue.