An incomplete list of jobs, stories, podcasts and clumsy algorithms.
CV | Projects | Writing | Talks
Jan 2023 - ongoing: Consultant, Truer Words – Working with teams to help them decide what to do and how to talk about it. Clients include The Financial Times, Boston Consulting Group, dxw and Marks & Sepncer.
Apr 2018 - May 2023: Product Manager, Juno – Building out AI-powered conveyancing services for people buying, selling or remortgaging their home. Steered the team through the transition to remote working, as well as scaling up pre-pandemic.
Apr 2016 - Mar 2018: Writer and strategist, if – Designing new, ethical models for data use. Plenty of ghostwriting too. Initially worked for if as a freelancer before joining full time in January 2017.
May 2012 - Apr 2016: Writer and strategist, Government Digital Service – The bread-and butter here was ghostwriting and creative production, but I also co-wrote the first iteration of the Service Standard, Service Design Manual and the Performance Platform.
Apr 2010 - Apr 2012: Data Griot, Last.fm – Daily content for web and CBS-owned radio stations around listening data and trends. Also involved in new service development (content and conception).
Jan 2008 – Jun 2018: Freelance content and strategy development – Clients included Ford, Tui and Newspaper Club. I'm probably proudest of the portfolio I helped Buckley Williams write... shortly before they decided to call it a day.
Doing Presentations – Presentation writing advice, developed by Giles Turnbull with Russell Davies and Dr. Ella Fitzsimmons
A Lonely Isle – Audio project about the island Rockall (2018, with Richard Birkin and Ann Scantlebury)
Study Group – Podcast about the second season of Community (2014-2015, with Kieron Gillen, Tom Humberstone, Ann Scantlebury and Chrissy Williams)
Markov Blake – poetry by algorithm, based on William Blake's Songs of innocence and experience (2014, with Ann Scantlebury)
Little Comics – two comics projects for Little Printer (2013)
1000 Words – a day of talks about visual culture, held as part of Thought Bubble Comics Festival (2012)
threesixfivstart dice – dice that generate random stories, based on the project threesixfivestart (2011)
Paper Science (2009 - 2011) – anthology of comics featuring more than a hundred illustrators and writers
Phonogram vs The Fans – a zine for the comic Phonogram, produced for San Diego Comic Con (2009)
'A barrow by a beacon' – (2015) a short story about a walk, told in a randomly generated order
The Bureau of Small Observation (2014 to 2016) – a newsletter consisting of descriptions of people and places
Away for a walk (from 2014 to 2016) – a blog about walking
The After School Club for Copywriters – A book collecting advice from writers and creative directors in 2012 (2013)
'The komakino of Francesca Forrest' – short story for This Image, a journal for literature that thinks about images (2013). I also wrote 'Buttons' for an issue that was never produced.
'The Association of Inquisitive Collectors' – comic for the Thought Bubble Festival anthology for Image comics, illustrated by Kristyna Baczynski (2013)
threesixfivestart (2009 - 2010) – the first line of an autobiography, written every day for a year
Short comics for Solipsistic Pop, illustrated by Tom Humberstone ('You Are Here') and Jules Scheele ('Later', 'Mean, Median, Mode')
Suwappu comics – comic strips featuring characters from a speculative toy line, for Dentsu London (2010)
sixfifteen – zine, with Sophie Peck (2009)
The Music Zine and The Robot Zine – comics with Jules Scheele and Sarah Gordon (2008)
her wilderness and waves – an album review hidden in some memories, told in a randomly generated order (2008)
The Polaroid Press – a short story and photography project (2008)
'Talking with people' – workshop for public sector technologists, for IxDA Oslo (2016)
'The strategy is delivery' – a talk about working at GDS, for IxDA Oslo (2016)
‘Pages Lost’ – talk about the broken present and emergent futures of digital comics, for Design of Understanding, London (2015)
‘Brevity and content’ – talk about the work of GDS for LDNIA (2013)
1000 Words – a day of talks about visual culture, held as part of Thought Bubble Comics Festival (2012)
‘Words and pictures and process’ – talk about form and effect at IxDA London (2012)
‘The bit between Data and You’ – talk about data, intimacy and scale for Web Directions South, Sydney (2012)
‘Noise by Numbers’ – talk about Last.fm, Eurosonic in Groningen (2012)
‘Campire Stories’ – talk about building space for users to invest in products, UX Hamburg (2011)
‘Kieron Gillen, Supervillain’ – talk about fandom, roleplay and comics for Playful, London (2011)
‘The Data will Improve Rockets’ – talk about personal data and Doctor Who, delivered first at Skillswap Brighton and improved for Design by Fire in Utrecht (2010)
‘Sense-making in the Scrobbling’ – article about my work at Last.fm for the Design of Understanding journal (2010)
‘Pocket Scale’ – talk about data, intimacy and time travel for dConstruct, Brighton (2010)
‘Text in Space’ – talk about the rhetoric of space exploration for SameAs Space, London (2010)
‘Storytelling’ – for History Hack Day, London (2010)