I have two hats
Sometimes I wear them both at the same time. Confused? Not as much as me.
Hat one: Copywriter.
I’m 10 years a copywriter now. Ouch.
In that time I’ve gone from green-horned Junior to grizzled team-leading Senior.
I’ve done it permanently and freelance. I’ve done it in-house, out-house, your house and my house. I’ve thought it up, brought it to life, sold it, loved it, lost it.
From email and social to glossy editorial to grab this and run print, Big Ideas to this, NOW! headlines.
Agencyside, clientside, both sides, all sides. Often at the same time. My words have done the worm across these crowded dancefloors:
A/V
Brand messaging
Concepts
Display
Email
Print and Packaging
Social
Tone of voice
Website
Hat two: Branding
You can also find me on tea duty at sparkly new branding tearaway, Studio Rey.
I worked for 5 years as the DMA’s Head of Brand and Creative - leading a team of writers, designers and digital builders.
From rebrands to tactical campaigns, deep dive editorials to event signage: we did it all in the name of the brand.
But when redundancy kiboshed that adventure in the autumn of 2022, I kept a flame burning to one day fling open the doors to my own thing.
A place where people could bring projects that required more than words.
Something to dial up and dial down, collab with people, make nice things with friends.
So there’s me and a designer or two. Or an illustrator, or a strategic mega brain. Or a videographer. The cast list often changes - it depends who needs what doing.
We work on everything from creation to strategy to launch campaigns to content strategies to mixed marketing bits.
And stickers.
Don’t forget those.
5 things I know about
Branding
Building and leading a creative department / team
Content creation and strategy
Copywriting
Creative direction
*Should be more than just 5 things here.
5 things about me
Tired / wired Dad
Furious Evertonian
Pedestrian chef
Oranges. For all.
Nostalgist
*Again, could be more than just 5 things here.
The above. Explained. Sort of…
Copywriting: What happens with freelancing ?
Firstly, I work as per the brief and the requirement of the project. It could be you need me for a day, a week, or a month.
I tend to get stuck in:
Independently
As part of a team
As someone tasked with putting a team together
How does that look in practice? Well, maybe I’ll work directly with a client on a project to produce website copy, or a content strategy or content plan.
Or I’ll do tone of voice work that means I mix in with another writer, or with a creative team I can help put together.
Or all of that plus collaborating with marketing and comms people from a client-side perspective.
Branding: What happens with Studio Rey ?
If you’ve got a burning branding question, then we should definitely chat. It might be something that needs a few other bods with design, visual skills that I can help put together.
Hence: Studio Rey.
For those projects that need more than words.
Could be something about how you look or want to look; challenges around how you sound and the way you talk about what you do; it could be you just need someone to bounce a few ideas around with?
Or maybe you’ve got the business, you just don’t have the brand (two very different things). Either way, a natter first then woooosh, off we go, on our way. And if the stars align, there could be opportunities to get involved with some of the fabulously talented people I’ve worked with.
Here and there I build a small group to tackle a project together:
Brand strategists
Copywriters
Designers
Photographers
Webdevelopers
Videographers
So, if your project needs it, I can help cook up something delicious.
From building brands from scratch to rebuilding and refitting tired ones, we’re been there and spun it all on the great ferris wheel of branding.
