Everything Begins With Asking For Help (2019)

An Honest Guide To Depression & Anxiety From Rock Bottom To Recovery

I worked with Kyle Books to author this trade paperback containing advice for anyone struggling with depression and anxiety, combining personal memoir with practical advice from experts, developed from the DIY published Torchlight, below. Approaching 10,000 sales with international editions and worldwide distribution: “Everything Begins with Asking for Help is frank and it is compassionate. Everyone should read it” - Johnny Davis, Esquire. Find out more at Men’s Health and the Mail On Sunday. Buy on Amazon here


TikTok For You (2020)

Business Stories From the World’s Hottest Platform

I was hired by TikTok For Business EU to conceive, edit and publish a new print title aimed at the the brand’s business audience. As both a brand and a platform TikTok has a million stories to tell, and it was thrill to work with the internal Creative Lab team to bring some of those stories together in a beautiful and engaging print product, in no more than three months from conception to launch. The design was led by Caspar Williamson, and the project led by head of Tiktok Creative Lab, Neil Boorman. Find out more here


Torchlight System: Storytelling For Recovery (2017–)

A publishing startup offering narratives and tools to assist recovery from depression and anxiety

In 2017 with designer Enver Hadzijaj I wrote and published “Torchlight: A Publication About Asking for Help”, an account of breakdown and recovery, along with the accompanying Practice Cards. This project and my story made the cover of the Observer magazine and was shared over 12,000 times.

In 2019 we published Volume 2 of the Practice Cards plus a companion guide entitled “Every Day”, leading to “Everything Begins With Asking For Help” (above) a paperback adaptation through Kyle Books/Octopus. Estimated reach to date: 2,000,000; national and international press coverage; 50+ presentations in schools, businesses and community groups, over 10,000 units distributed.

www.torchlightsystem.com

www.practicecards.co

On YouTube

On Instagram


Selected Commissions (2000–)

How To Avoid A Midlife Crisis Men’s Health, 2020
On Being Short in a Tall Man’s World – The Times Magazine 2020
How Facebook Saved One Man’s Life – Mail On Sunday, 2019
The Strength Myth: Why Men Are Less Equipped to Deal With the Fallout From Mental Ill Health - Men’s Health, 2019
The Vulnerability Industry –  Esquire 2018
UK Garage – The Face 2000 (republished 2018)
Man down: why do men suffer depression in silence? –  Guardian/Observer 2017
Big Empathy – Made by Many/Medium
How Twitter Made Handwriting Cool – Daily Telegraph 2010
The Power Of The Hoodie The Guardian 2012
From Lad To 4D Man – The Guardian 2011
Berlin Street Style – The Guardian 2011


Embedded Storyteller at Made by Many (2015–2017)

Helping Others Tell Their Own Stories, In Their Own Words

In 2015 I was hired by the leading digital product consultancy Made by Many to join as an “embedded storyteller” to assist the company and staff in publishing stories on their experiences, competencies and opinions. This involved writing and publishing stories on behalf of the company and, more powerfully, assisting the designers, PMs, devs and strategists as an editor on their own stories (see here for some examples). I firmly believe that everyone can write; however all writers benefit from being edited, and finding a voice in which to tell the stories that are important to them. In the social media era writing is a great way to publicise the value of a company or an employee’s experience and competencies but what easily gets forgotten is that writing is also a great way (perhaps the only way) of discovering what you actually think about something, a method for defining what you know. If the process is sometimes a bit like pulling teeth (writing often doesn’t come easily even to professional writers), that’s exactly where an experienced editor can help.


The World Needs Magic for Abracademy (2019–)

The New Magic Culture

I worked with the art director Sam Blunden to produce this 44 page print title for Rubens Filho’s Abracademy, an experiential learning company based in London which takes magic into business, schools, and organisations. Chris Floyd shot the fantastic cover story, to bring alive that most magical of feelings, wonder. The magazine also features contributions from Wired’s David Baker, the cardist Billy Menezes, magician Sonia Benito, Dr Matt Pritchard and much more.

Magic these days is so much more than rabbits in hats and people being sawn in half, and this magazine reflects the cool new culture of magic being practised today (2019).

www.abracademy.com


The Calmzine (2015)

Publishing for men’s mental health

I worked with Its Nice That's Jamie McIntyre, Bruce Usher and incumbent designer Silvina De Vita on a redesign of the quarterly CALMzine for CALM (The Campaign Against Living Miserably), which aims to prevent male suicide. We added some new navigation, sectioning and design and editorial craft, along with some fab illustration content from Braulio Amado among others. Neil bedford photographed Goldie for the cover feature, and the drum & bass progenitor spoke about his recovery from addiction through yoga to Shane O'Brien (one of my mentees). The redesign attracted some interesting comment, including from Fast Co.Design. (2015)


Sleek Magazine (2011-2014)

Creative leadership and organisational change

I was recruited to reformat and relaunch the respected 10-year-old fashion and art quarterly in Berlin, responding to a publishing brief to make the title more commercial, international and relevant. Managing organisational change alongside creative leadership with an international, multilingual team. Verifiable increase in revenue, awareness, and quality.

With Studio Anti and Bureau Mario Lombardo. From 2011–2014, as Editor In Chief. 

www.sleek-mag.com


Manzine (2008–2012)

A fanzine for men, by men, about man stuff

Reimagining the men’s magazine for the post-aspiration, post-lad mag era. Five issues in A4 print over three years. With Warren Jackson and Peter Lyle, from 2008 in London and Berlin.

Read more about Manzine here, here and here.
Manzine was featured in the Cooper-Hewitt's “Graphic Design: Now In Production“ exhibition and in MagCulture/Jeremy Leslie’s “The Modern Magazine“ project.

www.themanzine.com

 


Winter/A Mag For All Seasons (2014)

The feelings of a season, in print

 A Mag For All Seasons is an independent, biannual print magazine project documenting artistic responses to the emotional extremes of each season. The first edition, Winter, was published 2014 in Berlin. As co-editor, with Kati Krause and Ana Lessing. www.amagforallseasons.com


Esquire UK/Selected Trend and Reportage (2010–)

Mankles: on the trend for men to show and decorate their ankles. The term was subsequently adopted by the Collins English Dictionary. 2012 (link)

Engraver’s Gothic: how the typeface became the Superfont of the contemporary era. 2014 (link).

The Vulnerability Industry – on the boom in male mental health (link)


The Face (1999–2002)

Youth Culture 1999-2002
 

Pictured, editorial cover stories for the defining fashion, music and lifestyle magazine of its era, where I was a writer and the Features Editor between 1999 and 2002.

While at The Face I interviewed Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers, New Order, Air, Mike Skinner/The Streets, So Solid Crew, The Muppets’ Statler & Waldorf and others, and was published widely on youth culture, clubbing and dance music, travel, teenage discos, the return of the moustache, and the origins of the highly innovative “freestyle wheelbarrow” scene in Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain.