About me.
I’m a designer as a creative toolkit and strategic mindset to help organisations accelerate, change and grow.
Time to rethink design?
How I design?
Design has a brand problem.
It’s often underestimated or misrepresented, used to paper over the cracks when it should it involved in planning the wall.
Design is a profound way of seeing people and problems differently, making smarter decisions, and revealing opportunities businesses never imagined possible.
This deeper understanding of design is transformative—once you experience it, you'll never view challenges the same way again. That’s what excites and motivates me every day: design always aims to create real, tangible value.
Design has a brand problem. It’s often underestimated and misrepresented in the world of business.
I coach, guide and educate leaders, founders and teams on the business impact of design; across every team, at every stage and in every interaction.
My mission
What I design.
For nearly two decades, I’ve been helping businesses of all shapes and sizes unlock the true power of design. I work closely with leaders, founders, and teams to go far beyond aesthetics—diving deep into strategic thinking to uncover opportunities that create real impact. My role isn't just to design visuals; it's to coach, guide, and educate teams, empowering them to use design as a powerful tool and transformative mindset. The results often ripple throughout an entire organisation, delivering lasting social, cultural, and commercial value.
I work with you and your teams, helping coach, educate and advise on what, how, when, where and why of design. Whether it’s brand positioning, creative problem solveing or creative communications. Much of the approach and mindset remains consistent. The difficult bit is maintaining the ability to frame each decision through the right lens with the empathy and curiosity that design requires. the process, empower them with the tools and you fully understand fully understood designs’ capacity and capabilities in every context and situation:
what design can do
how to apply design
when to invest in design
where design can have the biggest impact
why design is important to business
I define design as process that lead to an intention, decision or action. Design objective should always include creating value; whether social, cultural or commercial.
Strategic Thinker
Creative Director
Design Leader
Why me?
For nearly two decades I’ve been using design to help businesses find new customers and re-engage old ones. Attract new talent and investment. Increase conversion
Every day is still a school day because every challenge is unique and the world does not stop changing.
But amongst the chaos I’ve been learning, experimenting and refining my process and understanding of what works and how.
I’ve come to know a thing or two about design and how to make it work for all kinds of businesses, across dozens of industries.
I love using design to solve problems and now help others by sharing, imparting and coaching this knowledge
and hope to be able to continue learning, improving, creating and collaborating with more amazing people and teams for many more years to come.
If you’re not yet curious about the possibilities design could bring to your organisation. You should be.
What I do.
Strategic Thinker
Creative Director
Design Leader
Brand.
I shape identities, campaigns, and experiences that connect organisations with their customers, staff, investors, and stakeholders.
01.
02
Design.
I help founders and leaders use design as a toolkit—to create, pivot, challenge, accelerate, and drive progress.
Businesses have a tendency to think of design as a cost — something to be justified or minimised. Employing it only as a finishing touch.
But what if design was the starting point?
Businesses that think like designers don’t just solve problems; they reframe them. They ask the right questions, challenge assumptions, and discover the unexpected.
I see design as a strategic investment that makes thinking more rigorous, decisions more intentional, and execution more effective.
Design is not just style, it’s decision making system that adds value, builds trust and unlocks potential. Because when you think like design, you don’t just make things look better—you make them work better.
Manifesto.
Think design.
Let’s talk design.
I see design as a toolkit that can be applied to pretty much anything so don’t be shy to talk to me about something interesting. I’m also curious to hear from other professionals who work with design, even if it’s not labelled as such.
Design is a journey.
The past 20 years have been a journey of learning, experimenting, and refining. I’ve come to know a thing or two about design and how to make it work for all kinds of businesses, across dozens of industries.
I love using design to solve problems and help others and hope to be able to continue learning, improving, creating and collaborating with more amazing people and teams for many more years to come.
Gavin’s real talent lies not in knowing all the answers… But in knowing which questions to ask.
— Sarah Murphy, Mental Health UK
Skills & experience.
Google are not a client.
I’ve spent over 20 years working with brands and businesses of all shapes and sizes, helping them connect the dots the gap between design and business.
Did I once design a flyer for Google? Maybe. But I don’t care much about big brands, they’ve already made it. I thrive working with modest but ambitious small and medium-sized businesses looking to punch above their weight.
I’ve won zero awards.
Big ‘design’ agencies love to tell you how many awards they’ve won. But it all feels a bit superficial to me and often focusses only on the shine and glamour of the final creative or visual execution.
I’ve seen what happens when leaders stop treating design as window dressing and start using it to solve real problems.I help bridge the gap between design and business—translating ideas, simplifying complexity, and ensuring that good ideas don’t get watered down by the committee.
I’ve never done a TED talk
I’ve never been a great public speaker but I’m ok with that. I’m more of an observer than a confident talker. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion, nor am I afraid to share it. I’m not here to nod politely and go along with the status quo. I challenge assumptions, ask uncomfortable questions and I’ll happily call out BS if I need to.
Whilst I’m not a great public speaker, I do enjoy talking with leaders and teams to support, guide and enable them to find the perspective and focus needed to find the right answers and make the right decisions. Even if that means giving you a gentle shove if that’s what’s needed.
Six principles that guide my approach and shape our outcomes.
01
Clear thinking.
Straight talking.
I don’t do fluff, and I steer clear of jargon. Complexity slows progress. The best way forward? Cut through the noise, stay aligned, and keep things moving.
02
Move fast.
Think slow.
Momentum matters. Acting quickly propels us forward, but real progress happens when we pause to think. The best decisions come from balancing urgency with reflection
03
See the whole.
Sweat the detail.
See the big picture, but don’t ignore the details. Vision without precision is just wishful thinking—great work happens when bold ideas meet meticulous execution.
04
05
06
Dream Big.
Act Small.
Dream bigger than you think is possible—but stay grounded. Ambition opens doors, but hard work and humility keep them open. The best ideas mean nothing if you don’t put in the work.
Make mess.
Then magic.
Creativity doesn’t follow a straight line. It thrives in uncertainty. Embrace the ambiguity and trust the process remarkable is never easy.
Deep roots.
Wide reach.
It’s tempting to rush and skim through. But the deeper we dig, the more we uncover. With effort comes clarity because the answers are often buried deep beneath the surface.