About RW

My Spiel!

I like big butts and I cannot lie, no other man can deny....! Bring back ye olde skoole Sir Mix-A-Lot. In reality I do like big bottoms but to be exact I'm a bit of a mixed mongrel. In one breath here is a brief history of my life (so far): I was born in Sierra Leone - West Africa; moved over to the UK at the age of 7 and went to boarding school; at secondary school I kissed a girl called Anna Foster who was 5 years older than me; Oh! my poor feeble young heart was engulfed in a teenage crush - she was hot!!!; caught in the moment and in my naivety I then called it a 'Pressure Kiss' and haven't lived it down with my mates ever since; went to Loughborough University (I love those purple tracksuits) & studied Industrial Design & Technology (I am a Bachelor of Arts, don't you know, Ra-Ra!); jumped into sales for 3 years and sold my soul to the devil but learnt a lot; was in a rock-funk band called Blackthumb (BlackBum as our fans used to call us) started 2 businesses, Kamara Clothing & Wright DZN which brings me to the here and now. And breath!

My passion & hobby (the thing we all call work) has been in multiple design arenas for the past 8 years but mostly focused on all things web related. I find the world-wide-web so much more exciting to be part of because of the relentless pace of change. Everything can happen in a blink of an eye, the new trend one day is lost to the deity of the next. We all talked about Web 1.0, and before Web 2.0 had rolled of the tongues of the super geeks people had already started talking about web 3.0. The web is an exciting arena to be part of if you can ride the crest or just keep up with the web surf. I find it a little more stimulating than let’s say print, mmmm print, oh! Inkjet shoot your miniscule droplets of ink onto paper to create a seemingly fluid stroke. Sexy!

My Design Kung-Fu disciplines (so far) are...

User Experience Web Design, Sales, Marketing, Branding, Offline Design, Programming, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), online business modelling, team management, having a drink with clients and generating a healthy return on investment. All-in-all people employ me to net them a sound return on developing a brand and online business. For more detail read on…

Web Design

I’m at home designing websites, more so with socially driven websites that have been built on sound business models. I can knock up a design for a website in a day, like my friends fathers website www.victorandtrudi.com, but it takes a little bit more skill, experience and practice to create a website that delivers return on investment like these websites. When I first started designing websites 6 years ago it was all about the look and function, now that we’ve entered the realm of web 2.0 it’s about the social impact & business model as discussed here. Being able to use the right tools of the trade is also essential because software like illustrator & Photoshop allows the designer to pluck ideas from ones head in order to portray they’re thoughts and emotions into graphical form. That takes time. A wise man once told me that being a designer is a little like ESP, you’ve got to be able to read people’s minds, otherwise you’ll create a pile of poop. Other responsibilities like management and a personality are pretty important as well.    

Sales

Back in the day when I was oh so youthful and my hair wasn’t receding I worked as a salesman for a few years for the experience and money. The lowest moment I ever had was being discovered under a  desk by my boss sobbing like a little girl because I hadn’t got a deal in 3 months. Mark my boss still hasn’t forgotten and takes every opportunity to remind me of it. Despite the lows their were some awesome highs and I met some amazing people including the only manager that I ever believed in, Mr Robert Bluestone. Robert, as with some of the best managers had my best interests at heart and in turn I delivered 120k in sales in 11 months for an advertising company called Highbury Local Publications. ‘Cha-Ching I thank you’ he would say, as he would pat me on the back. The thing I learnt back then from Robert was simple, business is about delivery; making money; the journey; friends and sharing earth shattering laughs. Other stuff, like office politics is merely a guise to the real issue… ‘you’re not doing your job.’ I learnt my role as a salesman very early on in my career and as soon as I grew big enough wings left the roost to put my experiences as a salesman & my passion as a designer into good practice. There’ith born my first business Wright DZN

Marketing

Marketing, err! What can I say about marketing.. err! I know, I’ll tell you a joke:

A Jelly baby walks into the doctors and says;

"Doctor I think I've got an STD..." Doctor turns around and says; "Don't be silly you're a Jelly Baby..." Jelly Baby says "I know but I've slept with All Sorts."

Did it make you chuckle or feel nauseous? If you squeezed out a little chuckle I’ve marketed myself as possibly being a likeable and funny guy, if the latter you’ll think ‘twat.’ I’m both, job done.

On a more serious note I’ve worked with ‘All sorts,’ (sorry couldn’t help myself) I’ve been contracted to conceptualise and deliver print ready; marketing & promotional campaigns for Tesco.com (double page spread advert) and corporate event branding for Phillips amongst other marketing material.

Branding

I’ve been writing my website content now for 2 days straight so I’ll keep this short and sweet. Branding is about portraying a business type, culture, ethos and personality in graphical form delivered with a punch sweeter than the big man himself Mohammed Ali. Clunk! You feel that? That’s my brand baby…. Don’t you forget it! Now go tell your friends about me. Have a butchers at some branding here

Offline Design

My first job after university was working for a small design studio in Southend called Rakusen Design FX. I blagged my way in by stating that I could use a Mac, Photoshop & illustrator. What a load of monkey balls of a fib that was. I could design but I used the then popular programme called Micrografx Picture Publisher & Designer on my PC not Mac. My first day was awful, I sat there in front of the Mac for 30mins not knowing how to turn it on. Several nails later the secretary took pity on me, came over and flicked it on. ‘There you go darling, that wasn’t so hard was it.’ Needless to say I spent the next month working overtime reading every manual there was to get my skills up to date. In the end it didn’t matter because as with every beginner born into the world of design I was appointed cropping duty. This meant cropping up to 30 hi-res images a day for months. I still have nightmares, kettle and fridges that I cropped for Argos chasing me around a room full of Macs.

However haunting as it may have been I learnt and picked up some valuable tips and tricks back in those days that I still use today. The majority of all my first contracts were briefs to create artwork for print; business cards, compliment slips, literature, advertising & promotion and so on. As time lapsed I once again morphed taking the base of my skills learnt in offline design into the digital arena.

Programming

A lot of people think that I am a programmer, but I’m not. Ever since my first class in coding back at Loughborough University I realised very quickly that coding was best left to others. It was too rigid, too formal for me; you either get it wrong or right. I’m the arty farty type, I like to take all the credit and lead from the front (that’s a joke just in case my dry British humour doesn’t translate so well onto the page). However, I instantly understood that there was a clandestine bond between web designer & programmer and to brush aside all notions of the programmer’s world would leave me up the creak without a paddle. That’s why every Sunday I grease back the afro, don the specs, jump into some tweed and rock out with the programmers down the local pub to catch up with all the web goss’. Rock On!

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

If I’m being brutally honest all designers and programmers should be armed with the knowledge of SEO when creating websites. Like Karate Kid ‘wax on, wax off,’ the motion should become as one with the creative process, it should become second nature. Catch-that-fly-with-chopsticks-b*tch! A perfect example of how incorporating SEO early on in the web designing process can lead to better return on traffic and search engine ranking  is in my creation of the Multivoice website. Once launched it saw a 91.34% increase in free web traffic in one year from search engines and rose to page two for two of its major keywords. There’s no rocket science or formula to SEO just a key understanding of the principles anybody who says there is may well be telling you porkies. If you’re thinking of contracting  a company to undergo SEO for your website feel free to give me a shout for some free tips and advice.

Online Business modelling (WIG)

It’s all about the business model and the collective around you. I have worked with a plethora of companies that haven’t really given their online business model enough thought. If you’re going to invest time and money into creating a website make sure you contract someone who is thinking beyond the look and feel of your website. There are a few rules that can be applied to 90% of websites today that could net a better financial return.

Team management

Someone once asked me if I found it easy to manage a team. I said ‘yes’, not because I’m big-headed but because in my eyes management is about delivery. Every person is capable of managing themselves with the right support and goal to work towards. I strongly feel that the manager’s job is not to place himself above the team but with the team allowing them to take control of their work while steering the ship by keeping a helicopter view on progress. More importantly; create a sense of purpose & belonging for colleagues and they’ll work beyond expectations. All ways deliver on your word even if its bad news and you’ll get the respect you deserve. Here end’ith my sanctimonious preach.

ROI (Return On Investment) Generation

This is so important and often forgotten about. Every website I create is underpinned by a business model in order to generate ROI. So that long after I’ve designed & launched a website the business model continues to make money. Lovely.

Final Words

If you’ve read this far, mazel tof! Your prize is a minor headache, have a cup of tea and biccie, it’ll sort you right out. If you’re thinking about contracting someone to do some work for you then I hope the above gives you a kaleidoscope view of my skills and person for you to consider me for the job. If you fancy a chat,send me a message.