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About me

I wanted to share with you a little more about myself. Below are a few highlights, including my design interests, the people I’ve met along the way and those who I admire in the journey of life. I hope you find the enclosed interesting and that it helps you gain an insight into my overall personality.

Paul Lawrence
Freelance Designer

Sketching, painting & photography

VISUAL EXPLORATION

I love to sketch, rough out ideas and craft, which for me is all part of that initial starting point and exploration during any creative thinking. When I’m out and about or watching TV, I am always looking out for colour combinations, shapes of interest and textures. In my spare time I like to oil paint. It’s a fantastic medium, which allows you to layer and create textures, and the contrast of using a palette knife over a brush is also fun to explore. And now that iPhones are such great pixel quality, experimenting with photography is fun to. I like to then work into the images, creating forms, distorting and making them look unique.

Designing & designers

My JOURNEY

I’ve been designing for over 20 years. I feel I’ve met and worked with some great people along the way who remain friends to this day. I remember when I first set out as a Junior Designer, exploring the leaders in design. I was lucky enough to meet the typographer, Phill Baines who worked at the time in his garden studio, and the designer, Neville Brody in his studio in Islington. I have always followed designers, some being Farrow and Cartlidge Levene Design, enjoying how they create very clean, simple, balanced and unique designs. For me, I love to treat every project as an opportunity. I can flex and adapt, be agile within my project commissions and most importantly have fun with them and the teams along the way.

Car design

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

I remember whilst growing up in Stratford-upon-Avon visiting the poster shop to purchase my next 1980's car poster, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche... They said, never drive your hero cars, I wish :) ... Some of the shapes and forms in current car design are visually amazing to look at, how the aero of cars is being designed, some cars are now even see through in sections. Front and rear headlight clusters have become big in current car brand designs, the shapes of the lights, how they are formed, some are like crystals, and create amazing light when they are defused. These become emotional elements of the design that makes a car purchaser become more attached to its design, how it makes them feel overall by owning one.

Architecture

SHAPES AND MATERIALS

When I’ve worked in London, I’ve always marvelled at the new office building designs, the Shard naming one, how every night its top peak illuminates differently, whether it’s through the colour change or if its misty or clear one evening. I am really interested in the amazing shapes architects create with their designs, feats of engineering and balance. The Gherkin, the Selfridges building in Birmingham and the Wales Millennium Centre, the use of different materials and balance is an inspirational sight to take in when you are looking up. The Millau Viaduct in France, tallest bridge in the whole World, how do they build these things...?

Passions & motivations

The Greats

I’ve always loved watching sport, F1, Golf, Rugby, Athletics and Tennis to name a few. Striving is very important to me, but also being a good sport. Aryton Senna is one of my true heroes, the way he handled a car, his natural feel, his level of concentration and fitness with no driver aids was just pure magic. Michael Johnson was a great runner, he was a class ahead of everyone else. These people were genius in what they did, the greats. I try and take on some of these attributes day-to-day, and set out to help teams avoid leaving any stone unturned. These sportsman during their time were untouchable and to this day some of their records still exist. Apple, Google, Facebook, Richard Branson, they see no finishing line and are totally inspiring...!

What people say

Sam Manley
Creative Director / Nvidia UK

Paul worked with us in two spells, May 2017 – October 2017 and April 2018 – April 2019 as Senior Designer on a contractor basis. He is an experienced and skilled designer who integrated well with creative colleagues and project managers alike. Dedicated and professional, he applied himself diligently to projects, whether it be UI/UX, Events, or Digital Campaigns, for Consumer, Enterprise and Corporate. Above all, Paul is someone we trust and a pleasure to work with. We would definitely recommend him.

Jason Wood
Director / Brand & Creative / OYO Rooms

Paul has been working with me since the start of the OYO brand and creative team filling the Senior Designer role on a freelance basis. He has helped bring to life the OYO brand across many deliverables from 360 marketing campaigns to Social assets. He is a hardworking and experienced designer who creates some excellent work. Paul is a pleasure to work with and would be an asset to any team or agency.

Julie Adams
Head of Copy / Virgin Media

As Head of Copy at RAPP, I have had the pleasure of working with Paul on many briefs over the past three years. I have constantly been surprised and delighted by the quality of design that Paul has brought to every job. Regardless of how complex a design challenge, Paul has always managed to create a fresh look, going beyond what he was asked.
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Given that many of the briefs here at RAPP are similar, month on month, it has never ceased to amaze me how he is able to bring something new to the table every time, be it with a radical layout or simply adding a single element that gave new life to an old design.

One of the other things I love about working with Paul is that he questions what he's been asked to do, rather than just doing what he's been told. If he feels something isn't quite right, he doesn't hesitate in popping over to double check his concern. Not many designers do that. And this has given me huge confidence in the past; when I knew Paul was working on one of my jobs, I knew it was in safe hands.

Aside from all of that, he's a damned nice bloke, and a real team player, too. Therefore, I have no hesitation in recommending Paul for any design job. I'm just sorry I'll no longer have the opportunity to work with him. It's a lucky Creative Director that has Paul in their department.

Clare Bumford
Senior Recruiter

Paul is an exceptionally talented integrated Senior Designer whom I have had the pleasure to represent as one our freelancers for the past six months. Paul’s enthusiasm and natural creative flair, coupled with solid agency experience and a desire to learn new skills has meant that he has become a favoured freelancer amongst us and our client base. Always a joy to work with, Paul is a dedicated and professional freelancer who is an asset to any creative team. If you don’t work with him, you definitely should!

Steve Gordon
Creative Director / Virgin Media
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Paul is someone I admire greatly. He's a very hard worker, lovely guy and gets down to business in terms of really putting in the hours, as and when it's needed. More importantly for me, Paul has become a real confidante and friend. I respect his opinion and advice on many matters. There's also no attitude with Paul. He gets we have to get things done and he goes about it with gusto. Just brief him correctly, keep him entertained with good briefs and you'll be greatly rewarded.

Nigel Down
Senior Project Manager / Virgin Media

I confirm that Paul was employed as Senior Designer with RAPP. Paul has been with the company for a considerable time and I was lucky enough to have worked with him for the last two years working on the Virgin Media account together. Virgin is a demanding client with multiple briefs across OM email and social channels. The demands are no different to other clients with frequent changes within critical deadlines. Paul always over delivered and went the "extra mile" to ensure that the design was polished. Paul was Senior designer and "go to person" for some of the more demanding projects. We have a mixture of skill sets within the account team and sometimes the briefing process was far from perfect. Paul could always be relied upon to extract the most from the briefing, asked the correct questions and he alerted project management with any issues or obstacles. In the last 12 months RAPP moved towards an "Agile" way of working - Paul embraced this immediately and contributed to the success of the "stand up" meetings with clients and colleagues. I would happily recommend Paul as I consider him to be a valuable member of the team, who consistently achieved good results and delivers all expectations.

Lara Bishop
Director, DisplayWays

I have worked with some talented people throughout my corporate career but no one has come close to the design expertise that Paul has. His design skills and experience are second to none coupled with his in-depth knowledge about the industry. Being a London trained designer is not to be taken lightly, it has put him in good stead in the design world. He is meticulous in his approach, his attention to detail is something to be desired, not only that, he follows a project through with great precision and thought. His main priority is to deliver inspired, on brief projects that are delivered on time and to perfection and takes great satisfaction in making clients happy. He sounds the perfect designer? Absolutely! and I would highly recommend him to anyone looking for clean, perfect projects! Good designers are hard to come by nowadays and he is certainly a breed of his own.

Contact

For more information and to discuss availability, please contact me.

T 07434 605262

E paul@paullawrencedesign.com