Cosmo Tech
Making a complicated company easier to understand.
Give me the blank page.
Hey, I’m Alex, a hands-on creative and design leader.
I’m at my best when something is new, complicated or hasn’t quite figured out what it wants to be yet.
For 20 years, I’ve turned ideas into identities, products and experiences people understand, remember and care about.
Brainnwave
Building the visual world around a changing startup.
Mosaic
Giving complex data a clearer identity.
The Iron Thistle
Putting Scotland on the miniature painting map.
Stillhead
Making my own creative playground.
QueryClick
Making search marketing less boring.
Alex Paints
Building an audience without becoming a content machine.
Digital Podge
Making fun measurable.
Cut Records
Treating free music like it was worth something.
Goth Juice
Caffeinate the misery.
The Baltic Scene at Night
Bringing the Baltic scene together in Riga.
Other things I've made
Identities, websites and other bits from the archive.
Product Specific Bits
User Lists
Finding a bigger opportunity in a simple feature request.
Area of Interest Selection
Designing a flexible way to handle complex geographic areas.
Country Selector
Evolving a core interaction as the product changed around it.
The bit I like most is when nobody knows the answer yet.
I like getting into the mess, working out what matters and finding an idea worth pursuing.
Then comes making it work: giving it an identity, designing the product or website, and getting the details ready for the people who'll actually use it.
At Brainnwave, that kept me busy for seven and a half years. With The Iron Thistle, it took us from an idea to a sold-out event - and straight into planning the next one.
Whatever the idea needs.
Creative Direction
Finding the idea, setting the direction and making sure the good bits survive contact with reality.
Brand & Identity
Positioning, naming and visual identities that give people something to recognise - and a reason to care.
Digital & Web
Turning complicated companies and products into digital experiences that make sense and actually feel like something.
Product
Working out what an early product needs to do, how people will use it and what we can sensibly build first.
Campaigns & Concepts
Ideas designed to get noticed, whether that means a launch, a campaign, an event or occasionally wondering whether we can (or if we should) make a taxi look like an ambulance.
Creative Collaboration
Working with other designers, developers, illustrators, photographers, filmmakers and other specialists to make ideas better than I could make them alone.
Worth stating: AI is part of how I work.
I use AI most days: to research unfamiliar territory, structure information, explore ideas, develop writing, prototype and document the work.
It helps me get further into an idea before committing to a direction - and spend less time on the repetitive work around it.
Getting useful results means giving it context, asking better questions and checking what comes back. I still need to know what's worth pursuing, what needs another pass and when it's confidently talking nonsense.
I also make things when nobody is paying me.
Alex Paints
I paint very small things and make videos about why we paint them. Nearly 20,000 people have apparently decided this is worth watching.
Stillhead
Electronic music, records and the things around them. It's taken me to stages in New York, Puerto Rico and, bizarrely, Greenland.
The Iron Thistle
A miniature-painting competition I’m building in Scotland with friends. Because apparently having hobbies wasn't enough and we needed administration too.
I like building things at the beginning.
I'm looking for a hands-on creative or design leadership role in a small, ambitious team.
Somewhere I can work directly with the people making the decisions, help shape the direction and stay involved in making it happen.