Brief Summary
My career has always been client-side, building a graphic design resource which is deeply woven into the company. I'm an advocate of in-house design as branding exercises, new product development, corporate collateral and packaging/merchandising can be highly focused and in line with the company's higher level objectives.
I direct all disciplines of graphic design however I personally specialise in branding and packaging/POS.
I'm a great believer in doing things right even if that means making difficult decisions. The highly stressful day-to-day atmosphere in which we work in means that its easy to cut corners and 'make-do' with lower quality work, just to hit a deadline. Yet by working simpler and smarter, and by managing relationships it's easy to find wiggle room and compromise in any situation.
See examples of my work at Behance profile:
http://www.behance.net/simcmahon
Clients
B&Q
Tesco
Robert Dyas
Boots
Stax
UK Fire & Rescue Services
British Gas
Baxi
Chubb
Yale
Union
FireAngel
First Alert
BRK
Dicon
Jarden
Mapa Spontex
Castorama
Brico Depot
Professional Experience
Creative Director
KONG Creative Ltd
2013 - Present
We are a creative agency that specialise in corporate & product branding.
All brands have stories to tell, but not all brands know how to tell their story. That’s what we do. Through insightful, intelligent strategy and captivating stimulating design, we engage consumers with a provoking story. It’s a story that not only makes consumers want to part with their hard earned money, but it’s a story they want to tell others.
Our job is to prod and probe to uncover insights into the brand and the market. We then strategically plan how to exceed the brand goals and drive a commercial advantage. We then wrap the brand in stunning packaging, and beautiful design at all consumer engagement points.
Graphic & Packaging Manager
Sprue Safety Products
November 2006 – Present (6 years 3 months)
Manager of the Graphic Design team. Defining and implementing each corporate and product brand throughout the business, everything 'visual' emanates from my department.
I help drive the business forward at a both strategic and operational level, rationalising and managing the ever-growing list of projects.
Have recently completed a complete rebrand of the business and its multiple brands, and implemented these rebranding exercises in a series of range reviews in both retail and trade.
Graphic & Packaging Designer
Assa Abloy UK
2005 – 2006 (1 year) Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
Primarily worked with the big 3 lock brands - Yale, Chubb and Union.
Provided innovative packaging solutions for expensive and specialist security equipment in addition to the usual cost-effective retail and trade packaging.
In addition to this I provided full graphic design services to Yale, improving the existing branding to suit the UK market and making this consistent across all collaterals.
Design Director
SP Web Design Ltd.
2003 – 2006 (3 years)
A business venture with Paul Hebron:
Based in Dudley and Stourbridge in the West Midlands but working with clients nationally SP Web Design Ltd offers high quality web and design services at an affordable cost.
As a low cost provider of design services we are the obvious choice for voluntary sector organisations, charities and small businesses who would otherwise find it difficult to access high quality design solutions.
Graphics Technician
Allen Martin Conservation Ltd
1999 – 2005 (6 years) Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
Created custom graphics for the PC software provided with Allen Martin's system. This was tailored to each customer's branding and needed to fulfil their specific requirements.
Applied the corporate branding across all collateral, created and implemented new website.
