Meet the team – Tom
My family and I will agree I was an annoying but creative child – building towering lego cities in my bedroom or angsting over needlessly intricate art and construction projects for school. I was also quite fat, spending too much time on indoor pursuits like watching TV and teaching myself skills in graphic design, web coding and feature writing, the latter of which I used for the local newspaper as soon as they’d let me contribute (read: so I’d stop emailing them to ask for a job as a junior reporter).
At university in Bristol, where I studied literature, I spent every free day interning at a lifestyle magazine for the elite addresses of Clifton; helping create adverts and layout editorials with self-taught graphic design skills as well as writing monthly travel, property and technology features.
During those three years, the media bug bit hard – fancy press trips and creative brainstorming sessions became my world, and when I finally graduated I got a grown-up job right upstairs from the magazine office, with another publishing company, this time in scientific research.
We sourced content from across Europe and, with a knack for languages that even I can’t explain, I was put in charge of working with the teams in Spain and Italy. In early 2011, with rudimentary Spanish under my belt, I quit my job and moved to Barcelona to study the language full time, living in the heart of the gothic quarter.
Returning to the UK that summer and hungry for another adventure, I moved immediately (and rather recklessly) to London, having preached my disdain for the capital for several years prior. Here, I learned workplace diplomacy at a chaotic but electric events management company opposite Big Ben, tried marketing management at a world-leading publishing company I was wildly underqualified for, and ended up at a boutique copywriting agency on the South Bank – my dream role at the time.
After two educational but exhausting years in London, it was copywriting that moved me to Zurich, Switzerland. Continental life suited me perfectly and I found myself (both personally and professionally). My workplace – a Swedish multinational in the travel and education sector – was also my social group. After six wonderful years I decided to move back to the UK, with friends for life and new skills in project management, art direction, business strategy and leadership added to my CV.
I met the Think! Associates team on a project in summer 2019 and was instantly engrossed by Alan, Dora and Dan’s tales of design, art direction and strategy from across the decades. We realised there was an exciting opportunity to offer up my skills and experience whilst honing new ones in the cosy Think! Studio – and the best, as they say, is yet to come!
