Hello and I’m so pleased you’ve clicked on this page as it means you are interested in finding out a bit more about me. I will try to keep my background as brief as possible and would just like to say I feel extremely lucky to do what I do for a living.

I have made my income from art and design for over 20 years since leaving college and I have enjoyed every minute of my working career. So here goes with some of my history...

After leaving Bournemouth College at the tender age of 18, I secured the position of Designer and Illustrator for The Silver Crane Company. Almost immediately I was asked to set up their first art department and I worked there for over two years.

The role encompassed conceptual ideas to final artwork; mostly targeted at male ‘impulse purchase’ gift ware, designs and packaging both for in-house and external clients including Avon Cosmetics and other national and international gift ware companies.

The company is still going and still producing fun tins, many of the ones I designed or illustrated are now highly collectable!

At 21, I moved to Suffolk and applied for three Graphic Design jobs at Advertising Agencies and was offered a full time position by two; I chose Stennik Advertising in Diss because the atmosphere felt good - my initial impression was right. My role covered all aspects of design from initial concept, through visualisation to final artwork (including illustration, art direction and account handling). I had a great couple of years at Stennik, made some lifetime friends but in 1990 discovered I was pregnant.

After leaving Stennik I had a year off work to look after my son but soon needed to be back designing. I set up as a Freelance Graphic Designer, trading as Maui Waui Design. My then partner, a ceramic modeller, joined the business and we ran the partnership for 14 years working for clients including Portmerion, Royal Doulton, Cardew Design and Samuel Heath for ceramic product design and Adnams Brewery and The Cask Marque Trust for Graphic Design. Although Maui Waui handled some well established clients, all our work came via word-of-mouth.

My work also included illustrating for printed tin designs, magazine illustration and ceramic transfer artwork, although a large part of my work was for Adnams where I was even included at their regular Board Meetings.

For about 7 years I primarily designed for Adnams so I have a large portfolio of Adnams design: packaging, pump clips, brochures, leaflets and photographic art direction. My design for Adnams Regatta won ‘best beer mat’ in 1997! I recall my friends from the pub creating a sash along the lines of “Miss Beer Mat 1997” to celebrate!

After many years working full time on graphics, product and ceramic design, we decided to have a change of business and developed a range of ceramic soapdishes based on period style sinks called “The Period Sink Soapdish”.

These were marketed through architectural antique stores, gift and bathroom shops and later we took them ‘on the road’ going to country fairs with our period style market stall.

At the beginning of the new millenium we set up a retail lifestyle shop, with the style of a period c.1900, complete with victorian shop fittings and counters and plenty of palms.

I designed and made a range of traditional gladstone bags and slippers made from the finest axminster and wilton carpet and sourced interesting period style gift ware. I even used an early electric singer sewing machine to make the linings and also my own linen jackets and trousers. We ran the shop for about 4 years but following a separation, I sold my half of the business and for a short time moved back to Bournemouth.

In 2006 I moved back to East Anglia and resurrected Maui Waui Design as my freelance business again.

I was amazed at the reaction of past clients from many years ago, saying how pleased they were I was ‘back in business’ so I can continue some of their design work again, including Adnams Brewery, The Cask Marque Trust and many more.

I hope you have found this interesting and look forward to chatting sometime should you wish to contact me to discuss future work for yourself or your business.