Magazines

Various publishers

Blackhair

I was Art Editor of Blackhair magazine from 2006 to 2016. In that time, I redesigned the title several times to bring it up to the level of aspirational title. I was also responsible for cover and page design, barcode production, pre-press production and ad artwork processing.

‍Blackhair was aimed at black women of all ages and was a 164-page, bi-monthly, perfect bound magazine produced by Haversham Publications Ltd.

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Hairstyles Only

During my period as Art Editor of Hairstyles Only, I redesigned the title several times, the first of which was the 'disco' redesign, bringing in brighter colours and punchier elements. Eventually, I tried to bring in punkier graphic elements as well.

‍Hairstyles Only was a 196-page A5 'lookbook' magazine which was translated and sold into 13 different territories. Before I handed it off to concentrate on other titles, HSO was the second best-selling hair title in the UK and number one in Europe.

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Teach Early Years

I took over as Art Editor of TEY in 2017 and oversaw a minor redesign of the title. Teach Early Years was a magazine of variable page count, and was even more variable in schedule due to poor in-house communication, which at least had the benefit of keeping me on my toes.

On one occasion, our design and advertising team was suddenly told that the title had been suspended… only to find out a few weeks later that it wasn't. Confused? Me too.

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Hair Now

While working for Haversham Publications, I was tasked with bringing a newly-purchased title in-house. Hair Now was a 196-page A5 'lookbook' magazine which was launched as a competitor to Hairstyles Only.

I redesigned Hair Now from scratch to make it visually different from HSO, going for a bit of a rock/punk vibe that proved to be quite popular in the hair industry at the time.

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Tattoos Only

While I was working on Hairstyles Only, I was given the task of designing and launching one of the most bizarre 'sister' titles ever. Tattoos Only was briefed to be visually similar to HSO, but with a more 'edgy' look – something less intimidating than conventional tattoo magazines that might have appealed to a 'hair magazine' readership.

‍Tattoos Only was a 196-page, A5 'lookbook' magazine of nothing but photos of tattoos (of wildly varying quality). My favourite photo in the magazine was of a large man with a questionable tattoo of a tiger on his back – it looked like someone had been slapping him for a whole day.

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Hair

Hair magazine was purchased by Haversham Publications and produced by a remote designer for some years before I was tasked with bringing production in-house. I was tasked with maintaining the 'retro' design, but I put a lot of time into making production as efficient as I could. I was also involved with design for the linked 'Hair Awards'.

Shortly after I took over as Art Editor, a new Editor started on the magazine. I married her three years later, so that was awesome.

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