Since December 2001, I've been working fairly steadily for Character Games Ltd. This firm licenses images from other companies to apply to their range of children's toys and games. I've worked with Spider-Man, Harry Potter and The Simpsons, to name a few. It's fun work, and my Photoshop and Illustrator skills have been stretched to the limit doing packaging, design and photography for this client.

During the previous two years, SAS International was my main client. Until July 2001, we had a routine where I would work in Heidelberg for two weeks, then in London for the next two. New hirings and a change in marketing emphasis curtailed the trips, and I now handle jobs from home on a less frequent basis. I was working for Park HR in their offices fairly regularly, until SAS took all my time. I would cover holiday schedules or help out during peak times. I teamed with four different writers, working on one-off ads and new business pitches.

Clients: Character Games Limited (London); SAS International (Heidelberg), the EMEA headquarters of an American IT software firm with an in-house marketing department; eNiklas (Slough), a management and business software consultancy based in Amsterdam. I designed their explore newsletter. JobPartners (Chiswick), a Web-based HR firm. I managed the production and dispatch of their advertising schedule for two years. Park Human Resources (London), a recruitment advertising agency with offices in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Edinburgh; Business Address Ltd. (Hammersmith), a design consultancy for whom I worked on advertisements and direct marketing. My main accounts were Hewlett-Packard, Louisiana-Pacific building products and Ruberoid building products.

For this Hammersmith-based B2B design consultancy, I worked on varied accounts, including Hewlett-Packard direct marketing, TT Club freight insurance, Tricom modems and networking, Thorn EMI software, Engelhard catalysts, Square Grip steelwork, Computer Marketing and Dow construction products.

Recession forced a change in our working relationship. I went freelance and took desk space in BAL's offices. However, I remained the Senior Art Director at Business Address until 1999, while taking on other freelance clients.

Working primarily for George Hynes & Partners (Farringdon) and Price Haslam (tourism, Chelsea Wharf) on new business presentations and accounts such as Dairy Crest, Bermuda Tourist Board and Croydon Borough Council.

After Streets folded, I found freelance work at George Hynes through a Streets colleague. Then, a headhunter sent me to Newcastle for a two-week trial for a Creative Director position. I was there four days when my motorcycle was stolen. In the meantime, George Hynes rang and said would I like a job. So long, Newcastle. One of Hynes' account directors took me with him to start up an agency in Chelsea, but I could see the writing on the wall and took the position offered at Business Address.

Addison Marketing (formerly Streets Advertising) was part of the Chetwynds Group until shoddy accountancy put them out of business. I supervised the creative department (art), liaised with the production department to assure smooth work flow; member of the management committee with views to staffing, production and creative excellence. My art director responsibilities included Access credit card, Aeritalia (military), Allied Irish Bank, Shell Oils UK, Control Data, Bose loudspeakers, Toshiba, Atlas Recruitment, Argus Press.

I had to completely revamp my portfolio for the London market. The same work that got me quite respectable jobs in Boston and Edinburgh was useless in The Smoke. I spent three months job-hunting by day and doing concept visuals by night. One visit to - oh Jesus, some hot shop that is gone now - had me completely re-do the visuals overnight and reappear at the man's desk the following morning. No soap. But, the man at Grey's really liked them. Finally, a headhunter sent me to Streets Advertising in Marylebone and I got my first London job. I worked for Streets under three different names in Marylebone, Covent Garden and Soho.

I worked for Bungey-Halton DFS, Hall Advertising and Ash Gupta Advertising. Accounts included Budget Tyres & Exhaust, Stop‘n’Steer, Kwik-Fit, Nevica skiwear, Rossignol skis, Laidlaw Ford, ITT Canon, Scottish Development Association, Scottish Gas, Scottish Television, British Telecom (Scotland), Saab (Scotland).

My wife and I were touring Scotland when we stopped to visit a friend in Gullane. Her brother-in-law had an agency in Edinburgh, and would I like to pay him a visit? He suggested a spec pitch to one of his clients and on the basis of that, I was offered a position. I was quickly promoted to Creative Director, which lasted until I fought a battle with the suits on behalf of my copywriter. Being an arrogant wee shite (I'm better now), I walked out and spent a brief period freelancing for Hall Advertising, until Ash Gupta hired me off the back of a poster design I did for Nevica skiwear. The Scottish winters (and the lure of hitting the big time in London) persuaded me to finally look South.

Before leaving America, I worked for three years at one of Boston's top advertising agencies: Quinn & Johnson/BBDO. I worked on Honeywell office automation, Teradyne automated test equipment, Raleigh bicycles and Friendly fast food restaurants.

I started as an assistant art director, but ended up with my own accounts. When I resigned to move to the UK, I was offered a 33% increase in pay to stay. Tempting ... I always wonder what I'd be doing now, if I'd stayed in America. Freelancing, probably.

I worked at a number of jobs when I arrived in Boston: first, I landed an artworking job in Cambridge. This was for a guy named Laurie McKinney, who sold drug testing kits to the police and military at the same time as selling his legendary "Cannabinizer" to head shops. It was great fun working there, but I was poached by a supplier to work for his typesetting firm, where I formatted a CompuGraphic phototypesetting machine using a teletext input keyboard and punched paper tape. I keyed the text, ran the tape through the typesetter and pasted the galleys to flats. We artworked large print books for people with poor vision. A dispute over pay, or lack of it - any excuse, really - found me checking the Help Wanted section.

Quickly, I landed a job designing AdEast, a monthly advertising trade journal, where I did about 15 issues. This was a great opportunity to find freelance work as I pasted up the Help Wanted section. I met Judy on one such job, she recommended me to Ed and I found myself working for Arnold & Co. on the McDonald's account as Ed's assistant. This was a top agency, but the work was more glamorous than it sounds. After about a million buy-one, get-one-free coupons, I had built up my portfolio enough to get a proper art director's job. But, Giardini-Russell proved to be a disaster. It was a boutique design firm with a reputation for going through staff, and they sure-as-hell went through me.

I found myself driving a Boston cab. It was interesting work, working nights, driving around the "Combat Zone". It was fun for about three weeks, when one of my fares persuaded me that I was better suited to advertising. I did a spec pitch for Andrew Curcio, Inc. and landed a job as Creative Director of his agency on the 40th floor of the Prudential Building. Staff of six. This was a great confidence builder, and I got to do pretty much anything I damn well pleased. But, I aspired to greatness and started having another look around.

Ed gave me a call - you remember Ed? One of his co-Creative Directors was looking for help and he recommended me. Hello, Quinn & Johnson/BBDO.

Until I found my true calling, I worked in all sorts of jobs. I've been (in order) a window washer, security guard, shelf-stocker, short-order cook (McDonald's), college student, US postal worker (letter sorter, special delivery driver, truck driver, letter carrier), gardener, gas station attendant, dishwasher, short-order cook (The Joyous Lake Cafe, Woodstock, NY; The Bear, Bearsville, NY), sign painter, taxi driver, painter and decorator. They all had their attractions, but I like graphics and advertising best.