Education
Arts University College of Bournemouth
2008-2012
BA (Hons) Graphic Designzvvv
John Cabot Academy 2000 - 2007
A level: Art(A), Product Design(A), ICT(B)
AS level: Art(B), Product Design(A), ICT(A)
GCSE: Art(A*), Product Design(A*), Biology(C),
Chemistry(C), Physics(B), Maths(B), RE(B),
ICT(A), English Language(C) & Literature(C),
German(D)
James Isbell
8 Bickley Close
Hanham
Bristol
BS15 3TB
james.isbell.net
[email protected]
+44(0)7895151563
Bio
I have a passion for all
things digital, that interact,
move and animate. I strive
for originality and meaning
in design and love to
conceptualise new ideas
and dream up design
innovations.
Interests
Photography, radio control
planes, astrophotography,
electronics and arduino
boards, land boarding,
mountain biking, rock
climbing, kayaking
Achievements
D&Ad Best In Show 2012.
Adobe Design Achievement Award
Semifinalist 2011.
Engineering Education Scheme working with
Rolls Royce.
Skills
Extensive knowledge in:
Adobe After Effects, Adobe Flash, Adobe
InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop,
Processing, Phonegap App development for
mobile phones, Apple ST Pro, Blender 3D,
Cinema 4D, HTML, CSS, ActionScript 2&3,
Drupal & Wordpress
John Cabot Academy College Art and
Technology award 2 years running.
John Cabot Academy College Product design
work shown around the country by AQA exam
board due to “extraordinary and boundary
breaking” work.
Winner of millennium mug design competition.
Work Experience
Crown FM UK 2011 Freelance
Gained experience on ebook publishing and
researched into the ebook domain as well as
the future of ebooks.
Gospel life 2011 Freelance
Website design involving product promotion
and commerce shop.
Roam design 2011 Freelance
Promotional introduction video to West Point’s
website.
MAMMAL Create Freelance
2010 Christmas animation for MissingLink
& NextLink & SafeLink
2009 Christmas animation for Missing Link
2009 Animation for www.jcmt.co.uk
2008 Motion graphics animation for
MAMMAL Create’s website
Current Uganda Destiny Freelance
MAMMAL Create 2006 July Experience
John Cabot Academy Freelance
Istockphoto.com & Shutterstock.com
2005-Now Employment
Website design/ development for Christian
missions to Uganda.
2008 Rebrand of school logo, letterhead,
school clothes, signposts, vans and cars.
KissMyPixel 2007-2010 Employment
Motion graphics in broadcasting. Involved in
idea generation, 3d storyboarding, filming,
animating.
Cre8ion 2007-2010 Employment
Website designing and developing.
KissMyPixel 2006 July Employment
Active role in BBC TV Projects. Developed
storyboarding and developing in 3D
programs.
Worked on No Smoking campaign and
badges.
Selling illustrations, graphics, photography.
Bristol Council Printing Factory 2005
July Experience
Learned printing processes like designing,
lithography, trimming and bookbinding.
Wildify
According to research 30% of our planet’s
species have declined in less than half a
century. For my major project I developed
a unique concept to aid conservationists
collect much needed data to help
conserve our wildlife. Using phones the
public can record the wildlife they find,
discover and collect animals that live near
them and learn about what they find whilst
helping conserve our disappearing wildlife.
Wildify - App, Identify
and Record
I created an easy to use system that
allowed the general public to automatically
identify animals with the touch of a button,
learn about what they find and then add
their findings to help conservationists.
Wildify - Collect
and Discover
The phone app also allows users to learn
about themselves and what they find,
collect their findings from a set selection.
and discover what wildlife lives
near them.
Wildify - Website
The website features many of the
same functions as the app but also
allows conservationists to view wildlife
populations from any time period, compare
stats between animals and visually see
animal migrations using the time line.
Spaceman
A motion graphics animation which won
a semifinalist Adobe Design Achievement
Award . This is a story about an ordinary
designer that meets an extraordinary friend.
Together they step outside and discover the
star filled sky above their heads.
Written, directed and created by me; music
by Kathy Fazal.
Ministry of Sound
D&Ad Posters
A series of D&Ad winning “best of year”
digital and printed posters for Ministry of
Sound’s Saturday Sessions 2012 event. The
idea was to create three sound generated
posters from music that would be featuring
at the event advertised. The poster caused
much debate between judges due to its
innovative format as an interactive digital
poster in contrast to a traditional
printed poster.
RSA Brief
Petrol Station
RSA brief to invent a cost effective use for
the increasing number of redundant petrol
stations. This concept shows how the space
could be used as office pods for home
workers and small businesses.
Credit: Pete Smart, Jon Cleave
WeVo
This ‘innovate consolidate’ project brings
together a big community of people to
help out in their city or town creating a
big society by allowing them to identify
problems in the community through the
WeVo website. This allows the community
suggest organisations which can provide
the solution or set up a self initiated
volunteer scheme.
Little White Lies
A magazine cover for Little White Lies
featuring the film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
This was a D&Ad illustration brief asking
competitors to create a portrait illustration
of a main character from a chosen movie.
Fishy Friends
Research shows that the world’s fishing
stocks will become totally depleted by
2050. This info graphics animation helps
viewers learn about the issue with user
interaction and motion graphics.
This project was set by AUCB to visualise
data in a graphical way.
British Idioms &
Proverbs
This project looked at visualising British
idioms & proverbs and was part of a
university project. Creation of the animation
involved 3d software and drawing around
the 3d objects in flash.
Festival of Britain
and Utility
University exhibition in which we wrote a
book about the Utility and Festival of Britain
art movement.
Photography
In my spare time I like to do natural
photography showing my passion for
nature and awareness of our environment.
The fundamentals of good photography
have helped me to learn skills such as the
thirds rule, depth of field, speed blur, and
scene lighting, invaluable in the creation
of other projects involving 3d work, motion
graphics or realistic scenes.
Typographic
Packaging
A university project focusing on typography
and British mannerisms. I took the
mannerism’s literal meanings to create
a paper cake and plate. The resulting
outcome could be turned into
cake packaging.
North Stoke Foot Walks
An experiment in visual systems. This piece
provides a unique approach to country walk
directions such as this foot walk in North Stoke.
Packaged in a sophisticated measuring tape
format it provides directions, estimated times,
easy to see symbols, and meters until the next
direction all on a line of tape.