About
Every chapter of my career pairs leading the work with making it. I have led big shoots and held the camera. I have set the brand strategy and built the store. Clients get senior thinking and finished work from the same person.
Senior brand, creative and communications
I am a creative director based in Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast. For more than 20 years I have led brand, campaign and ecommerce creative for national names like Village Roadshow and Goodman Fielder, and for founders who needed to raise money or sell product fast.
I still lead and make the work myself: strategy, identity, photography, packaging and online stores, with specialists brought in when a job needs them. Before all of this I grew up in a family that has worked in food for three generations, from the markets to retail, and then worked in tourism. That is where I learned how things actually get sold.
20+years leading brand, campaign and ecommerce creative.
200+campaigns art directed and shot for six theme parks.
4 to 18the in house studio I helped grow at Village Roadshow, replacing the external agencies.
400%Sales rose 400% in the first month after the Aptus relaunch.
Career
More than 20 clients, including Goodman Fielder, Jupiters Casino, Natural Beauty and Village Roadshow.
Six parks and four to six major campaigns a year across television, cinema, outdoor and social, with crews of up to 100. More than 30 food and beverage outlets overhauled, plus food and beverage creative for Lionsgate in China. I helped grow the in house studio from 4 people to 18, which replaced the external agencies.
Fast creative for companies raising money, including the pitch deck and film for Pellucid, which raised $10M, and the identity and app design for Riper.
These run alongside project work, which is why the dates overlap.
Full rebrand, packaging, photography and a Shopify relaunch in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada. Sales rose 400% in the first month.
A product taken from concept to international testing in Toronto and Greece, with 3D and customer content playbooks for launch.
Brand guidelines, three Figma design systems, a Figma to Braze email pipeline, an industry publication and B2B microsites, for a network of more than 4,000 pharmacies under strict advertising rules.
Why clients hire me
You deal with me directly. Specialists I trust cover motion, 3D and development, and strategy and capital when a project needs them. I keep creative responsibility for all of it.
Aptus sales rose 400% in the first month after the relaunch I led. Pellucid went on to raise $10M with the deck and film I made. The companies earned those results. I made what their customers and investors saw.
Fifteen years of national television, cinema and outdoor campaigns. The same standard, applied to founders and established businesses without the overhead of an agency.
I have made effective creative under strict health and pharmacy advertising rules. That carries straight across to health, wellness, finance and alcohol.
Based in Burleigh Heads, on set in person anywhere on the Gold Coast, and working with clients interstate and overseas by video call.
Working alongside Dave
Senior specialists, brought in where a project needs them. You still deal with me, and I keep creative responsibility for the work.
Strategy and operations
More than two decades of international experience across management consulting, business strategy, operations, technology, capital and enterprise development. James works where strategy meets execution: the financial, operational and commercial reality behind an important decision.
Founder and Principal, JYCO Partners
Capital and transactions
Lawyer by training, with more than thirty years in tax, transaction structuring and corporate finance across the United States and Brazil. David owns the capital side: the structure a lender can approve, the counterparties and the route to closing.
Senior associate, JYCO Partners