meet the team
We are foremost a team: a group of people who work well together in harmony to create work we are proud of for brands we are passionate about.
Please click on each profile to read more.
-
Daniel Wallace
Designer
Daniel has qualifications in graphic design and creative advertising from University College Falmouth, and previously worked at Elmwood in Leeds, where he was involved in design and art direction for major clients such as Asda, McCain and Durex. Since joining nicepond, he’s worked on packaging for Lakeland and designed delicious identities for some of our local food heroes. His passion for photography and love of cooking means he can often be found in our photographic studio sous-chefing for the food stylist and tastefully directing the shoot.
-
Sarah Spalding
Designer
Sarah joined nicepond after gaining a first in design and illustration from De Montfort University and a stint at a Manchester design agency. Her broad client portfolio includes North Face, Lowe Alpine, Hawkshead, Cumbria Tourism and Salford University. Sarah’s wonderful illustration talents draw great praise - see her cute characters for Lakeland’s new bakeware range for children. Days off find her busy on pitches at the local climbing wall, and hand-jamming and heel hooking on real Lake District rock.
-
Sarah France
Junior Designer
Our newest recruit, Sarah recently graduated with a BA Hons in Graphic Design and has had work selected and published in ‘Icons of Graphic Design’. Sarah loves graphic design and loves being a graphic designer. A self-confessed obsessive designer, you’ll find her desk covered in yellow sticky notes, a sketchbook by her bed and a ‘to-do’ list on her wrist. She is fond of cycling, socialising, social networking, bull-dog clips and Pixar. Sarah is also big on blogging.
-
Ian Lambert
Head of Digital
Ian’s wide-ranging design career spans an apprenticeship as a retoucher, diploma in graphic reproduction and key design roles at newspaper studios and ad agencies. His diverse client roster covers BMW, Riley Snooker, Co-op Dairies, Lakeland and Shot2go. He is our in-house web specialist. Over the years he has continued to enhance his photographic skills and is involved in the majority of our studio shoots. When not behind the lens, Ian’s busy pounding the treadmill at our local state-of-the-art gym overlooking Lake Windermere.
-
Steve Jones
Design Director
Steve trained as a technical illustrator at Blackpool College of Art. During his graphic design career, which includes the past 11 years at nicepond, he has worked for leading brands such as The North Face, Lowe Alpine, Kronenbourg, Foster’s lager, Swish, English Lakes Hotels and B&Q. As well as playing a senior design role at nicepond, his remarkable illustration skills have often been utilised by our hotel and property development clients. Away from the Mac, you’ll find him mountain biking the bridleways around the Lakes and photographing its breathtaking landscape.
-
Roy Hacking
Head of artwork
Roy has extensive experience of newspaper publishers, printing and marketing agencies. As the artwork meister of nicepond, he is responsible for producing finished artwork for all our print, packaging and point of sale work. He is also in charge of in-house proofing and technical liaison with printers. He enjoys feeling the wind in his sails on Lake Windermere, in fact he is mad about anything to do with boats, and eats out as often as possible, usually when it's his turn to cook!
-
Mary Wilkinson
Commercial Manager
In charge of our front of house, office, accounting and administration, Mary keeps her head when all about are losing theirs. She has a bank of management and finance qualifications from the Open University, along with business bookkeeping courses and is our resident first aider. In previous account handling positions she worked on Vodafone, Phones4U and the Caudwell Group. During her time off from the Sage software, Mary enjoys playing the piano, skiing, horse riding, farming, and is secretary for an agricultural show, which stands her in good stead for shepherding our flock of designers.
-
Neil Berry
Studio Assistant
Our new studio assistant, Neil is putting his art and design awards to valuable use supporting our design and photographic teams. His multi-tasking duties range from creating packaging prototypes for key presentations to Tesco and Boots, cataloguing and organising in our in-house photographic studio and props rooms. In his spare time, he enjoys photography, cooking and swimming but not all at the same time, even multi-skilled Neil can’t manage that.
-
Bob Wallace
Marketing Director
Our man at the top, Bob is a marketing director with 30 years’ experience running a design and marketing agency. He has worked on many heavyweight projects within the public and private sectors, involving business to business, scientific and technical, and consumer markets. In addition to his day-to-day business management role, his responsibilities at nicepond include the creation of marketing strategies and implementation of campaigns, together with leading our account handlers. Bob’s keen on gardening, DIY and eating out... and one of these days he’ll find some time to do them.
-
Caroline Whitfield
Business Development
After a corporate career in global marketing, Caroline has been a serial entrepreneur in the food & drink sector with a focus on building innovation and design led brands. She is also a judge on the Queens Award for Innovation and her brands have won numerous awards for design and product excellence. Her role at nicepond is to assist the growth of the business in winning new clients, create new opportunities with existing clients and assist the development of the agency. She loves teal blue, Google news, Howard Hodgkin paintings, cats, rugged landscapes and has three inquisitive daughters.
-
Pat Wallace
Creative Director
After commencing her career in newspaper publishing, Pat worked on high-street fashion brands, blue-chip companies such as NatWest, The Co-operative Bank, Formica, Boddingtons, Theakston, Mountain Equipment and Rohan, and for agencies including McCann Erickson and JWT. Fifteen years ago, inspired by Dorothy Wordsworth's journal, 'Home at Grasmere', she moved to the Lake District where the beauty of the landscape "calls home the heart to stillness". Her nicepond role is to continually raise the creative bar. She loves reading, sampling the local food and walking with Ted, her Airedale Terrier, on the local fells.
-
Ted
Dogsbody
Three year old Ted is a working Airedale Terrier, who has been a willing team member since puppyhood. He soon found his niche as the office paper shredder and client greeter and he loves to help clear up after food shoots. Ted can often be found in the boardroom (nice soft carpet) taking a well earned break.