Desray Preston

I set up The Inquisitive Creative to bridge the gap between external brand expression and employee experience. As a natural problem solver, closing this gap has helped me to deliver real, tangible business value. Over the last 5 year's I have provided thoughtful, practical design solutions and created powerful, sustainable, on-budget and memorable touchpoints. I’ve been lucky enough to work in-house for a number of organisations including Nike, eBay, Basic-Fit, Findexable, Awakening Hearts, Hagglund Homes, MyKagami and Florence London. The projects include corporate branding, social media activation, credentials development, report design, internal brand communication, UX/UI design and art direction. My goal is for my work to have real, measurable business value.

I joined Memento at a pivotal point in its development as a business, taking on the responsibility for developing its brand identify and narrative to support its aggressive growth plans. I took care of all design related touchpoints. From evolving Memento's brand and art direction, through to consistent implementation across all internal and external mediums, including establishing a social media presence across multiple digital channels. I also played an integral role in investor meetings.

I was responsible for brand engagement on a variety of clients across North America, Europe, and Asia. I collaborated with cross-functional teams, leading the creative efforts to develop award winning work. Our projects ranged from brand identity conceptualisation, internal brand engagement (employee experience) through to execution. During my time at Instinctif I was lead designer on projects involving all stages of the employee value proposition. I helped Bacardi Limited with their entire employee journey, from recruitment and attraction, to induction and onboarding, through to ongoing performance as well as their reward and recognition programme. I helped develop a global, internal culture campaign. Taking employees on a journey of discovery through the eyes of their founders while focussing on Bacardi's values; as well as amplifying employee stories and involvement, by seeing themselves in the campaign through photography. This encouraged employees to bring their best self to work. This was a years worth of activities culminating in an annual celebration in February: Founder's Day, which was implemented throughout the USA, Europe and parts of Africa to celebrate their 120 year history. I was actively involved in business development; both in developing strategic, creative pitches as well as presenting them. I played an integral role in pitch winning teams for Rolls-Royce, eBay, Marriott, Thomson Reuters, Givaudan, Bacardi Ltd, University of Portsmouth, Tapestry, GE Oil and Gas and Cambridge Satchel Company.

- Creative problem solving with the ability to sell and get buy in to complex creative concepts

- Key client contact / client director for creative work

- Budget setting along with budget and time management for creative projects

- Overall project creative direction

- Mentoring and nurturing the team and pro-actively developing initiatives for the studio

- Direct leadership skills to manage and lead designers across multiple disciplines and channels