Post his studies, Hugh joined Vasoline Advertising in Bloemfontein as a junior designer and later made the move to Johannesburg to start a new branch for the expanding agency, with today's Humankind MD, Deon Kruger.
Hugh's CV includes a stint in the UK where he worked for a small London-based agency, Media Link. When he returned to his Mzansi roots, he re-applied for his design position at the Johannesburg branch of the now, much larger, Vasoline Advertising. Hugh worked himself up to junior creative director in 2002 and after what he refers to as some interesting times, left the agency with colleagues Deon Kruger and John Busken. With one client, they started a small agency called MGM Brand Construction and Advertising in 2003.
Dial Direct was the client at MGM and taking the new brand to market, was the agency's first of many challenges - especially without a landline, email, internet or fax facility! All they had was a trestle table, two small Macs, and a printer and worked from a town house for the first few months. Three months later the agency was able to move into fully-fledged offices in Hyde Park. MGM soon morphed into a 10-strong team and over the next three years, this number expanded to over 50 passionate players who were responsible for servicing a rapidly growing client base.
After some time, Hugh felt that the MGM design creative director job description, needed a face lift and he opted to try his hand at the production manager role that became available at the agency. His penchant for detail, order, and structure, coupled with a strong print background, made for a good grounding for his changed title: "the new production lady!"
Now with the agency going to the next level, Hugh has taken on the position of Operations Director, to ensure that the agency keeps in line with the desired objectives and deliverables needed for the next phase of growth. He still oversees the production department and will continue to manage the agency's TV and radio production needs, which he is passionate about.
Hugh's career cools include designing the new logos for brands such as Auto & General, Supa Quick and Budget Insurance. For fun, he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, loves making some good structured noise on his drum kit, enjoys the natural splendors under the sea scuba diving and races up a storm on his Buell motorbike! Occasionally he enjoys designing some custom motorcycle paint schemes for his fellow biker buddies.
