Michael Murdoch

CEO and Founder

Michael founded The House in 2009 and is responsible for creative output, managing the team and keeping our clients smiling. He is an experienced designer having over 10 years experience working in London and Hong Kong and has helped organisations of all sizes like the NHS, MTV, Diabetes UK, Boots, Heineken, Global Goals and Nokia to smaller start-ups like Olive Branch, Mixcloud and Readwave. Michael helps clients find their full potential, taking them step-by-step through their projects in partnership with them.

Graduating from Central Saint Martins and the University of West of England, with a time spent studying in Hong Kong, Michael has the training and skills required for any big brand name. Past companies Michael has worked at include Lloyd Northover, Ingredient, Getty Images and Root Design.

When not dreaming up creative and commercially viable ideas Michael loves to gain inspiration from travel (35 countries and counting), practicing Tai Chi and Yoga, cycling to and from work, running (2 marathons down and a few to go) and photographing the wonderful things he sees.

Fancy a chat?  Email michael@thehouselondon.com

Simon Van Blerk

Chief Technical Officer

Simon cut his teeth as a freelance web developer and entrepreneur in the 90s when the web was a primitive beast. During his career so far he has worked at the worlds largest privately owned gaming portal, Miniclip, and spent several years contributing to and later leading the Miniclip web development team. In 2010 Simon co-founded 3step Web to bring agile and iterative web development to small businesses including co-founding a funded tech start-up.

He excels in managing digital teams so that every project stays on task and on time, connecting the dots between coder and client.  Not only does he have the technical skills to code fantastic website which meet all web standards, he has the personable skills to get the job done efficiently and effectively.

In his spare time he plays with his kids, reads comics and rides a skateboard (badly).

Noah Smith

Head of Strategy

Noah has been working in the creative industry for over 20 years and currently consults with a range of businesses on their strategy for growth and their business development plans. After leaving London School of Communications, where he studied graphic design, he joined one of the UK’s leading film publicity agencies, where he worked with some of the largest global brands, such as Disney and Sony. He is passionate about increasing the performance of companies as a management consultant, which he began after graduating from the Exec MBA programme from CASS Business School.

We are very lucky to have Noah at hand to offer advice, support and mentorship as part of UCL Advances to help guide us as we help our clients achieve their goals.  Since meeting in 2013 we are now working closer together on client projects.

Paul Kemp

Senior Designer

Lloyd Cook

Designer

Dragan Drlacic

Senior Designer

Dragan has years of experience creating brands, illustrations and beautiful pixel perfect website design and mobile apps.  Every detail is considered and you would marvel as the beautiful creation process if you could watch the process over his shoulder.

More to follow shortly.

Zoran Jelic

Senior Designer

Zoran is a very talented designer with an eye for detail.  He has worked for over a decade in design and loves to make sure every website and mobile app design is pixel perfect, measuring out every detail.

More to follow shortly.

Nenad Poznanovic

Web Developer

After completing a  Master’s degree in Graphic Engineering and Design, Nenad became a Front-end Developer and has over 3 years of experience in planning, coding, testing and maintaining websites.

Working with the latest technologies on diverse projects he looks for new challenges in IT every day.  So for all your HTML5, CSS3, SASS and Javascript needs, set him a challenge. He’s passionate about scalability, modularity, front-end performance, responsive design, transitions, animations and anything frontend related.

Outside of work, Nenad enjoys a good book, basketball and kicking around a football in hist spare time.

Milana Cap

Senior Developer

Milana is a WordPress specialist and prides herself on creating slick content management systems that are easy for our clients to update and use.  Every section is clear, simple and a mini guide is provided too.  As well as converting beautiful designs and HTML code into WordPress themes, she helps develop our own plugins to make sure every site we created works perfectly.

More info to follow shortly

Rafael Vencatachellum

Brand Strategist and Marketing

Rafael has a real passion for digital marketing and loves to help brands tell their story via social media, films and creative outputs. A real people person, Rafael loves to take on a client’s challenge and help them step by step through the process discussing ideas and wowing them along the way.  As well as this he’s spent years creating short action movies for YouTube audiences, sourcing and managing all production, so he knows his stuff in the world of motion too.

In his spare time, he enjoys the gym, playing football and travelling around his home town, London. He has a particular passion for music and listen to it all day, everyday, and dance to it (very badly so he say…just ask!).

So if you need a strategic plan to help market your product or service, get in touch.

Jennifer Turpin

Animator/Designer

Graduate of a masters degree in Graphic and Digital Design, with first class honours, Jennifer is a talented French Graphic Designer and Animator.

She specialises in digital design working on websites, mobile apps and motion design projects, plus a little illustration for good measure. Passionate about movies and Cinema, she loves storytelling and animating. So give her a challenge and see what she can do!

Beside design, she is often seeking for a new exciting and adventurous travel, always with her camera and her backpack!

Nenad Jelovac

Senior Web Developer

A talented front-end website developer specialising in the slickest and cleanest code in town, bring to life our gorgeous designs to create full responsive websites that work on all browsers and screen sizes.

We have worked with Nenad for a few years now and are always impressed by the quality and speed at which he works. Having realized IT colleges become obsolete by the time you graduate he dropped and found his love in HTML5, CSS3, SASS and Javascript. He’s passionate about scalability, modularity, frontend performance, responsive design, transitions, animations and anything frontend related.

Siddhartha Gurung

Web Developer

George Owens

Designer and Developer

George is the singer and songwriter with The Lightyears. With the band he has toured around the world, worked with top record producers and has a residency at Wembley Stadium. His background in design is based largely on the band’s need to develop a strong visual style and web presence. George honed his skill from an early age designing record sleeves and posters before moving on to the band’s ever-evolving website and social networks. Spreading his wings, in the last 18 months George has designed sites for a wide range of clients including numerous bands, actors and startups as well as much larger clients such as MSD, the UN and the Springbok Supporters Club.

See The Lightyears website at www.TheLightyears.com.

Esteban Palladino

Senior Animator

Esteban Palladino became involved in computer art at the age of 14, he enjoyed doing ANSI drawings and composing MOD music. He also experimented with animation and graphic programming. He has a degree in Image and Sound Design from the University of Buenos Aires, from where he acquired knowledge in the fields of filmmaking, specialized in computer and 3D animation. He also took courses on Graphic Design and Typography so his talents are not limited to making things move. He has attained experience in different fields of media design, like Flash and interactivity, Motion Graphics design, Animation and sound mixing.

Outside of work, you’ll find him spending quality time with his family, helping them grow.

Why not…

Join the gang!

If you think you have what it takes to challenge and impress us and our clients, then join the gang.  Head over the our careers page and get in touch.

George MacCallum

Film Maker

George is a talented videographer, producer, cameraman and editor.  He’s passionate about his work and will happily travel far and beyond armed with his laptop, camera and rucksack to shoot the images that matter.  He has worked on a number of projects with us helping clients like Diabetes UK and Ceviche.

Katie Duffett

Designer and Illustrator

Marta Azaña

Animator and Designer

Graduate of a masters degree in Digital Media, Marta is a talented Spanish Graphic Designer and Animator.

She specialises in animation working on explainer videos, logo idents and even a little 3D design. Marta loves keyframes focusing on the smallest detail making sure that what she is animating looks and feels great. Why not test her skills and see what she can do.

When not designing, Marta will be street dancing or exploring trying to find Geocaches, always out and about enjoying life.

Pen Nee Chok

Illustrator and Designer

Her name is Pen Nee ( pronouced as penny) and as a native Malaysian, she brings some international flare to the team. Graduating from the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, Pen Nee obtained a First Class Hons BA(Hons) degree in Visual Communication. Before coming to further her studies in the UK, she has a diploma in advertising design and has worked in an advertising agency.

When she is free, she likes getting involved with handmade crafts and has partnered with her friend to come out with their own online brand called “Pudding” www.puddingshop.tumblr.com . Want to know more about her, then follow her blog www.pennee.tumblr.com

Adam Walden

Senior Designer

Adam graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BA(hons) in Graphic Design. He can turn his hand to a wide array of creative briefs with talents ranging from illustration, to web design, to animation.  Adam has been with us from the start and knows us and our clients inside and out.  He’s a dab hand a identity creation to and has worked on international projects like www.commonwealthwriters.org. Adam also is a keen musician and a distance runner and he is capable of consuming phenomenal amounts of tea.

Carl Stratton

UI and UX Designer

A lover of Grids, type and type on grids, Carl is a creative thinker with over eight years industry experience. Anything involving identity, brand or digital will put a smile on this guys face.  He loves pixel perfect design, user-centric approaches and surpassing client expectations specialising in creating beautfiful website design in Photoshop format…fully responsive too! In his spare time likes to cook, travel and blog numbers <everyonesfavouritenumber.tumblr.com>.

Emma Law

Designer

Emma is an organised character who is highly motivated. She is a graphic design graduate from Falmouth University. Studying at Falmouth taught her the importance of really great, strong ideas. Within her final year of study she then specialised in branding and packaging.  Emma join us for a mixture of design work and client liaison.

Away from work Emma likes to go to gigs and festivals, skiing with her family and friends and take care of her two house rabbits, Bun and Fifi.

Alexandra P.

Junior Designer

Alexandra is our French import from Nantes and bring that je ne sais quoi we didn’t realise we were missing.

She enjoys creating beautiful brands focussing on packaging, identities, editorial, advertising and illustrations.  She’s driven by curiosity and likes surprising clients and finding new creative ways to reveal ideas!

Outside of work she also enjoys travelling, learning about new cultures and meeting people from all over the world.

Jill Tse

Illustrator and Animator

Jill is a true creator constantly coming up with weird and wonderful ideas! Born in Hong Kong, she studied BA(Hons) Visual Communication Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. From there she joined Wowwowtank multimedia production house and helped created great animations and adverts whilst there. Some of the clients she has worked with include General Electric, Wrigley’s, Whisper and Dequadin. A real creative at heart, even when she’s not working she’s illustrating, photographing and getting a top up on inspiration with a bit of travel for good messure.

Darshan Sanghrajka

Consultant (ex Co-founder)

Darshan loves solving real social and commercial problems by creating campaigns and/or innovation using creative, strategy, design-thinking, technology and behavioural economics. Over the past decade, he has  worked with large clients such as Adidas, the Commonwealth Foundation, the Design Council, the Technology Strategy Board, Forum For The Future, Sanyo, The National Trust, Britvic and many start ups too. When not thinking for clients, Darshan enjoys performing stand-up comedy and painting. He now runs www.stateofambition.org and you can follow him on Twitter @chiefchimpanzee

Edwin Pennicott

Food Taster

With a background in art, photography, film and food, Edwin is a multi-talented RCA graduate ready to advise on your food and beverage needs.  A keen cook himself Edwin has experimented with wonderful flavours for many years and hosted a number of Supper Clubs to boot.

In hist spare time Edwin is a keen cyclist and rock-climber, as well as a keen foodie looking to seek out the tastiest treats around town.

Simon Brown

Senior Developer

Simon, now a full-time member of State of Ambition, specialises in Objective-C, Actionscript 3.0, javascript, XHTML, CSS, Wordpress and Java to name a few. His passion lies in making intuitive website platforms and great mobile apps. He is always on the look out for the next greatest use of technology and he loves his gadgets too.

Jon Huggett

Founder of The Third Foundation

Jon Huggett is the Board Chair of the Social Innovation Exchange, a Fellow of The Young Foundation, and an advisor to NESTA and a number of other for-purpose organizations. He was a partner with both The Bridgespan Group and with Bain & Company; and President of the STOP AIDS Project.

We are very happy to have the help of Jon as our advisor for business and particularly for our social enterprise initiatives.

Patrick McKenna

Chief Executive of Ingenious

Prior to forming Ingenious in 1998, he was Chairman & Chief Executive of The Really Useful Group and, prior to that, was a Partner at Deloitte, where he ran the media group.

Patrick is Chairman of a number of companies in the media sector, including the award winning television company, Hat Trick Productions. He chairs The Young Vic Theatre and is Chairman of the Advisory Board for Goldsmiths College Institute for Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship.

He was previously a Board Member of the British Tourist Authority and Chairman of its Audit Committee, was a member of the Government’s Advisory Forum on Tourism and sat on the Board of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. Patrick has also been a Board Trustee of NESTA, where he chaired the Creative Economy Committee and a Board Member of the British Council.  He is a Fellow of the RSA and a member of BAFTA.

We’re very lucky to have Patrick as our Mentor and refer to his guidance on a regular basis.

Mat Hunter

Chief Design Officer | Design Council

Mat Hunter is Chief Design Officer at the Design Council, an enterprising charity that pioneers the use of design and architecture for the public good. Mat heads up the organisation’s Design Challenges programme that demonstrates how design can create new solutions for the big issues of our time. Whether stopping the spread of superbugs, reducing crime or promoting health and wellness for our aging population, the programme shows how design can create practical solutions to complex problems and stimulate opportunities for enterprise.

Before joining the Design Council Mat was a partner at IDEO, an internationally renowned design and innovation consultancy, where he focused mostly on creating new digital products and services, but occasionally food and footwear too. His current academic roles include Adjunct Professor at Imperial College Business School and external examiner for Product Design at Glasgow School of Art.

We’re really please to work with Mat and have him on board as an advisor.

Nikhil Shah

Mixcloud Co-Founder

Jim Northover

Brand Strategy Consultant

Jim is a designer and brand strategist who has led major brand programmes for clients worldwide. He pioneered corporate identity and the strategic use of design as a business discipline and believes creative thinking can make good businesses better.

For over three decades Jim was chairman of the internationally acclaimed brand consultancy Lloyd Northover which he co-founded.  During that time he was responsible for clients such as BAA, Barbican, British Council, BUPA, City of Belfast, John Lewis Partnership and Dubai International Financial Centre. Jim has extensive experience of the education, infrastructure and financial sectors. Michael, our CEO, met Jim in 2005 working at Lloyd Northover and they hit it off from the start so it made sense to join forces again.

Outside of project work, Jim writes on design and branding for creative and business media, and in his spare time walks, draws and makes art (but not all at the same time).

Paul Butler

Motion Design Consultant

Paul has extensive experience as a Design Director in the world of motion design for the multi-media broadcast industry, providing innovative and award-winning design solutions.

With a BA in Design for Communication Media, Paul started his career at the BBC as a graphic designer in News & Current Affairs. He went on to lead teams of talented motion designers at Sky Television, for News, Movies and many entertainment channels, with responsibility for corporate branding, channel identities, promotions, programme titles, digital media, commercials and sponsorship campaigns.

Paul’s portfolio includes successful campaigns for broadcast and many global clients such as Disney, Moet & Chandon, Panasonic, Carlsberg, Sony, Oral B, Amazon, The Prudential, MGM, Coca-Cola, Now TV, Carlsberg and BlackBerry as well as many media production companies.

He is a guest lecturer at university design and multi-media courses, and been a judge for industry design awards and major graduate events. He met Michael Murdoch, our CEO, whilst teaching at Ravensbourne College and they hit it off straight away.  He now divides his time between design working with The House and career guidance for students across the country.

Become a mentor…

If you want to help a growing team thrive and find success, email michael@thehouselondon.com and let’s chat!

The Challenge

Apprentice Scheme

Step Forward brings together new school leavers from all backgrounds, providing them with one year’s professional work experience and skills training.

Find out more here…

http://www.the-challenge.org/index.php/about-the-challenge-programmes/our-programmes/step-forward

Cinnamon Bridge

Food and Beverage Incubator

What is Cinnamon Bridge? What does it do and when did I first see the opportunity in it? The answer lies back in the days at MyDrink Beverages. Somewhere around the year 2010 they participated in an excellent Start-up weekend in Kaunas, one of the first ones worldwide. This was the probably our first introduction to the world of start-ups.

We help Cinnamon Bridge help other start-ups grow in the Food and Beverage world, advising on branding, packaging, design and marketing via talks, one-to-ones and workshops.

Find out more here at http://cinnamonbridge.com/

Goldman Sachs 10Ksb

Goldman Sachs 10Ksb

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses is an investment to help entrepreneurs create jobs and economic opportunity by providing greater access to education, capital and business support services. 10,000 Small Businesses is funded by Goldman Sachs and the Goldman Sachs Foundation.

We are lucky enough to have been chosen to talk part in their Cohort 3 in January 2017 with residential learning at Aston University, Leeds University and Oxford University.

Find out more at http://www.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000-small-businesses/UK/

UCL Advances

Entrepreneurial Support

UCL Advances, UCL’s centre for entrepreneurship and business interaction, helps anyone who wants to learn about, start or grow a business. Its primary role is to promote a culture of entrepreneurship on campus and engagement with entrepreneurs and small businesses beyond UCL’s boundaries. It works to support start-ups and small businesses across London by helping them to access the technical and business expertise of UCL’s staff and students through a series of programmes to help support ambitious young companies.

We are lucky enough to have been involved in workshops, mentor programmes and support for UCL and want to continue this partnership for the long term.

Visit http://www.ucl.ac.uk/advances to find out more.

Enterprise Nation

Entrepreneurial Network

We are pleased to work with Enterprise Nation, provided advice and support to their members.

Enterprise Nation was founded in 2005 by Emma Jones MBE. Its mission is to create an inspirational environment for business owners and would-be entrepreneurs, a supportive community, informational books and events, and a campaigning voice to help small businesses in the UK flourish.

Find out more at https://www.enterprisenation.com/

Design Council

Social Innovation Support

The Design Council champions great design. For them that means design which improves lives and makes things better.

As an enterprising charity, their work places design at the heart of creating value by stimulating innovation in business and public services, improving our built environment and tackling complex social issues such as ageing and obesity.

They inspire new design thinking, encourage public debate and inform government policy to improve everyday life and help meet tomorrow’s challenges today.

We were lucky enough to be part of the Working Well Design Challenge which helped launch State of Ambition.

Nominet Trust

Funding & Support

Digital technology enables us all to think radically differently, to stimulate new forms of collaboration and to mobilise new communities of interest to take action for social good. It offers us phenomenal opportunities to inspire the creativity and compassion of millions of users in addressing social needs.

As such, Nominet Trust bring together, invest in and support people committed to using digital technology to create social and economic value. They have invested in hundreds of organisations since our inception in 2008, providing business support as well as financial investment, seeking to connect projects to prospective partners who can help increase their reach and impact.

We are lucky enough to have received investment from Nominet Trust in our work for State of Ambition.

Nesta

Mentor Programme

The Creative Business Mentor Network was set up to nurture creative companies with an appetite for growth.  We are lucky enough to be part of this programme under the guidance of Patrick McKenna.

Bark

https://www.bark.com/en/company/the-house-london-ltd/D0Ya/

FreeAgent

Accounting Software

From expences, payroll, and time-tracking, to estimates and invoices, FreeAgent helps you take care of business day-to-day.  We love it and you should too!

For 10% off, forever, visit http://fre.ag/36ad66wj

Tax by Design

Accountancy

Tax By Design only work alongside designers and creative types like us.  They are an invaluable partner, helping us keep one eye on the numbers and the other on growth.

Visit http://www.taxbydesign.com/ and speak to Dean Shepherd for more info.