Hi, my name is Theo and I am a designer
I hope you have enjoyed looking at my creative produce, I am very proud of it.
When I was younger I felt like I couldn’t be an artist because I wasn’t the best at drawing. I would proudly call myself a designer but never an artist. That is different today, maybe just because with age my view of what art is has developed. The world has changed since I fell in love with the creative process and so many different mediums are now appreciated as art.
Branding design has been my umbrella for a long time. My design career started as a logo designer, I then started my own clothing business before joining a fast paced magazine office as a digital designer. There I learnt to develop web pages as we transitioned the paper magazine to a digital service. Currently I am Head of Design at Appatree LTD, covering UI/UX for mobile and web; marketing material; website design & development; brand creation.
I work closely with a fantastic team of developers who have further fine tuned my website development skills, and are also on hand to help with larger projects. Check out our company’s website here for more information on what we can provide for you
A short interview with me:
Q. Why did you get into design?
A. As much as I hold my reservations about my A-levels, it was the passion they evolved that was most useful. Simply choosing graphical communications over computer science for my A-levels is what got me started in design. And my first project to create branding for a milkshake company Shake & Go was when I truly fell in love with design. I even have a milkshake tattooed on my pinky finger to pay homage to this.
Q. What are your other hobbies or pastimes?
A. DIY :) I am currently renovating my house to bring it up to date and looking better than it has done in decades. I am learning carpentry and other skills required for this process and loving it. I am experimenting with more traditional forms of artwork for the house too which is a fun learning curve. I enjoy weight lifting, cooking, boxing and spending my evenings playing video games with my friends (Trackmania is a current favourite).
Q. How do your personal values influence your work as a designer?
A. I strongly believe in the importance of being true to myself with who I am and not being afraid to express my personality at all times. This desire for authenticity within myself is mirrored in my approach to design projects. Resulting in outcomes that reflect the client’s true identity and story in an impactful way.
My Tattoos
On my left forearm I have morse code for my surname Griffin.
On my right forearm I have six icons representing key parts of the first 18 years of my life and my family members. The red, green and blue rectangles are tattooed like paint brush strokes.
On the fingers of my right hand I have a milkshake, boxing glove, "E" and mouse pointer. I've used the printer ink colours for the offset fill, combining print colours with a more digital style.
On my left thigh I have a gothic styled "pi" symbol with 4 vibrant geometric lines of colour with morse for "BATB" within these lines. The colours are taken from a picture of the sunset from a holiday with my friendship group called Boys At The Back, this name we got from our a-level maths class.
On my left upper arm I have a canal inspired scene dedicated to my annual trips around the british waterways.
On my right calf I have a pig smoking a cigarette with a chicken wing tattooed on the pigs arm. This is inspired by the traditional sailor jerry tattoos of pigs and roosters and the phrase "when pigs fly".
Above my right knee I have an ambigram of "Rig Rog", the nicknames of my bestfriend and I from school. He has the matching tattoo rotated 180 degrees in the same place.
On the back of my right hand I have the outline of a stormtrooper's helmet overlayed on a yellow lego head. Inspired by my love for star wars and the many lego star wars sets I played with growing up.
On the top of my back I have an illustration of a keyring my late paternal Grandpa gifted to me.
On the back of my right hand I also have the date 1841, the year of birth of my maternal Grandpa thanks to a typo on his birth certificate.