“I grew up in South East London in the 1980s and was always drawing or painting. By age ten I was entering every art competition I could find.. the highlight being a win on TV-AM, where I painted several African animals for a competition. The prize was an African safari, filmed and broadcast over six weeks. And funnily enough, my future husband saw me on it. We didn’t meet until 25 years later, but he remembered the live broadcast!
After school, I studied Graphic Design at Central St Martins, then spent several years designing title sequences for UK broadcasters.. BBC (at TV Centre, before it became luxury flats), ITV, ITN and others, and worked on ad campaigns for Audi, Honda and Virgin Mobile.
From there, I joined ZSL London Zoo as an in-house designer, creating large format exhibit graphics for everything from the Aquarium to the Attenborough Komodo Dragon House, and contributing to the organisation-wide rebrand. Despite the old TV saying to ‘never work with children or animals’, I loved it.
After starting a family, I launched my own practice — May Creative Ltd — focusing on exhibition design for the visitor attraction sector, including projects for Tate, Kew Gardens, Horniman Museum and the National Archives.
The space industry has been a new adventure.. fast-paced, constantly evolving, and full of opportunities to bring big ideas to life visually. It reminds me of visitor attractions, just with rockets! Recent work includes developing the SSTL 40th anniversary marque and creating large-scale graphics for events, conferences and exhibits. I work with a brilliant team, and there’s always something new to learn or new to design.”
Thank you Izabelle — for putting SSTL’s best face forward, and for helping us tell our story in bold, beautiful ways that leave an impact.