Paddy Austin is Creative Director at innovision, an award winning event and brand experience agency that creates compelling experiences for clients including Red Bull, Lloyds and GLA.
Paddy oversaw creative for innovision's activity during London 2012 which involved delivering iconic experiences like PUMA Yard, The British Business Embassy and the Rings on the River.
Before this Paddy worked as a 3D designer at Exposure and a senior designer at Universal Design Studio. He has been in the design industry for around 15 years. We spent five minutes chatting to Paddy about his career...
How did you get into your creative field?
After studying furniture and product design I moved to designing commercial interiors, starting with office design then into retail and hospitality and finally into brand experience and events.
Who, where or what did you learn the most from during your career?
I’m still learning (!) and each new discipline has its own unique set of problems to solve —f or retail interiors I would say Universal Design Studio was a great education where I worked with a great crew of designers and clients who wanted beautiful creative work. From a branding side I would give Dave Judge (now of Judge Gill) a big thank you for showing me the passion and the speed necessary to first sell brand concepts then the struggle to bring them to life.
Is there anything you’re currently working on we should know about?
There’s a huge amount of activity going on here at innovision as we have just won the New Years Fireworks for GLA (Greater London Authority) as well as many other large crowd events and spectaculars. We’re just about recovering from creating many of the experiences associated with London 2012, from creating the British Business Embassy at Lancaster House to the PUMA Yard experience in Brick Lane.
Are there any moments of your career you’re especially proud of?
Many projects give me a peak of pride as much as some I want to forget but so far at innovision I’m proud of the Team GB kit area in Loughbrough for Adidas. We have been rostered agency for Red Bull for the past five years, producing large scale outdoor events that include; Red Bull Air Race, X-Fighters, Flug Tag, Speedjam, Red Bull Music Academy and Red Bull at Goodwood.
At Exposure I created some interesting summer stages for Bulmers as part of a summer side music campaign and built a really cool dekochari light bike for Tiger Beer.
So what’s next in the pipeline for you?
New Years Fireworks and much much more.
Who or what inspires you?
Kengo Kuma.
When you’re not working, what are you up to?
Cooking and cleaning, scheming and dreaming.
Finally, what advice would you give to others just starting out in your creative field?
Learn to talk and sketch with confidence.