About Neill
‘“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious” - Albert Einstein.
Throughout my career, my curiosity has seen me delve into many creative disciplines, in an attempt to understand all the aspects that go into crafting great creative work. As Creative Director, I see my role as an orchestrator, bringing together the talents of art directors, copywriters, designers, illustrators, content creators, photographers, filmmakers, editors, and vfx artists.
This probably explains why my hobbies outside of work include art, photography, filmmaking, and playing guitar. I’m never not creating. With any time left, you’ll find me riding a bike, which fits in nicely with my love of photography.
Keep scrolling for my work history and career highlights, otherwise head over to my testimonials to find out what people really think of me, or get straight to the work.
0-Furmston in 60 seconds
Creative Leadership Skills:
Proven expertise: Working for multiple business sectors across all creative disciplines.
Strategic thinker: A natural ability to align creativity with business objectives and trends.
Founder and Leader: Builder of teams, cultures, departments, and entire agencies.
Client and stakeholder management: Recognising the importance of continually nurturing key relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
Pitch-winning prowess: A proven track record for winning pitches and securing new business.
Cross-media proficiency: Expertise across all media platforms and creative disciplines, from digital and social, to traditional print, TV, and branded content, inc. 360 campaigns.
Adaptability: Flexibility in working across different industries and adapting to changing trends. Continually challenging teams in learning new skills that aid world-class creative.
Strong communication skills: Confident and effective communication skills, from clear and precise briefing to teams, through to presenting at C-suite level.
Team builder and mentor: Proven success in nurturing talent and building high-performing creative teams. Mentorship of diverse, emerging talent from across the world.
Results-oriented: A focus on achieving measurable results for clients and organisations, across a range of KPIs, including building brand fame, and naturally, increased sales.
Some background info: On joining my first agency, Definition Design, a very kind client (Virgin) shortly remarked to the partners that they'd better make me an offer to ensure I’d ‘stick around’. They made me Junior Partner and eventually Creative Director and Co-Owner - I stuck around.
On the realisation I’d gone about things completely the wrong way and was, in fact, running an agency without any real experience, I left and joined Soho-based Feref as Creative Director and was soon promoted to Group Creative Director. Something must’ve stuck.
I was eventually headhunted by Pablo London as Creative Director and board member, expanding my expertise across Sports & FMCG clients.
With the right experience gained, I co-founded specialist entertainment agency ICHI as ECD in London and Los Angeles, building the agency from just two of us to over thirty staff in the space of a few years. I’m very proud of our 100% pitch win rate within the first 4 years, beating the likes of BBH, WCRS, and Saatchi & Saatchi along the way. We also created one of the Top 10 game trailers of all time, with the Metro live-action short film.
Several years in one industry is a great place to hone your skills, but there comes a time when creativity needs to be recharged with newer challenges. I left ICHI in pursuit of contrasting creative opportunities outside of the entertainment industry, in order to widen my remit as a Creative Director.
Since then, I've completed campaigns as Creative Director for Livity and Mindshare's Invention Team, working with the likes of Google, Dyson, Persil, Chanel, Cancer Research UK, Graze, Moët & Chandon, Jack Daniels, Jaguar Land Rover, KFC, and Legal & General, picking up a few awards along the way too.
In 2019 I took on my first in-house role, as Global Creative Director at Vodafone, heading up a brand new creative studio, initially tasked with driving the overall creative vision for Vodafone’s own brand product range.
I joined The Body Shop in 2022 as Global Creative Director, heading up their global in-house creative agency and studio, The Greenhouse.
In 2024, I founded Furmston.co.uk - a creative brand consultancy and studio servicing competitor brands and startups.
In my spare time, you’ll find me mostly cycling, with a camera in my hand, or both. I’m also an artist, creating pop art prints & t-shirts as FURMIE
The Awards bit…