2022 FESTIVAL SPEAKERS & CONTRIBUTORS
JULES PRETTY
Jules Pretty is Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex. His sole-authored books include The Low-Carbon Good Life (2023), Sea Sagas of the North (2022), The East Country (2017), The Edge of Extinction (2014), This Luminous Coast (2011), The Earth Only Endures (2007), Agri-Culture (2002), The Living Land (1998), and Regenerating Agriculture (1995). He host of 80 podcasts and films (in the series Louder Than Words and Brighter Futures), and writes the series The Climate Chronicles.
JADE SPRANKLEN
Studio Spranks is an award-winning creative studio, based between London and Margate led by Jade Spranklen. Specialising in design, illustration, motion and creative direction, we create bold, imaginative campaigns that respond to the unique needs of each project.
GENETIC MOO
Since 2013, Genetic Moo has been working on Microworld, an ambitious digital ecosystem project where you are invited to become part of the artwork. Explore and discover a range of digital creatures and see how they respond to you and your movements and each other. Watch them go through cycles of life and death. Sensors create a fully responsive and intuitive environment – an ever-changing fully interactive space.
SAM CAUSER
Sam Causer is a Conservation Architect and Director of Margate-based architecture practice @studiosamcauser, who specialise in the adaptation of complex and historically-sensitive buildings and sites to support contemporary life. In 2016 Sam co-founded Margate Coastal Park Promotion Group, a not-for-profit organisation whose aim is to celebrate and conserve the coastal landscape and heritage of Margate.
MARY LEONARD
Mary is an award-winning Creative Director who combines thoughtful ideas with beautiful design to create immersive brand experiences. In 2021, she founded a multidisciplinary creative studio, MRLD (More Reason — Less Decoration). The studio aims to merge her experience in luxury branding with her time working with innovative technologies at @Google to create projects that focus on the “why” as much as the “what”. www.mrld.studio
G.F SMITH
For over 135 years, G . F Smith has been obsessed with the simple beauty and limitless possibility of paper. Today, we act as custodians of our founders remarkable legacy by making and curating the world’s finest paper collection. As one of the oldest known materials, paper continues to be a symbol of innovation and technological progression — a medium that goes far beyond just being a carrier of ideas and knowledge, a profoundly important and valuable material — more relevant for today’s needs than ever before.
JUNE MINEYAMA-SMITHSON
MAMIMU (June Mineyama-Smithson) is a London-based Japanese artist/graphic designer on a mission to spread optimism. Lecturer at UAL, D&AD judge and speaker at Birmingham Design Festival and Design Manchester. Her bold joyful work has been featured internationally on ITV, Creative Boom, Design Milk, SCMP and Cow Parade Niseko.
LOUISE SLOPER
HERE WE GO STUDIO Typographic Truthiness’ is a workshop led by creative director and designer, Louise Sloper, alongside TypoCircle’s Alice Tosey and Antony Long. Explore the psychological powers of typographic persuasion in advertising, with playful, hands-on exercises. Can one particular typeface command more gravitas than another? Comic Sans vs Baskerville… bring it on! Expect paper, scissors, pens and other unexpected materials – with lots of example projects and case studies thrown in to get you inspired. All analogue, no computers.
GREG BUNBURY
Greg Bunbury is a Graphic Designer, Creative Consultant and D&I consultant. His mission is to change the world by design, enabling purpose-driven businesses and organisations to connect with diverse audiences.
ANDREW HUDSON
Andrew took up signwriting after moving to Margate in 2016, establishing Hermetic Sign Company a year later. He comes from a Fine Art background, and – inspired by everything from old pubs to heavy metal band logos, Las Vegas to skateboard graphics – now works in the vernacular lettering tradition with a contemporary slant.
ARNOLD SCHWARTZMAN
Patron of The Margate School since 2014, Arnold Schwartzman is a multi-award-winning film-maker and graphic designer. In 1982 he was appointed the director of design for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and in 1982 he received an Academy Award, Oscar®, as the producer & director of the Best Documentary Film “Genocide"
GRAHAM WOOD
While studying for my MA at Central St Martins, I became one of the founders of the acclaimed, multi award-winning agency Tomato. I followed this with six years as an ECD at JWT NYC and London, then worked with Flo Heiss to form Studio Heiss, followed by a variety of other roles.
THOMAS SHARP
Thomas Sharp is a poet and Creative Director. He thinks about what writing can do, inventing campaigns and artistic moments with language at their heart. He has been commissioned by the British Library, Nike, Henry Moore Foundation, Google, V&A, and many more. He was the world’s second most awarded creative in the 2020 D&AD awards.
GRETA SHARP
I am a non-binary, queer, disabled writer, artist, and zinester based in Margate, Kent. I run zine making workshops locally and attend and table at various zine fairs around the UK. I am the co-founder of Margate Zine Fair, a local zine and self-publishing fair celebrating local creatives and DIY forms of publishing, and I am an assistant curator for Margate Pride and co-curate the Pride Art Map, a two week festival of exhibitions, workshops and events centring queer art.
NEURODIVERGENT FRIENDS OF THANET
Neurodivergent Friends in Thanet is a community group helping local Neurodivergent adults meet their peers in safe spaces. Our mission is to bridge the gap in local resources for Neurodivergent adults, working for positive change in mental health, well-being, community, belonging, self-acceptance, and self-advocacy.
