Level up your design skills 🚀

I discovered the world of design as an art student when I stumbled upon a lab full of green & blue iMac G3’s. My initial curiosity around using the computer to create ‘art’ developed into a full-blown passion, eventually leading me to become a digital designer and founder of Bring Your Own Laptop.

Sharing and teaching are a huge part of who I am. As a certified Adobe instructor, I've had the honor of winning multiple Adobe teaching awards at their annual MAX conference. I see Bring Your Own Laptop as the supportive community I wished for when I was first starting out and intimidated by design. Through teaching, I hope to bring others along for the ride and empower my students to bring their stories, labors of love, and art into the world.
True to my Kiwi roots, I've lived in many places, and currently, I reside in Ireland with my wife and kids.

My journey into animation began as a hobby. I started creating hang gliding videos and even won a few YouTube competitions. I realized I wanted to create things that didn't yet exist so I decided to go to film school to transition into a career as a professional animator.

I’ve been fortunate enough to work on some amazing projects including Avengers: Infinity War and The Last of Us Part 2, that have gone on to receive wins and nominations in the Oscars, Emmys, and Annie awards.
I came to teaching after overcoming cancer in my late twenties, the experience made me realize I didn’t want my knowledge to die with me. Just as many people have helped me, I see teaching as a way to pay it forward.
I am originally from Kentucky and currently live in London.

I am a multidisciplinary designer who creates unique brands and communication solutions. I’ve worked with clients all over the world from small start-ups to international brands like Samsung, Skyy Vodka, and Universal Music.

As a digital creator, vector superwoman, and icon lover, I am a firm believer in the right person for the right job. In my twenty years working as a graphic designer and art director, I have worked with a global network of people from set designers to screen printers, film makers to programmers to deliver work that is well crafted, idea driven and on brief. I am excited to bring the lessons I have learned along the way to the BYOL community!

I am the Head of Student Zen, ensuring all of our students and the community are happy. I have awesome skills in Photoshop and Illustrator, I love working on photo manipulations and helping others to reach their design goals.

With over 25 years of design expertise spanning web development to crafting t-shirt designs, posters, and newsletters, I thrive on sharing my wealth of knowledge. For me, nothing beats the satisfaction of empowering the BYOL community, and seeing you all grow as designers.

Away from the screen, I'm all about tabletop and trading card games, surrounded by my cherished collection of action figures and retro toys. A bonafide Marvel and Star Wars aficionado, I often channel my creative mojo through my passion for 3D printing, bringing imagination to life. Here to help you on your adventure where pixels meet playfulness, and creativity knows no bounds!

I’m a full stack web developer with an expertise in responsive web design and ecommerce UX UI.

I’m passionate about helping others on their web design and web dev journeys. I am a tech enthusiast and like to stay ahead on all things tech related! As a self-taught developer, I quickly recognized the value of community and guidance and I’m delighted to now be in a position to support others on their paths and celebrate their successes. Within the realm of development, I enjoy working with the Javascript ecosystem, but you'll also find me experimenting with designs in Figma. When I'm not answering questions, I'm likely immersing myself in exploring new web2 and web3 technologies!

I am a Graphic Designer based in New Zealand with a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree and more than two decades experience. I have a huge passion for what I do and all things design.

Born in NZ, I headed to London to combine my passion of design and travel working in a travel publishing house. I returned home to one of Auckland’s main publishing houses, where, during a sushi lunch break with a friend called Dan, I accepted an offer to teach at BYOL. This started my freelance life, having two sons along the way, my greatest achievement of all.

I continue freelance, working on an array of projects from Art Director roles on magazines, a coffee table book, sports tool kits and online magazines to being part of the BYOL support team. It’s safe to say my design passion lives on!

I studied Design with both Emma and Daniel at Auckland University. I have a huge passion for graphic design, teaching, and am also a qualified snowboard examiner.

I was born in the UK but grew up in New Zealand. I’ve always had an eye for aesthetics and love for minimalist art and design. I travelled the world for many years combining my passion for travel, snowboarding and teaching while doing any creative freelance work I could.

Now living in Queenstown, NZ I run a local media company called Queenstown Trading. I keep my passion for snowboarding alive by working for Snowboard Instruction New Zealand (SBINZ) as a graphic designer, snowboard examiner and social media coordinator. I really enjoy helping others learn and seeing their progress in all aspects of life. It's a key reason I love being involved with BYOL and working with the community.

Whether it’s graphic designing, 3D modelling, or video editing, digital art is one of my greatest passions. My hope is to be able to help others with the knowledge that I've gained over the years.

As a child, I spent countless hours drawing my favourite characters or playing video games and immersing myself in virtual worlds. As an adult, my interests eventually led me to Full Sail University, where I learned the fundamentals of both traditional and digital art. I would go on to graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Game Art, but my journey didn’t end there. In fact, it had only begun. Today, I’m a proud contributing member of BYOL. Even as a professional, I’ll always consider myself a lifelong student. I follow a simple guiding principle that keeps me grounded and motivated: “Strive for progress, not perfection.”

Since I was about 5 or 6, I've been all about creativity, starting with me drawing my first (and only) comic book in one of my dad's notebooks. Now, I’m evolving as a User Experience (UX) Designer, concentrating on behaviour, empathy, and accessibility. I truly believe visual communication can help make the world a better place!

I love people! With nearly 30 years of working with them, I’ve been a UX pro my whole life—long before I even knew what UX was! Whether it’s sales strategy, business communication, or teaching, my focus has always been on making a difference for everyone around me. I’m passionate about bringing emotion to art and design. I appreciate technique, but really love to feel the energy and uniqueness of a project. On a personal note, I have dozens of movies to watch, hundreds of books to read, and a million photos to shoot. I’m here to support you on your creative journey and keep things fun!