About James Atkins

James graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art (Painting) from Camberwell School of Art in 1988 and then pretty much fell out with the art world completely. He didn't want to 'sign on' and wasn't quite ready to live in a garret and eat paint.

He rekindled a love of typography and an interest in computers. Over the next 4 or 5 years he worked in graphic design, working for one of the 'big x' Management Consultancies (now PWC) and subsequently freelanced for a wide range of top London design and branding agencies. Many of these agencies didn't believe someone who studied fine art would understand about things like ligatures and swashes as well as how to specify, overhaul and backup a Mac publishing network.

In the early 90s James contracted in the square mile and found himself suited and booted at LIFFE (now Euronext) in the City of London helping to develop and implement a cutting edge brand identity. After that experience, he found most design companies a bit slow and backward in their approach, culture and technology. And anyway he became interested in the web and no design agencies did that yet.

In the mid-90s James moved to Cambridge and contracted at one of the UK's first web design agencies - New Media Factory (NMF) - designing for clients such as BP, BT, Channel 5, FT and Yell. Long days of learning how to code, fending off bicycle thieves, playing Wipeout and Quake were mixed with a heady atmosphere of serious webdesign and interviewing anyone in Cambridge who could draw (a bit). In the end NMF wasn't set up to be full-service agency choosing to concentrate on 'web only'. So James Atkins Design was set up in 1997 to do a bit of both.

James is currently resident in the East Midlands with his wife Daniela (who isn't teaching him much italian) and their dog. In 2003 he made a return to painting, working with a mixture of digital and traditional media. He has, so far, avoided eating paint.