Mark Porter

Founder/Creative Director of Mark Porter Associates

London, England, United Kingdom

About

A creative director with three decades' experience. I started out in magazines, telling stories with words and images. I still love art direction, but I now spend more time building design systems and creating identities. I've worked with household names and small independents and I'm equally at home in print, digital, and broadcast. I art directed some iconic magazines like Colors and Wired, but things took off for me at The Guardian, where I introduced a design philosophy and visual identity which helped them become one of the world’s most recognisable news organisations. Since then I've worked with a wide range of international clients, including Nature, The Sunday Times, RTL, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, L'Express, Domus, Svenska Dagbladet and the V&A Museum. With the help of some talented teams, I've won the top honours in the industry, including the legendary D&AD Black Pencil, and even received an award for clear communication from the Plain English Campaign. My work has been shown in international exhibitions and galleries, including the V&A and the Design Museum in London. I'm an experienced speaker and have presented at conferences and events all over the world from Brazil to China. I work with clients to diagnose problems and prescribe solutions, which leads to robust, long-lasting successful and influential design projects.

Experience

  • Founder and Creative Director at Mark Porter Associates
    Apr 2010 - Present · 16 yrs 3 mos

    Design consultancy, working in print, digital and broadcast with some of the world's best-loved media brands.

  • Creative Director at Guardian News & Media
    1995 - 2010 · 15 yrs

    Responsible for visual communication across all platforms. Redesigned newspaper, web and apps and led design and photogrpahy teams. Made the Guardian one of the world's most recognisable news organisations

  • Art Director at COLORS magazine
    1993 - 1995 · 2 yrs

    Art director of the unique multilingual magazine published worldwide by Benetton

  • Art Director at WIRED
    1994 - 1994 · Less than a year

    Launch art director of first iteration of UK edition.

  • Art Director at Evening Standard
    1990 - 1993 · 3 yrs

    Art director of ES magazine, oversaw relaunch from monthly to weekly.