Darren Endicott

You could say I’m a child (or a nephew) of the Advertising boom of the 1980s. My uncle, only 12 years older than me, was a key figure in London’s adland – if you’ve heard of Timms, Triefus, Maddick (TTM) agency, my uncle was the Maddick in it.

So with that uncle, my granddad designing warships, and me being better at Art in school than anything else, it made perfect sense to follow a passion that’s been in the family for generations.

Heard of the Lions of Longleat? We lived on the estate only metres away from the animals. Longleat Safari Park, was the first drive-through safari park outside Africa, and the location of the longest-running Doctor Who exhibition. So, being local and a Doctor Who fan, I ended up working in the Doctor Who Tardis at weekends, and got to know the guys who made the creatures for the exhibition. Then, while at University I got work experience at Ealing Studios, where the same team ran the BBC Creature Shop.

My first job was in a Bath-based ad agency, followed by a long tenure at Future Publishing. I was on the era-defining Business 2.0 when I was asked to relocate to London. If you fast forward a few years and cast your mind back to the ‘lads mag’ era you’d find me working for the now defunct Ice magazine, where I was the art director. My next move was to Australia and after short stints with a couple of publishing houses, I was offered the opportunity to work on the launch of Future Publishing over there.

My Australian adventure did at times feel exactly like an adventure! I still remember the exhilarating feeling of driving with the rest of the editorial team onto a ‘soccer’ pitch in Brisbane in a rugged Hyundai Santa Fe. There is a good explanation for this: the publication I was working on was the official A-League magazine (the A-League is the equivalent of the Premier League in Australia and New Zealand). At the time, Hyundai were the A-League sponsors, so we drove to all the matches in a Santa Fe wrapped in graphics I’d designed. Melbourne then Sydney, followed by Brisbane, and finally Newcastle (the New South Wales one) – all in one weekend. Australia’s ABC TV trusted us with a camera, and we featured in a 5-minute slot in ABC’s soccer show. My 5 minutes of fame!

Having returned to the UK to get married, I started working for Ink Global, specialists in onboard/in-flight magazines. I was part of the team that launched Metropolitan, Eurostar’s first in-train magazine, a really exciting time as the title was conceived as an intelligent magazine wanting to appeal to fashionistas, business people, romantic weekenders and daytrippers in search of local culture, ideas, art, people, food and fashion knowledge that would make their trip to Paris, London, Brussels, and beyond truly unforgettable.

I also worked for the British Airways’ High-Life magazine at Cedar, which, to cut a long story short, is how I ended up at Parker Design, where my years of experience in print and editorial have come in handy when working on projects for our Travel (Exodus, Travelopia) and Education (University of Manchester) clients, amongst others.

Over the years, I’ve designed a little bit of everything and won some nice awards along the way, which doesn’t define me but is always nice. Two of those awards (PPA designer of the year and BSME Award) have been presented to me by ex-Kenickie and now BBC Radio 6 Music DJ and TV presenter Lauren Laverne; and no, she didn’t remember me second time round!

When my 7-year old daughter allows me to have some time away from her, I enjoy running and regularly take part in 10K and half marathons. Music is another of my passions, you can find me at home playing the guitar (a little) and slowly rebuilding my extensive collection of indie and rock on vinyl.