about
“There’s a question I get asked a few times a year that has no easy answer:
What’s the next big thing?
After 30 years, my answer is still the same - nobody knows for certain.But the people who ask the right questions, watch the right signals, and design with genuine intentionality get closest.”
Currently
I am a Creative Director with Universal Creative - the design, development and production division of Universal Parks & Resorts - where I work on the ambitious and complex themed entertainment projects that Universal Studios is renown for.
It is a rare vantage point. Universal Creative has consistently set the benchmark for what immersive, story-driven experience design can achieve.
Working at that scale - and with the creative talent concentrated inside that organisation - sharpens every instinct developed over three decades of independent practice.
Alongside that work, I research and write about the forces reshaping the experience economy: from climate and technology to the evolving expectations of guests who no longer want to simply watch, but to inhabit.
Further, I explore those experiences that seek not simply to entertain, but to transform those who participant.
THIRTY FIVE YEARS OF INDEPENDENT PRACTICE
Before joining Universal Creative, I spent 15 years freelancing and more than 20 years building Atomiq Design - a niche design studio, specialising in creative strategy, master planning and concept development for leisure, tourism, themed entertainment and public spaces - into one of the region’s most respected and experienced practices in the field.
THAT WORK INCLUDED:
600+ themed entertainment projects completed across Australia, South-East Asia and the Pacific Rim — from independent attraction operators to large-scale international destination developments.
1,000+ customer experience assessments across the leisure and tourism sector, giving me aground-level understanding of where the gap between intention and guest experience most consistently appears.
Government advisory roles as an expert advisor to Federal, State and Local Government departments in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand — across tourism and leisure infrastructure and passenger transport experiences.
A FEW PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS FROM THAT BODY OF WORK:
Creative Director, 20th Century Fox World Theme Park (Resorts World) - assumed overall creative direction.
Concept Master Plan, Hello Kitty World Theme Park, Hainan Island, China
Design and Development of 20+ ride and attraction projects for Dreamworld - Australia’s largest Theme Park.
Customer experience strategy and recovery for Splash Planet Water Park, New Zealand —30% attendance increase in first 12 months
Creative and experience strategy for BridgeClimb Sydney
Passenger Experience Master Plan, Cairns Airport
Luxury train design and service development for The Ghan, Indian Pacific and Platinum Class “hotel on wheels ” Southern Spirit Train.
Ongoing Passenger Experience consulting, NSW Department of Transport — Sydney Central Station, Sydney Harbour Ferry procurement, Future Stations Committee
Adventure World — major ride developments leading to highest-ranked theme park in Australia on TripAdvisor
WHAT I WRITE ABOUT
Experience Design is my core discipline. But what I’m most interested in is the thinking behind it —the questions that don’t have obvious answers, the patterns that only become visible across decades of project work, and the forces that are quietly reshaping an industry many people think they understand.
My writing explores four interconnected territories:
Future Thinking as a Creative Practice
How do we make useful assertions about where the experience economy is heading, when no one can predict the future with certainty? What signals should we be watching, and what frameworks help us act on them before they become obvious?
The Experience Economy — Designed, Not Decorated
Differentiation in leisure and tourism is not about having the newest or biggest attraction. It’s about clarity of purpose, depth of understanding of your guest, and the discipline to design every decision around a genuine and defensible unique value.
The Immersion Shift
The most significant design challenge of the next decade is the shift from passive to active immersion — from experiences that surround guests to experiences that guests genuinely inhabit — and ultimately, from experiences that entertain guests to experiences that change them. What does that mean in practice, and how do we design for it?
Designing for the Real World
Inclusion, climate resilience, and the emerging shape of the market are not constraints to be managed. For operators willing to rethink from the ground up, they are some of the most compelling strategic opportunities in the industry.
Where: The longer articles live on Drawing Board. Shorter thoughts, reactions, and observations are on the Sight Lines page.
A NOTE ON HOW I WORK
I’m an advocate - for better experience design, for genuine inclusion in leisure and tourism, for thinking carefully about the future rather than reacting to it.
I believe the best creative work comes from asking uncomfortable questions early, understanding what a guest actually experiences rather than what an operator intends, and having the discipline to keep designing until the answer is genuinely remarkable - not merely adequate.
I’m also a committed collaborator. The best projects I’ve been part of were never the result of a single point of view. They came from diverse, interdisciplinary teams with a shared commitment to doing the work that matters.
Where things stand:
I’m currently focused on my work at Universal Creative and not taking on new advisory or consulting projects. Atomiq Design, the practice I founded and led for thirty years, is on hold while that’s the case.
That said, I’m always glad to hear from people working on genuinely difficult problems in the experience economy. If something here resonates, or you’re thinking through a question that thirty five years of project work might actually help with, get in touch. I read everything, and I’m happy to have a conversation even when I can’t take on the work itself.
Stay in touch:
The fastest way to follow what I’m thinking about is on LinkedIn, where I post semi-regularly.