Designer waffles on to help budding creatives

Entrepreneur and graphic designer Danny Matthews is reaching out to budding creatives by supporting a popular podcast.

Danny, who runs content, graphic design and branding studio Danny&co. based near Cricklade, wants to encourage people into the industry and has already offered to take on young apprentices, to nurture their design career. He is also currently mentoring a student from the University of the West of England, to support her plans to turn her talent for textiles into a business.

Now Danny has teamed up with Mark Hirons, who founded the podcast Creative Waffle, which explores the world of graphic design, busts a few myths and is particularly aimed at graphic designers new to the sector, or who are thinking of design as a career.

Danny is appearing in a fortnightly spinoff, called Creative Waffle Call-in, where he chats to young designers, answering their questions about a career in graphics, and giving them tips on how to progress.

Danny set up Danny&co. after a long career in financial services. He had always wanted to be a designer, and design was his passion, but lack of encouragement at school meant he chose the ‘safer' option of finance.

“I think it is so important to nurture new talent and to let people know that they can have a great career in graphic design and branding. If I had been given that sort of encouragement I would have followed my dream a lot sooner,” said Danny. “I love Mark’s podcast, it is really informative and helpful, and I was delighted when he asked me to take part.”

Creative Waffle helped Mark land his own dream job, as he is now a designer at Arsenal FC and it was launching the podcast that impressed the football club.

Mark said: “Danny is a really great guy and it’s so helpful to have him take part in the Creative Waffle Call-in. We have recorded one so far and it went really well. For each episode, we have myself, Danny and a different young creative, to talk through different issues, so there will be a lot of variety.”

Later this year, Danny hopes to be taking on his first apprentice, having reached out and asked young creatives to write their own job description for their dream job. He has also been named as one of the 42 Under 42, a prestigious accolade from Insider magazine, which each year identifies 42 up and coming entrepreneurs, all under the age of 42, as future stars of business.

For more information about Danny&co. visit https://dannyand.co/ or email [email protected]. To listen to Creative Waffle, download the podcast.