Having undertaken a traditional art school education, James has a wide skills base in all aspects of design. Pencil sketching has always been a quick visual aid to his design led conversation, and transferring this to finished designs and technical drawing has been invaluable to furthering his career within art departments. Despite James' technical ability at all levels of design, he has found himself in more managerial roles due to his strong communication skills and ability to present ideas and concepts in a cohesive manner. These leadership skills have seen him manage large art departments on numerous high profile shows, as well as always being able to pick up a pencil to help meet those ever more challenging deadlines
BAFTA CYMRU AWARDS 2019 Best Production Design Nomination: A Discovery of Witches I
BAFTA CYMRU AWARDS 2020 Best Production Design Nomination: A Discovery of Witches II
As an Art Director James has managed budgets and teams of varying size, working at numerous locations, both here and aboard. As Supervising Art Director, managing the department from a more logistical and budget point of view, but also as Associate Designer. This is a role born out of the shear scale of a production, a creative art director of sorts, making on the ground decisions, assuring quality control of build and finish across the department, and acting as a creative conduit between the art department, producers, writers and the director.
Most recently, James has made the jump into Production Design, a move that he has been resisting for some time. He designed both the first & second season of the award winning Sky One fantasy drama A Discovery of Witches, Netflix drama The Last Bus, two seasons of the regency drama Sanditon, and more recently, the epic reimagining of Bernard Cornwells The Winter King, released in December 2023.
Keen to make a show his Children could watch, James recently shot three film adaptations of Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five with Moonage Pictures for BBC. He is currently shooting Smilla’s Sense of Snow for Constantin Films on location in Lithuania and Latvia.
A creative and very strong leader, James is an asset to any production large or small.