Meet… our Packaging Designer,

Dan Poynton

2nd March 2017

We caught up with our cricket loving packaging designer Dan to talk to him about everything from creative inspiration to resembling Thomas Brodie-Sangster – the little boy from Love Actually (and not Jamie Dornan as he prefers to think.)

Dan doesn’t like cameras – but he likes drawings. So we got our illustrator, Rosie to draw his face.

illustration of joules packaging designer

When I was young…

I wanted to be a paleontologist. Mum and dad bought me the ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ series as a kid and I think I probably wore the tape out with how much I used to watch them. Also, Jurassic Park made the job look cool and dangerous, although I now realise that was probably not totally accurate!

When my ‘Out of Office’ is on…

You’ll most likely find me…playing cricket, running, goalkeeping, swimming or generally anything sport related (I’m a bit of an addict). If I’m not playing sport I’m usually watching it. I definitely grew up with a very patient mum who would put up with three boys watching sport seven days a week. She now hates darts with a passion.

A typical day is…

Squeezing every minute out of lying in bed first thing, I’m not a morning person so I have my routine down to the absolute tee. When I get to work I respond to briefs from all of Joules’ product teams. There are always new exciting ranges being designed which need beautiful and clever solutions. I take such pride taking something I sketched out through to being on a shelf in store. If I hear customers compliment it, its even better!

I get my inspiration from…

It’s a bit of a cliché but absolutely anything and everything. I have designed gift boxes based on Harry Potter and scarf riders based on a get well soon card! You never know when an idea is going to pop into your head so I’m constantly on the lookout.

My hero is…

The ex-England cricket player Graeme Swann, I’m a big Nottinghamshire Cricket Club fan so I idolised him as a teenager. He also seems like a funny, genuine guy, the sort I’d love to grab a beer with.

Working at Joules is great because…

The people. I constantly get caught in corridors chatting to people and love the after work socialising we do. A few guys get together playing football on a Wednesday night and the Graphics team often finds an excuse to go out on a Friday.

And because Dan is a dab hand when it comes to drawing (sort of) we asked him to answer the following questions… using finger painting!