Hamish Braddick - A Biography

Apart from winning design awards, Hamish became deeply interested in the field of website usability and learnt as much as he possibly could on the subject...

In the beginning...

Hamish completed his college schooling to bursary (7th Form) level. At college he excelled in two subjects that were at the opposite ends of the spectrum – art & engineering. Accordingly, Hamish faced a very difficult decision deciding on a career but finally settled on art/design – although his engineering interests were to have a substantial impact later in his career.

A degree in graphic design...

After his high school studies, Hamish completed a degree in graphic design from the Auckland University of Technology. He then moved to Christchurch to locate himself closer to many of New Zealand’s great ski-fields and pursue his recreational passion for snowboarding. On arriving in Christchurch he quickly landed a role working as a T-shirt illustrator for a souvenir t-shirt company called Goose's T-Shirts. During his time with that company, he was recognised as one of the countries leading souvenir T-shirt illustrators, winning a number of New Zealand ‘Pride in Print’ awards.

Time for a change...

In the nineties Hamish was captivated by the emergence of the Internet and started to broaden his skills by teaching himself web design. He worked full-time in New Zealand as a freelance website designer before departing for the far shores of England.

Senior designer for UK agency...

Soon after arriving in England, Hamish landed a role as the Senior Website Designer for a high-profile design agency - Yoyo Creative, now know as Rok Advertising. Yoyo specialised in graphic design and Website design for medium to large UK clients. During his time with Yoyo, Hamish worked on some highly recognised and respected international projects such as the UK Drum & Bass Awards, Norcor, Hostmark, Bateman & Chapman and Motorsport UK. His designs were highly regarded and were featured in the UK Create Online magazine being also awarded the worldwide Flashkit Website of Month award.

A realisation

Towards the end of his time with Yoyo, Hamish began to realise the futility of website design without a practical business purpose. Apart from winning design awards, the websites were hard to use, provided minimal results for the client, little Return on Investment and there was no method for measuring the effectiveness or the result achieved.

At this time Hamish became interested in the field of website usability (developing user-friendly websites) and started learning as much as he could about this area – building a substantial library on the topic and attending many seminars. Over this time his engineering interest came to the fore as he focused on website design that not only looked good but was highly functional and achieved results – something that few website designers at the time even considered.

Time to head home...

It was about this time that Hamish received a phone call from David Kelly in New Zealand. David explained that he was setting up a new website design company and wanted Hamish to be a key part of it. Hamish was missing home and especially the NZ surf and the snow and so after a tour of Europe, he headed for home.

The founding of Zeald...

Hamish became one of the founders of Zeald and is the creative director of the company. He has personally designed the majority of the website templates and the functional flow that is a feature of all Zeald websites. He has also played a substantial part in the development of many of Zeald’s products and services.

When he's not working...

Hamish lives with his partner Christine and their two sons Leon & Billy in Torbay, Auckland. Hamish loves his longboard surfing and has surfed many of New Zealand’s best breaks. He is in the process of teaching Leon to swim so he can introduce him to the waves as soon as possible. Hamish is also a keen snowboarder having boarded all the popular NZ ski-fields and many of the lesser known club fields. He fancies himself as a bit of a home handyman and can often be found on the weekends working on some new home renovation.