Ian Lawrence and Paul Fillingham at CHC Multimedia
[ December 1997 ]

Ian Lawrence and I shared dreams and built virtual worlds for three long years at what was Nottingham's premier advertising agency - Cross Hill Conwill. But as 1997 drew to a close, things were getting cyclical and very stale - it was time to move on.

Who could possibly imagine what was about to befall the agency's pet web-monkeys as we finally broke free of the ivory tower overlooking Canning Circus. For all its promise, my friend's dream ended swiftly, caught up in a rapid succession of short-term contracts and unscrupulous employers.

Wined and dined by computer resellers in some of the capital's finest venues, I was offered a position as Multimedia Director at Jigsaw Systems and for a long time it looked like I'd been dealt the winning hand.

1998 was looking like a good year. But the dream became tarnished by domestic crisis and a raft of broken promises. And in the end, like Ian, I was forced to re-evaluate my own strengths and weaknesses.

In September, a family holiday in Greece offered a convenient breathing space. As if returning to Britain wasn't depressing enough, when I returned to work it soon became apparent that the novelty of having an internet guru 'on the books' had worn off - my face didn't fit anymore.

I found salvation in my creative roots, went back to galleries, soaked it all up, went online and poured it all out. It was exciting to struggle with old media again, to manipulate pencils, putty rubbers, paints and canvas. I worked on my website too, crafted a thousand email messages and gained the support of some fantastic contacts who would ultimately influence my decision to 'start again' by the end of the year.

One of these contacts was Sean Clark. We met back in 1995 when he was a Research Fellow at the University of Derby. I originally found his details in an early internet magazine, I bought a modem and my very first email message was sent to Sean, asking for assistance with the CGi programming for my very first commercial website.

He helped Ian and myself with quite alot of back-end programming in the early days of the internet and in 1998 it was he who threw me a lifeline when he asked me to join Headland Multimedia as a Producer.