Despite winning web design awards, Hamish was more interested in making websites user-friendly.

Hamish completed his 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. His engineering interests however, were to have a substantial impact later in his career...

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.

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.

Towards the end of his time with Yoyo, Hamish began to realise the futility of website design without a practical business purpose. Even though they won 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 interests 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.

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 snow, so after a tour of Europe, he headed home.

Hamish became one of the founders of Zeald and 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.

Hamish has two sons - Leon & Billy, and a daughter - Molly. When he's not working, Hamish loves longboard surfing. Unfortunately he doesn't get out as much as he would like with all the work and family commitments. Now his surfing involves giving all the good waves to the kids. Hamish is also a keen snowboarder, having boarded all the popular NZ ski-fields and many of the lesser known club fields.

After growing up on a sheep farm in Mangawhai, Hamish swore he would never be a farmer. Now he finds himself owning a farm on the Puhoi river which keeps him busy on weekends and provides plenty of exercise running up and down the steep country, mustering sheep and fixing fences.

FUN FACT: His young children have boycotted the sheep farming operation because they were told the dark truth. The orphan lambs that they lovingly raised by hand and named 'Lucky' and 'Carmel', would be sent to Affco to be turned into chops. They've since banded together with David's kids and are refusing to eat lamb. They're also fundraising to be able to buy back the lambs before Affco can pick them up.