Our team
You’d be hard pushed to find anyone with more experience in design research than John.
His career began in 1984 with The Research Business (now Synovate), after which he helped to establish the fledgling research division of The Added Value Company, one of the original pioneering marketing agencies.
He co-founded The Big Picture in 1993, and the rest is history. John is, appropriately enough, a ‘Big Picture’ thinker.
His vision for the company has been fundamental in the development of our clear philosophy, bespoke approach to design insight and – we like to think – charm.
Chris’ decade in research has seen him take on the role of strategic partner for some of the most iconic global brands. From the world of spirits to sporting events, he’s informed effective design strategy for the likes of Maker’s Mark, Courvoisier and the International Olympic Committee.
Helping brand design deliver a real impact is a passion that runs deep for Chris. Driven by his interest in the environment and roots in design (he used to be a product designer, you know), he’s committed to helping clients confidently deliver on the sustainability demands of their consumers. In fact, he was awarded Unilever’s Global CMI Excellence Award in 2019 for doing just that!
When not spearheading design insight studies, you’ll find Chris setting out on an expedition into the great outdoors. Cycling the Ride London circuit, hiking up the nearest peak or running the local river path… wow, we’re puffed out just thinking about it!
Laura joined us in 2019, bringing with her with over 14 years of experience as a Quantitative specialist.
Laura had an interest in brand and comms from an early age. She chose to study Advertising and Marketing Communications at Bournemouth University, and then joined the Brand and Communications team at TRBI (now IPSOS). Following this, she spent over 10 years working in the Quantitative team at a growing independent agency, working across a huge breadth of clients, sectors, methods and markets.
Laura is passionate about using quant techniques to address design led questions – whether this is working collaboratively with other qualitative methods or seeking out the latest tools and techniques to address client objectives.
Outside of work, Laura ‘relaxes’ with her family and two young boys. She’s also a keen restaurant goer – and when she does get a spare minute to herself, likes to unwind with some Pilates.
With over 15 years of qualitative research under her belt, Cecilia has experience that spans the entire brand journey.
From innovation and brand development, through to the challenges of efficient design planning and development, Cecilia has applied her energetic and passionate approach to all aspects of design research including packaging, NPD, retail, positioning and semiotics.
Dom’s itch for design landed him on our doorstep in early 2016, after spending his early years exploring consumer journeys with some of the UK’s biggest brands including BBC, British Gas and Lloyds Bank.
Since then, he’s channelled his love of food through NPD, innovation, and rebrand projects exploring anything from hot sauce, to sports nutrition. He’s a mixed methods researcher through and through – he’s as happy trawling through data tables as he is moderating focus groups.
He’s also the closest we’ve got to a celebrity at The Big Picture, having made a winning appearance on the TV gameshow Pointless, walking away with a cash prize and the pride of correctly identifying a Theremin (we had to Google it too).
Whilst studying for her MSc in Marketing, Giulia first heard about Behavioural Economics: it was love at first ‘sound’
Understanding human behaviour is what led her into research. For over 6 years Giulia worked as a quantitative researcher across the spectrum of FMCG categories, in markets far and near. She is always evaluating design in conjunction with human behaviour, as part of our Behavioural Science team.
When not at work, Giulia loves a show, she is always up for a musical and will watch any National Theatre production. On weekends you might catch her rowing in Putney, trying very hard not to fall into the river.
Sam joined The Big Picture following two great internships working with our internal craft beer and spirits team, and since pursued his passion on a number of beer projects and beyond.
Beyond food and drink, he’s also a big fan of furniture design – 1950s in particular – and reading; 20th Century American lit has him lit at the moment.
Sarah loves to understand human behaviour, and what makes people tick
With a degree in Psychology from the University of Bath, Sarah is fascinated by consumer decision making, and the cognitive biases that drive us to do what we do. This drew her into the world of quantitative research, where she has worked for 5 years across a wide range of sectors and specialisms, and is also part of our Behavioural Science team.
As a self-professed ‘foodie’, outside of work you’ll find Sarah tracking down the latest dinner spots (and wine bars) in London
After graduating from her degree in Product Design, Tess worked with a bespoke lighting designer for a year, creating installations for hotels and exhibiting at events like 100% Design.
Her interest in trends and consumer behaviour, which she developed while writing her dissertation, led her to joining our in-house training programme at The Big Picture in 2014.
Outside of work, outdoorsy Devonshire lass Tess up-cycles old chairs, or cycles-up hills for fresh air (depending on the weather).
With a Master’s Degree in Product Design and Manufacture from Nottingham Amanda has a natural curiosity about how things are made. Sustainability and the circular economy ignite the most excitement for Amanda.
Having worked in research since 2017 across a variety of sectors, Amanda knew The Big Picture was a perfect place for her to combine her research expertise with her passion for design.
When Amanda isn’t working she’s smiliest by the sea, surfing or eating delicious food.
Equipped with a BSc in Geography and a MA in ‘Material and Visual Culture’, Gabri is no stranger in uncovering how material design creates, moderates, shapes and challenges the labile socio-cultural paradigms that people use to make sense of their world
Her desire for commercial research and unpicking shopper behaviour, lead her to a qualitative tenure at Simpson Carpenter for two years. There, her work helped optimise NPDs, identify the best learnings to execute in-store trials and refine shopper journeys for well known supermarkets, high-street retailers and airports around the UK and abroad. Some of her favourite projects enriched shopper insight with semiotic coding, or de-mystified implicit shopper behaviour and store signage by means of behaviour economics
Now she looks to balance her qualitative aptitude and visual appreciation at The Big Picture, and help unlock the exciting opportunities for FMCG design to resonate with shoppers and enhance brand equity. She is also part of our Behavioural Science team.
Outside of work you may find Gabri painting with watercolours, experimenting on new recipes in the kitchen -she once stirred a cup 200 times to make a Korean Dalogna coffee- or discovering new hair products to keep up with the ‘Curly Girl’ method!
When faced with the choice of studying either psychology or product design at university, Nikita realised the role that design plays on influencing all aspects of peoples lives and how the two interact so closely as if one is the catalyst for the other.
Nikita went on to study Product Design at Sussex with her focus heavily on sustainability, specifically the circular economy and plastics. The Big Picture’s focus on sustainability is what led her to us one year later after meeting Chris at her degree show.
When the day is over, you can find Nikita scaling rock climbing walls with friends to have fun and destress, in the kitchen baking loaves of bread and experimenting with various dinner recipes (some successful, some not), and with a love for music (complete understatement) going to as many live gigs and festivals as possible.
Gabriella’s route into research started about 4 years ago – after graduating and taking a year to travel, she came to London to work across a range of sectors from sport to finance to media
With a degree in Nutrition and Psychology from Newcastle University, joining us at The Big Picture was the perfect fit. She loves to understand WHY and HOW we make the decisions we do
Gabriella is a bit of a Netball fiend – if she’s not spending time with friends or watching Grey’s Anatomy, you’ll find her on a Netball court
Ailene wants to build good things for people. After working briefly in product design, she felt that building a good thing wasn’t possible without first understanding the feelings and behaviours that connect people to the built world.
With a degree in Industrial Design, minor in Mechanical Engineering, and immersion in Cultural Anthropology, Ailene finds the most joy in observing how people interact with physical design/more tangible things, and how that connects to strategic direction/less tangible things. Research has created the space for her to deeply analyse the cultural impressions that are left on objects and systems, like fingerprints of time and place, and how designs and ‘artefacts’ may need to adapt to stay alive in changing contexts.
When not at her desk, you might find Ailene either on a solo wander, bouldering with her mates, swing dancing to some good ol’ jazz, or with her head down in fiction someplace quiet.
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, a young Ilenia ventures from her home city to London and a career in design research.
Ilenia’s background in cultural anthropology has given her a real passion for ethnographic study. After graduating from the oldest university in the world* and working for 3 years across a range of industries, from media to hospitality, Ilenia joined The Big Picture to continue to explore her interest in human behaviour.
Outside the office, she’ll be serving ‘attitude’ at ballet or climbing a mountain near you.
*answer: University of Bologna
Olivia is the star who keeps everything running in the London office.
With a firm hand on everything behind the scenes, Olivia has been making sure everything runs smoothly since 2015, so our research team can focus on insight.
Well-travelled Olivia grew up in Bermuda and Dublin, before settling in London to study law. Perhaps that would explain why she’s so good at keeping us all in order!
Kat’s the creative whizz behind all things ‘design’ at The Big Picture.
With her background as a trained graphic designer, you can see her hand in all of our output, whether that’s making sure our documents hit the mark visually, creating new and exciting stimulus for fieldwork, or even designing our marketing materials. She also brightens up every lunch club, making sure we’re all having a giggle with her brilliant musical impressions.