Liverpool-born Chris completed a two-year York School of Art HND course in Graphic Design during 1988 at what was then known as York College of Arts & Technology. He had previously completed a BTEC OND (Ordinary National Diploma) at the Southport School of Art that summer, having left school in the Sefton seaside town with just one O Level in Art.

One of Chris’ biggest breaks came when he was handed the responsibility of creating the brochure and promotional material for the first MTV Europe Music Awards in 1994. He would go on to become a leading design figure in 1990s music magazine culture – a job that involved him putting together front covers featuring some of the biggest bands and singers on the planet and resulted in him working all over the world in places like Russia, India, Holland, Sweden and America, where he fulfilled a childhood dream of living in LA. He then went on to land top Creative Director roles running in-house studios with Getty Images, Nokia and Microsoft. As of 2025, he’s working as a freelancer, with clients including the likes of New Order, Nike, Diesel and Adobe.

Chris credits York College with having the “biggest impact” on his distinguished and exciting career. “The course also had a strong focus on typography, which really interested me, as did the illustration course run by the legendary Roger Hallam,” he said. “It wasn’t the usual illustration course. He taught a huge variety of craft, especially cut and paste, and one of his lessons had the single biggest impact on my career, which I talk about in my new book. The ‘Swiss’ part of the title is also reflective of my time at York when I was introduced to the Swiss movement of the 1950s and 60s by another tutor Jim Deans.”