Tim Platt

In the interview, Paula Williams, Tim Platt and Mark Chaudoir, three friends and former colleagues at BBC Television Graphics Department and Red Bee Media, reminisce about the changes they had witnessed in the motion graphics industry. Looking back, they now realised how incredibly lucky they had been to have worked at a time which was a golden age for designers in Presentation motion graphics.

Tim Platt studied for a BA (Hons) Degree at St Martin’s School of Art and graduated in 1983. He freelanced as an illustrator/designer until 1987, when he joined the BBC Graphic Design Department as an Assistant Designer. He became a Designer and finally a Senior Designer/Creative Director at the rebranded BBC MediaArc and BBC Broadcast. In 2005, after the BBC had decided to dispense with an in-house Graphic Design Department, Tim moved as a Senior Designer/Creative Director to Red Bee Media, which had just won a 10-year contract to fulfil all BBC Television’s graphic design requirements. He left in 2010 to set up, together with Paula Williams, their own agency Wonder Creative, before becoming a Senior Lecturer at Ravensbourne University on the Motion Graphics Design Degree course in 2015. During the following years, he and Paula were also both closely involved in steering and consulting on the BBC Motion Graphics Archive project, which was finally launched by the BBC and Ravensbourne University in March 2021.

During his extensive career as a designer he has worked with many global brands including Canal+, ITV, Renault, Discovery, Univision, UKTV and the BBC. His work has been recognised with numerous awards, including D&AD Gold, Design Week, Promax BDA and two BAFTA nominations.