Nicholas Tampakopoulos
I graduated with a degree in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, part of University London. After founding a video production company under The Extinct Hitchhiker label, I went on to become a copywriter, heading up the Xbox account at VML London.
I balanced my day job with personal creative work, like digital illustration. Eventually, I became a full-time creative copywriter, using my experience at News UK before moving to join the team at Pret, where I headed up copy for the next few years. I have now decided to return to freelance so I can spend time cultivating my ability to draw.
My creative approach is to find points of tension behind the brief. I think it’s worth exploring as many routes as possible before refining the ones I feel are the most evocative.
For me, creative execution is only ever as strong as the ideas they are based on.
Three hours of writing require twenty hours of preparation. Luckily I have learned to dream about the work, which saves me some working time.
— John Steinbeck