About James Borrodell Brown

Hi. Come on in.

I'm James Borrodell Brown, a London-based technologist and strategist. Digital agency Zone employ me in their small strategy team, where I largely help charities and non-profits use the internet effectively. I'm a street fundraising advocate for the PFRA, and I run and publish Punktastic, one of europe's most popular online-only music magazines. At the end of 2012, Zone published a guide I wrote called the Digital Fundraising Handbook. I love reading and thinking about how technology and the internet will continue to change charities, companies and people. For fun, I'm creating a tool called ReadComfy, which re-styles your favourite articles with beautiful typography. Decisions and inventions made today have intriguing consequences. What are the most responsible and interesting things we can create?

If you were a progressive, unorthodox investor looking to fund long-term projects that pushed forward how the internet works, where would you put your money?

I'd choose five things.
#1. Something like The Magazine, but as a platform
#2. Something like StreetBank, but more hands-on
#3. Something like PledgeIt, but for politics
#4. Something like IAmA, but that my mum could read.
#5. Something that can put estate agents out of business.

If you're working on any of these, or you want to give it a go, get in touch, because I'd like to help.

Timeline

1984

Born and adopted in London

1985-91

Responded to my name
Walked without aid

1992

Moved to York

1993-2002

Bought a computer
Taught myself to code ( read a few more details ⬇)

Worked in retail and the NHS
Watched 9/11 happen
Travelled Australia
Started blogging
Discovered photography

2003-2006

Went to Cambridge ( some extra thoughts about this ⬇)

I applied to Christ's College because it was central, mid-size, and had a 60s building where the freshers were stuffed together in shoeboxes.

I almost didn't apply, worried by the usual misconceptions: too posh, all work no play, nobody liking me, too hard, etc.

Obviously, this is rubbish — so many people worry about whether they "should" be there, often talking about it, that the people with actual self- confidence can wrongly appear arrogant.

Naturally, there are also a large number of actually quite arrogant people, who misinterpret opportunity for entitlement, and make false assumptions about how this extends into the rest of their life.

In many ways, the lasting legacy of Cambridge education — me included — is an over-confidence in your own ability and an expectation of life success. Without an awareness of this, some people become cocksure and conceited. I can't speak for how much this happens at other universities.

I studied Social & Political Sciences, which included papers in politics, sociology and social psychology, but later I chose to focus only on social psychology. My best work was on the role of patient understanding in mental health treatments.
( close this )

Studied social psychology
Made websites for money
Travelled Morocco
Graduated with first class hons
Awarded a scholarship
Worked as a chugger across England

2007

Year of much change
Moved to London
Parents split
Worked for a think tank looking at how we use information ( some details ⬇)

Met a girl on a train
Studied graphic design & typography

2008-2009

Joined a small Shoreditch digital agency as a PM
Then managed the PM team
Big arty clients: Shakespeare's Globe, Whitechapel Gallery, Tate
Plus lots of entrepreneurs needing business/digital advice
Fell in love with Stockholm
Tried starting up a photography side-business with a friend
Studied experience design
Discovered a passion for how psychology and design work together

2010

Became a godfather
Travelled Iceland
Read loads of American non-fiction
Bought Punktastic.com ( what the heck is Punktastic? ⬇)

Immediately learned a ton about editing, storytelling, managing remote staff, the UK music scene and digital advertising.
Started to understand the perils of trying to make a profit in online publishing

2011

Employed by Public Zone to bridge the gap between Accounts & Developers
Re-invented their production processes and managed the tricky projects
Became the go-to "explainer" for technical issues and best practice internally, at pitches and with clients
Helped hire new staff as we grew
Big non-profit clients: National Trust, United Nations, London 2012.
At home, I was busy re-designing and -launching Punktastic

2012

Public Zone merged with its larger sister agency Zone
Moved into Zone's small strategy team - finding evidence so we can make the correct decisions on our projects
Wrote and published the agency's new flagship guide, The Digital Fundraising Handbook
Wrote think-pieces for The Guardian and The Economist
Recruited onto the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association's advocacy team.
Big clients: Macmillan Cancer Support, RNIB, Tesco, Nike
Punktastic sponsored a headline stage at Hevy Festival

2013

Is just getting started...

Ideas

I think reading other people's ideas is the best way to create your own. Mostly I read opinion and latest news from online bloggers and thought-leaders (click for a list), but I also love magazines and American long-form journalism.

To make reading more enjoyable, I'm creating a tool called ReadComfy, which re-styles your favourite articles with beautiful typography. Watch this space.

Elsewhere

First off, check out Glenn Fleishman's website because he's an interesting guy and his design inspired this one.

Then you should follow me on twitter, where I talk with friends and link to interesting things I've read. Or just subscribe to my tumblr, where there's less chat and just a simple list of interesting things I've read.
I'm on LinkedIn and Facebook too.

There just isn't enough time in the day, right? But you should get in touch and say hello all the same.