Brian Homer

Brian has been a photographer, designer, writer and communications consultant for 30 years working mainly with public sector clients. He has in that time also been actively involved in a wide range of arts-related projects.

As a photographer he was part of the original Handsworth Self Portrait project in 1979 and was also a co-founder of Ten8 an international photography magazine. He spent a period co-running a community photography project in Birmingham and he continues to carry out photography commissions for clients. Recently he curated a photography project about community by Andrew Jackson. In the last two years he has re-visited self-portrait photography.

He has carried out many editing and writing projects including producing all of Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell's books and co-writing two of them Waiting for the Upturn and Chairman Blair's Little Red Book. Using his background in community journalism, he now mentors members of the Handsworth community involved in the Hands on Handsworth Magazine project.

Valerie Jenner

After a degree in History, working in the Training Services Agency in the 70s and then re-training in Community Theatre Arts, Valerie worked for many years in various theatre companies as an actor. She also worked as a freelance director and for a while was Community Director at the Gateway Theatre, Chester. She has been a visiting tutor at several drama colleges, universities and on theatre youth programmes and a voice and presentations coach for Nottingham County Council and Nottingham City Council; as well as developing and running an HND in Community Theatre for Nottinghamshire Education Authority in collaboration with Nottingham Playhouse and Clarendon College.

Valerie holds a PGDip in Voices Studies and was tutor in Voice, Speech and Text at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She is a Director of Homer Creative, which she joined in 1999 bringing experience in presentation skills training and various forms of live, spoken and written communication. Valerie is a member of the Voice Care Network and is a Transformational Breath® Facilitator.

Sue Race

Sue is our senior designer and creative consultant and joined us in 1999 from Jungle.com. Sue is a designer with flair and imagination with a great feel for colour and composition, and as well as having an all-round studio and production knowledge, she is also an accomplished artist and illustrator having studied BA Visual Communication at the University of Wolverhampton.

Sue Loves a design challenge, she has a strong focus on producing clear, focused designs that are timeless.

Outside of work Sue's inspiration is music - From Pink Floyd to Chopin. She is passionate about playing her piano, and is currently working her way through the grades - we are often treated to classical moments in the studio.

Matt Sadler

Matt, who joined us in 2001, manages and runs our web projects. He has excellent print design skills, with a particular flair for typography and his attention to detail is second to none. As one of our creative consultants, he loves nothing more than to help clients build their brand and get their message across as clearly and powerfully as possible.

Matt is a problem solver; he won't rest until he has found a solution that answers the brief, whether a technical issue or a design challenge.

Away from the studio Matt is actively involved with his local church as leader of the music team. He also likes football and loves to travel and, amongst other things has been to the far reaches of Africa for various charitable causes some of which involved getting local kids to play football too.

Louise Gates

Louise is our administrator and joined us in 2006 having previously worked in Cadbury's design studio and for Virgin Trains. She makes sure that our office, finance and admin systems are running smoothly and is also responsible for operating our health & safety and environmental procedures.

Nathalie Hop

Nathalie is our student placement from Deltion College, Zwolle in the Netherlands. She has always been interested in the signs, posters and products around us, and even as a child wanted to know how packaging was put together. She also likes doing and making rather than having her head in a book, so is fitting right in to our team. This is her first placement and she already has sound technical skills and an eagerness to get involved. And coming from the village of Ermelo back home, she is enjoying the big city. She says Brummies are very kind – well thank you Nathalie. We think you are great too and an asset to our busy studio.

Graham Darbyshire

Graham is a member of the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development and has worked for over 20 years with Unilever, Phillips, GKN and HSBC, covering the full range of HR activities at senior management level. He is a regular conference speaker who now works as a consultant focussing on training and development, especially team building and leadership, HR strategy and policy development, as well as employee attitude surveys linked to organisations who wish to become "employers of choice". Graham contributes to Homer Creative's consultancy, facilitation and attitude survey work.

Roy Peters / Mahasiddhi

Roy is a documentary and creative photographer with over thirty years of experience working for schools, universities, trade unions, and other public sector organisations. He has pioneered and developed action photography notably in the sporting and dance theatre fields as well as in work place portraiture. Roy, who is also a trained marketer, contributes photography to a wide range of our work. Roy is also a specialist in extremely large display photography.

Timm Sonnenschein

Timm is a documentary photographer and designer, even prepared to be thrown overboard into the Baltic Sea to capture images of a working lifeboat and its crew! He brings a European perspective to his work with us, where he has contributed to our schools photography and to Homer Creative's Self-Portrait Project.

Chris Stagg

Chris is an award winning creative consultant using narrative and visual thinking processes to develop teams, products & services, brands and leadership in business organisations. He has designed and delivered creative learning & development programmes for a wide range of commercial organisations. He has FE and HE teaching experience and is also a Visiting Fellow at CENTRIM, Brighton University's centre for innovation in business and management. He contributes to our consultancy and facilitation work.

Emma Jo Tucker

Emma is an experienced workshop leader, photographer and theatre arts practitioner with a particular gift for working with young people. She has worked for various companies and organisations including the MAC, Stage 2 and Stan's Cafe. Emma Jo contributes to our Self Portrait Birmingham project.

Fred Brookes

Fred is business adviser to Creative Leicestershire, Associate Director with Cultivate, the East Midlands development agency for the arts and cultural sector and has wide experience in the cultural and creative industries. He has worked as a development consultant and researcher with local authorities, the private sector, Arts Council, urban development corporations and voluntary trusts. He is also currently a director of Advantage Creative Services Ltd, Nottingham Playhouse Ltd and chair of Nottingham Media Centre Ltd (Broadway). Fred contributes to our research and consultancy work, particularly with organisational, financial and business analysis.

Jan Walmsley

Dr Jan Walmsley is visiting chair in Leadership and Workforce Development at London South Bank University and was formerly Dean of the Health and Social Welfare faculty of the Open University where she was central to the development of work based learning programmes including K100 Understanding Health and Social Care. Before becoming an independent consultant she was Assistant Director responsible for Leadership Programmes at The Health Foundation where she developed, managed and quality assured eight schemes aimed at developing leadership capacity in the health sector. Jan has worked with a wide range of client organisations as an independent consultant. She contributes to Homer's consultancy, particularly work in the areas of learning and leadership in health and social care, and has an interest in working with disability groups.