We are BoldLight
// Meet our awesome team
Chris Smyth
Creative Director
Ruth Smyth
Insight & Planning Director
Karolina Bednarz
Designer / Developer
Alice Still
Development Architect
Chris.
// Creative Director
Chris’ background is in User Experience Design and Innovation. He graduated with a MSc. in IT from Nottingham University in 2003. Since then Chris has worked across the commercial, non-profit and charity sectors as a designer and creative. He received training in Design Thinking and Innovation from IDEO San Francisco, and has created products, digital experiences and campaigns for a range of organisations and audiences.
In 2012 Chris founded BoldLight, an agency with a focus on using creativity and User Centred Design techniques to drive support for charities. Since then Chris has been lucky enough to work with some of the UK’s most exciting charities, including Alzheimer's Research UK, The RSPB, Kidney Research UK, Whale & Dolphin Conservation and WWF on a huge array of projects, from mobile apps to brand innovation, hard-hitting campaigns to games for young people.
Ruth.
// Insight & Planning Director
Ruth is Insight and Planning Director at BoldLight and has over 15 years’ experience delivering Insight work in the charity sector. During her 8 years with the RSPB Ruth led the Insight and Analysis functions and was responsible for developing the charity’s understanding of its different audiences as well as the social and cultural contexts in which the organisation operates.
In her role at BoldLight Ruth has delivered a range of Insight projects including user research to support digital development, focus groups and in-depth interviews to inform communications planning and co-creation to develop new fundraising products. Ruth also delivers training for the Institute of Fundraising, having co-written the ‘Insight in Fundraising Essentials’ and ‘Communicating Insight’ courses.
Karolina.
// Designer / Developer
Karolina graduated from Art school in Poland in 2016, came to the UK shortly after, and went on to gain a first-class degree in Graphic Design in 2020. Karolina is a creative designer and front-end developer with a passion for understanding people and problem solving. Her eye for detail and sensitivity in interpreting complex briefs help her to produce intuitive products that make an impact.
With BoldLight Karolina has designed and built the corporate fundraising site for Alzheimer's Research UK, an interactive art gallery for the Back from the Brink project (saving UK species from extinction) and designed and build a children's section of the Whale and Dolphin conservation site.
Alice.
// Development Architect
Alice graduated with a first-class degree in Computing Engineering from Trinity College, Dublin in 2002. She went on to work in several development roles, including seven years as Web Technology Architect at Cambridge Assessment. Alice is skilled in all aspects of web development, from system design, backend design and development, right through to working with Information Architecture and API integration.
Alice has created a range of bespoke applications and plugins for our clients including donation, sign up and campaigning processes. She has developed bespoke integrations with payment providers, fundraising tools and CRM systems, including Donorfy, Raiser's Edge, WordPress Gravity Forms and WooCommerce. Alice has also integrated data from Just Giving, Everyday Hero and other custom APIs to demonstrate 'social proof' and coordinate data between systems.
Want to join our team?
If you would like to join us, we would love to hear from you. Drop us an email or send us your CV.