Jon started his marketing career at Unisys, a global IT services firm. Throughout his time at Unisys, he learnt a lot about the internet and integrated that into his marketing thinking. “But I’d always wanted to set up my own companies,” he says. I joined Chris and Barry with Traffic in 2003. “We started Refresh after identifying a real and globally-massive market need: better renovation experiences and information. But we didn’t want to be just another building company.” “We knew that, if we wanted to be the best renovation specialists in the market, we needed to create great valuable content that would really help a renovator who’s researching their renovation options online, then close the loop by carrying out the renovations for them.”

Boasting a Masters degree from the exclusive Royal College of Art in London and experience working with some of the biggest international companies, including Nestlé, Procter and Gamble and Unilever, Barry has an extensive brand and design background that he’s applied to the Refresh brand. “I’ve spent much of my professional life developing an understanding of how brands work,” he says. “As well as dealing with some of the world’s leading brands, I worked under Terrance Conran, one of the UK’s leading design gurus. My background is technically graphic design, but most of the projects I’ve worked on are much broader than that. I’ve worked on packaging, interior design, product design and corporate design. And I’ve been able to utilise all those skills and experience within the framework of the Refresh brand.”