We are a small team of talented professionals, academics and creatives with a wide range of skills and experience. Steering our fantastic organisation is our passionate and experienced voluntary leadership team. All of this would not be possible without their collective efforts. Read on to find out more about our board. Explore the list below to meet our team:
Louisa Rogers
Louisa is an Assistant Professor at Northumbria University, teaching on their BA (Hons) Fashion Communication programme. She also runs Vintage retailer Trendlistr and has a personal image-making practice that experiments with colour and composition in 35mm photography and collage.
Her interest in fashion history and theory has led her to deliver talks on the emergence of vintage fashion, fashion & subcultures and the significance of colour in 20th century clothing to a range of organisations.
Susi Bellamy
Susi Bellamy is passionate about colour. With a background as a Fashion and Beauty Editor for Conde Nast Publications in London and various other magazines, Susi is now a textile designer and artist. She was a committee member of the Colour Group of Great Britain but started our initiative to bring colour to the north with Colour Collective UK in 2016 (formerly the Northern Chapter of the Colour Group of Great Britain).
You can see more of Susi’s art and textiles on www.susi-bellamy.com
JOE GILL
Joe is a Senior Freelance Graphic Designer who specialises in third sector and cultural clients.
With over ten years experience in the design industry, he has worked with a host of North East and International clients such as Tyneside Cinema, Tyne Theatre Opera House, Workplace Gallery, Alexa Chung and Chisenhale Gallery.
Gabriele Jordan
Co-Founder
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Emily Allen
Emily is a creative individual with a strong eye for detail and colour and a special interest in design, interiors and fashion. With a foundation diploma in Art and Design from Newcastle College and a First Class BA (hons) in Fashion Communication, she has a wide breadth of experience in the creative field.
Emily went on to work for Trend Bible where she built her trend forecasting skills, mood boarding and experience with colour palettes. She currently works at Guerilla Communications and is a freelance illustrator. Her interest in research and forecasting allows her to create in depth analysis within multiple sectors for national and international clients. With extensive brand experience she is able to advise and deliver forward thinking designs.
MARIE DIFOLCO
Marie Difolco is an author and advocate specialising in Accessible Colour. Her book, Supporting Colour Blindness in Education and Beyond, is informed by over a decade of voluntary work, her lived experience as the parent of a son with Protanopia, and long-standing collaboration with Newcastle University’s School of Psychology. Colour Blindness is one of the world’s most common visual disabilities, affecting an estimated 300 million people globally. Alongside her role as Operations Manager at a firm of naval architects, Marie champions inclusive colour use across education, design, and industry.
JO CLARK
Jo Clark has a love of all things colourful. As a Newcastle University Business School lecturer, and former assistant director of learning and development, Jo is interested in ensuring that educators design learning materials with colour accessibility in mind. Together with committee colleagues, Marie Difolco, and Gabrielle Jordan from the Newcastle University School of Psychology, Jo hosts events and presentations exploring the issues surrounding colour vision deficiency (CVD), or ‘colour blindness’, in education. Considering CVD in the design of teaching materials and other communication tools, ensures that when colour is intended to convey meaning it can be understood by all learners.
Ilgin Cebioglu
Ilgin is a second-year Neuroscience PhD student at Newcastle University, investigating how the brain processes colour in individuals with colour vision deficiencies (CVD). She completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Durham University in 2022. After graduating, she worked as a research assistant at Newcastle University, where she contributed to a recently completed review of occupational colour vision standards, under the supervision of Prof. Anya Hurlbert and Dr. Gabriele Jordan. Her PhD research aims to identify the causes and real-world consequences of the large interindividual variability in CVD severity.
URSULA OJIKUTU
Co-founder
Ursula is an experienced entrepreneur with a 20 year career in the software industry working initially in a technical capacity and latterly in Director roles focusing on marketing and sales. A politics graduate with a post grad in Marketing, her passions in art, design, fashion, architecture and colour have led her into a second career in art curation. Working with North East based artists Ursula curates exhibitions in her home in Northumberland and acts as an intermediary to get this work in front of art lovers as well as interior designers and corporate clients. Ursula is a founder member of CCUK and previously the Northern Chapter of CGGB.
RUTH KELLY
Committee member
As a trend forecaster and illustrator, Ruth has a rich and varied experience of working with colour.
After studying a BA in Fashion Communication and MA in Multidisciplinary Design Innovation, her career began in the world of FMCG as a communication designer. This role included persuading the wider corporation with the integral role of design research and innovation.
Moving back to the North East, she honed her skills as a trend forecaster at Trend Bible, where working with colour quickly became one of her favourite aspects of her role. Leading the Gift & Greetings and Baby & Kids teams, she was responsible for developing fresh and commercially appealing colour palettes and design direction for international leaders.
She currently works freelance as a trend researcher and is enjoying continuing her journey with colour through the world of illustration for children.
Colour Collective UK 