SPURNING a scholarship at the Royal College of Art, interactive designer Andrew Warwick chose to let his work do the talking.

It was a brave move for a teenager who had just finished his A-levels at Wilmorton College, in Derby, but it proved to be a winning strategy.

In the last decade, Andrew has worked on a bewildering range of brands, including MTV, Land Rover, Bass, Thorntons and Levi Strauss.

Warwicka, his business, is now based in Ashbourne, employing eight people.

During the late 90s, it was the strength of his portfolio that got him started rather than his qualifications, landing him a job with Leicestershire design consultancy Checkland Kindleysides.

"At that time, design software was evolving very quickly and there wasn't a syllabus that could keep up, so by the time you finished your course, what you learned might be obsolete," said Andrew.

"I was advised that agencies were more interested in seeing a good portfolio than formal qualifications so that's what I did," said Andrew.

While working at the design agency, much of his spare time was spent teaching himself how to create computer animations with Flash software, used for website animations.

"There weren't any courses you could take as far as I knew but a lot of the animations on the internet had a link to the source file so you had access to the code which you could mess about with and change things," said Andrew.

"It took me six or seven months to learn those skills, by which time the dot-com boom was in full swing and there was a big demand."

That demand was from the capital so Andrew moved to London – and quadrupled his earnings in one go.

At the turn of the millennium, money was being ploughed into developing new dot-com businesses like there was no tomorrow.

"It was hard work and long hours but you could tell that there was a lot of money being invested because when you were working you were treated really well.

"There were lots of perks," said Andrew.

"There were even masseurs in the office, who were paid for by the client, to reduce stress."

Initially, he went to work with celebrated fashion photographer Nick Knight and Peter Saville, one of Andrew's design heroes.

"I'd always loved the record sleeves that Peter Saville designed for New Order so it was brilliant to be able to work with him," said Andrew.

"Together, they were investing in new media to bring more to photo shoots and fashion shows."

He would create animations that would then be projected around the room, giving more depth to shows for the likes of Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior.

In 2002, he started to work for agencies on a variety of projects, including animation for the National Geographic television channel, work for the Radio 1 website, global advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi, restaurant chain Yo! Sushi and the launch of the PlayStation 2.

"I designed animations for the launch website and e-cards.

"It was a great project to work on.

"It involved Trevor Beattie, who was famous because he designed the Weetabix men in the 80s.

"I learned a lot."

After the dot-com bubble burst, masseurs were few and far between.

Although the work did not dry up, London prices started to bite and Andrew returned to the Midlands, working for Rees Bradley Hepburn in Solihull.

"They had contracts with quite a few automotive firms and I got to work on the Aston Martin account," he said. "After coming from London where everything had to be done yesterday with no budget, it was a refreshing change to work on something where quality was paramount."

Having proved himself with global brands, high-profile work continues to come in to Warwicka.

This includes in-store animations for jeans giant Levis and, through former employer Nick Knight, Andrew has picked up work with Italian fashion brand Prada.

He has also worked on the website and DVD cover for the US film Operation Mongoose.

Although this year has seen a couple of clients disappear, the work keeps coming in.

"Because my portfolio is available to so many different agencies all around the world, work can come in from anywhere," said Andrew.

"More than anything else, it is the relationships you have built with people that keep the work coming."