We’re Cursive

Rob Colley

Director

Rob made his first website at 15, then went on to work for the likes of Manchester United and adidas before founding Cursive in 2008. A game he built for Barnardo’s about child poverty changed everything: shown on ITV’s Text Santa appeal, it made clear how digital craft can carry a message that matters. Nearly two decades on, that’s still at the centre of everything he does. Rob is at his best when the brief comes from a partner whose work needs to reach the world, whether it’s a global charity, independent think tank, or complex membership organisation – he’s there to shape strategy, guide delivery, and keep things moving without drama.

Skills: Digital consultancy, design principles, project delivery

Adam Nisbet

Account manager

Adam is the friendly voice in your inbox, the reliable hand on your timeline, and the keeper of the very long to-do list. He’s your go-to guy for updates, support, and chipper Geordie charm. Basically, if something needs doing, Adam’s already on it.

• Runner, reader, tattoo collector, Newcastle United lifer (finally smiling after years of loyal resilience training)
• Lives with Kevin and Pepper (cats, not housemates, and yes – he’s happy to show you photos)
• Most likely to have at least 47 browser tabs open at any given time

Skills: Client care, project management, digital marketing, SEO

Martin Swarbrick

Senior software developer

Prior to joining Cursive, Martin was working with AI before most had heard the term – using early machine learning to develop a new kind of ECG monitor and later coding for a pioneering brain scanner. He’s been developing software professionally for more than 25 years across medical devices, tech startups, and web agencies, and is your go-to for backend web application development in Python, Django, and Wagtail. He leads Cursive’s technical work, with a knack for solving problems you didn’t know you needed solving – including building Grafl, our own data visualisation tool, as a side project off the back of his work with GO Lab.

Skills: Data modelling, software development, data visualisation

Patrick Smith

Senior software developer

With more than a decade of Django experience, Patrick’s infrastructure instincts prevent issues before they become a problem. He’s strong on hosting, backend engineering, and knowing how performance and deployment issues will play out before they rear their heads. He’s drawn to novel problems, particularly where integrating services or finding the right technical approach makes a meaningful difference to how the team or a client works. Sometimes, this includes hugely complex projects such as knowledge databases of over 30,000 articles, with strict cross-cutting taxonomies and detailed user metrics. He also wrote the story and puzzles for the Crucial Crew online safety game for North Yorkshire Police – a 10-year-old once said they couldn’t believe the police had produced something so cool.

Skills: Dev ops, software development, systems integration.

Martyn Stirk

Front-end developer & designer

Our accessibility champion, Martyn handles how the platforms we build look, feel, and behave – and consults on editor UX to make sure sites work as well for the people publishing content as they do for those reading it. He builds design systems for clients such as ODI Global, pattern libraries that keep everything consistent, and balances front ends for organisations with multiple sites, each with different languages, branding, and content structures running in parallel. You might have seen his work on the Cursive site: he designed and built the big wobbly line that runs through every page, which produces a different result on every load and involves considerably more maths than it looks.

Skills: Responsive design, front-end development, accessibility.

Jodie Hirst

Designer and UX specialist

Jodie’s the one who makes everything look effortless, blending thoughtful design with strategic clarity at every stage of the project. She keeps things clear, on-brand, and beautifully balanced, with that rare superpower of spotting the detail that transforms good into fan-bloomin’-tastic. Also, she somehow knows what users need before they do. Because, logic. Or possibly psychic.

• Loves a good thriller (the book kind, not misaligned wireframes)
• 2000s pop and R&B was not a phase
• Most likely to be travelling somewhere less rainy than Britain 

Skills: Figma, user experience design, user research, accessibility

Nina Cresswell

Content strategist

Nina works at the intersection of editorial strategy and communications framing – helping mission-led organisations work out not just what to say, but how to say it in ways that shift minds and move people to act. With 12 years’ experience across journalism, brand, and advocacy communications – working with organisations such as Amnesty International, Good Law Project, and Index on Censorship – she brings deep sector knowledge and a rigorous editorial eye to the work of organisations that have something important to say and need it to land. At Cursive she leads on content strategy, SEO, brand voice, and narrative framing for clients whose causes deserve to reach the people who matter most.

Skills: Content strategy, copywriting, tone of voice, communications, conscious marketing, SEO, campaign messaging