Francesco Imola

Francesco Imola

Chief Reality Checker in Folkestone, UK, He/Him

My speciality? Absolutely none. Find me building bridges across the murky waters of design, communications, events and art.

Work Experience

2024 — Now

I help small business owners manage time-sucking web design, copy-writing and inbound marketing projects so they can focus on doing what they do best.

2022 — 2023

I co-led communications and brand marketing at Blueberry, a boutique talent agency. Email open rates quadrupled and social media engagement soared. My work helped editors, designers and artists attract new clients. It raised Blueberry's profile and made their message stronger.

2020 — 2021

I co-designed a major online hub and covid-safe protocol for Film & TV students that allowed them to keep making films during Covid. I also handled social media and set up some great remote classes with industry experts.

2018 — 2020

I helped organise, install, promote and host over 50 exhibitions and events in 2 years while also coordinating the galleries' digital marketing activities and assisting with charity initiatives and much more. Truly one of the best student jobs I could have asked for!

Projects

2021

Contributed to a practice‑led research project, capturing behind-the-scenes shots, designing promotional content, and co-developing a social media campaign. Our efforts increased awareness of Virtual Production, emphasizing the need for standardized workflows to support emerging filmmakers.

2021

Helped produce a hybrid live/recorded TEDx event. I built and wrote copy for a user-friendly website targeted at attendees, designed a TEDx sign, and coordinated with external contractors to build set elements.

2020
Lockdown Cinema at University of Greenwich

Coordinated a series of Covid-safe film screenings and designed posters for each. Each film was followed by a Q&A to discuss the highlights and learnings. I loved working on these events because they mixed education and entertainment to capture students' interest at a time during the pandemic when engagement was at its lowest.

2017 — 2020
Digital Arts, BA Hons at University of Greenwich
London

Side Projects

Ongoing

Tools, resources, opportunities, and inspiration for artists and makers on Are.na.

2023

I edited and translated an interview between Nicoletta De Santoli & Domenico De Leo. This is featured in the 3rd edition of Passing Notes. *Cover art: Tim McFarlane, Seen and Heard Today Tomorrow Forever, 2022*

2022

A micro invitation to lose yourself in the unspoken, this expanded poem encourages reflection on the intangible nature of time.

2020

Web-based work incorporating poetry, photographs, and semi-generative audio-visual elements. These fragments reveal themselves as the user interacts - almost by instinct - with the browser's canvas. The work articulates personal sentiments about "home", what (and who) makes one, and how to find meaning living between homes.

[Audio works only on desktop]

2019

Can re-framing social media content as a stream of consciousness tell the story of how it came to be?

Three Years contains all my tweets from April 2016 to February 2019 – more than a thousand entries. I presented the book at the opening of "528" (an exhibition I co-curated) where I performed an uninterrupted 2:30 hrs live reading.

2018
Exhibition Title Bot

A semi-autonomous program that generated and tweeted 500+ exhibition titles for fictional art exhibitions, from the hilarious to the grotesque. It tweeted daily for two years between 2018 - 2021.

2018

Interactive web-work based on Clemens Meyer's homonymous story. The site guides you through extracts from the story, accompanied by corrupted sketches and a forklift spun in space. The whole is soundtracked by a music piece I composed to enrich the experience.

2017

As a concert photographer for the webzine Getintothis, I captured shots of concerts in Liverpool and the Merseyside area. My gig photography portfolio includes artists like Nas, Idles, Real Estates, Tom Grennan, Nathan Fake, and Stealing Sheep.

2015

I made, released and performed music under my own name and the aliases Mountain King and Young Offices. I played in cover bands, dj'd and performed my own music at informal gigs in Italy and England. I also studied and practiced guitar, composition and music technology for several years until 2017, when my creative practice expanded into other areas.

Certifications

2023
Mailchimp Foundations from Mailchimp

Honestly one of my favourite marketing tools, Mailchimp is so powerful. On this course I learnt how to maximise its potential to create replicable and targeted campaigns. Or to dig into the numbers and make sure I'm always hitting the right keys.

2023
Inbound Marketing from HubSpot Academy

A great refresher on content marketing, lead gen, inbound campaigns and performance analysis.

2021
Creating Digital Content from Institute of Coding & University of Leeds

Learned to craft messages that stick and and to examine the context I make with a keen eye.

2019
Curating on the Web from Node Center for Curatorial Studies

Taught me how to curate exhibitions on the web—before COVID brought online shows into the mainstream. I also learned skills I didn't know I'd need years later. These made me better at promoting niche products and organising events of all kinds.

Exhibitions

2020
Feed Your Demons and Meet the Ally

A ZIP-compressed exhibition exploring fears, desires, and obstacles artists face in times of crisis and isolation. Featured works cross-referenced mythology, pop culture, the supernatural, and digital selfhood.

Curated by Magda Żołędź (of ONE Project) and I, the exhibition opened with an online event featuring artwork walk-throughs, studio visits, and Q&As.

2020

An online exhibition and accompanying catalogue focusing on the ways in which emerging artists and curators have been affected by the increasingly dystopian internet culture of the last decade.

Enes Alba, Atom Chen, Dario Bucheli, and Perce Jerrom presented work. I held Q&As with Lisa Barnard, Pita Arreola-Burns, Elliott Burns, Valentina Peri, Ghislaine Boddington, and Walter Corneli. Put it all in a catalogue that travelled the web and gave back to it more than it took.

2019
London

Co-curated with David Waterworth, this exhibition showcased the work of four University of Greenwich graduates—John Joseph Watters, Grace Diggens, Marilia Lezou and Rhiannon Ashley. Each of them working in an interdisciplinary field, doing their bit to make a positive impact on our environment and our community.

Features

2023
Read.cv Features
2021

Feature on "How to Feel More at Home" by Banyi Huang on Issue 25 of Show and Tell.

2021

My BTS photos got featured in News Articles by Story Futures as well as a series of articles on Virtual Production written by Dr. Jodi Nelson Tabor and scholars at the University of Greenwich.

2020

Image “Untitled(2)” was published in Issue 04: "Self" of Harbor Review, an independent online space and publication for poetry and art.

2016

I released an EP in 2016 under the name Mountain King. Rockit, Italy's music biggest music portal, gave it a nod. Not bad, they said. Not bad at all.

Volunteering

2021 — 2022
London

Engaged in regular calls with the CPP committee and assisted with writing an open call, reviewing submissions, and provided input on future projects.

Writing

2024

Twice-monthly newsletter covering alternative ways of doing business with bite-size stories on what’s going right and fresh takes on sustainable practices.

2024

Personal essays in newsletter form for people who dare to live creative lives. We talk about the nature of being creative and living through trauma, and share cool stuff I find on the web.

2020

Exhibition catalogue, Q&As, and the opening essay "Playing to the Net".

2020

Exhibition essay for "Feed Your Demons and Meet the Ally".