Education

Chartered Management Institute Diploma

Prince 2 foundation

Middlesex University BA Hons Interior Design (2:1)

Arts Foundation year at Brighton University

3 A’ Levels and 6 O’Levels from Bishopshalt Grammar School, Hillingdon

Professional Experience

Leigh Cain Creative Ltd January 2014 to date Director 

Richborough Roman Fort Museum Kent, redesign, all design stages for English Heritage

Appointed by University of Bedfordshire as the external assessor for 3d design degree course in Cairo, Egypt

Concept, scheme design for three permanent Expo / exhibition buildings ( 20,000m2) in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

Concept, scheme and detail design for Making Connections : Stonehenge in its Prehistoric World exhibition

On site design manager for the Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza.

Study of the gallery layouts and concept design for Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar

Concept design for Southend Cliffs Museum – Thames Estuary

Concept design for Jiangxi Science + Technology Museum, China

Corbridge Roman Town Museum redesign for English Heritage, all design stages

Concept design for the major exhibition at Royal British Columbia Museum; Gold Rush: British Columbia’s El Dorado

Concept and scheme design for the Natural History Museum, Kuwait. £80m budget, 5 month design time

Concept, scheme, detail and implementation for ‘On This Very Spot’ exhibition for English Heritage at Battle Abbey

Lead exhibition designer to convert The Charterhouse, London, into a museum with a £3.5m HLF budget

Designs for the new Design for Living galleries, NMS, Edinburgh

Judge for Design Week Awards 2014 + Marketing Design Awards 2014

Industry Expert for Design Ventura at the Design Museum

Museum of London July 2007 to Dec 2013 Head of Design and Exhibitions 

Leigh managed a team of 17 staff; 2d and 3d designers, technicians, photographers, electricians and audio visual technicians through the design of the £22m Galleries of Modern London in 2009 and many temporary exhibitions. These include Jack the Ripper, Michael Caine, Pirates: The Captain Kidd Story, Archaeology in Action, the Lord Mayor’s coach horses, BBC Miss Haversham dresses, and Philanthropy: The City Story at Charterhouse. Galleries include War Plague and Fire and the Sainsbury Study Centre.

Leigh designed two new museum entrance reception desks for London Wall and Docklands and oversaw the design for the new cafés, bar, restaurant and schools lunch rooms using external design teams. This was completed in parallel with the Galleries of Modern London refurbishment, proving a multi faceted role and capacity for a large workload with both in-house and external designers, consultants and contractors.

As Head of Design Leigh was ‘keeper of the brand’, and approved the visual language of all exhibition design and graphic artwork for both internal and external design teams and was very involved with the re-brand.

Leigh understands the museum environment, collaboration required, and inspired and led her team in the daily process of exhibition design, gallery maintenance, 2d and 3d projects, with up to 14 exhibitions annually.

Metaphor December 2006 to July 2007 Lead designer

Leigh was engaged to manage the design team for the Grand Egyptian Museum project in London and Cairo from concept design stage to construction. Working jointly with Cultural Innovations, she was pivotal to the future of the GEM project. Leigh also co-designed The First Emperor Terracotta Army exhibition for the British Museum and managed the team designing 33 new galleries of the Ashmolean Museum, personally specialising in the design and manufacture of the £7m contract of showcases with Meyvaert, Belgium.

Austin-Smith:Lord April 2005 to December 2006 Head of Interior + Museum Design 

Leigh created the concept for the new museum within Abu Dhabi’s oldest building at Qasr al Hosn; a 1769 fort built to protect a natural spring. Telling the story of the city and its rise from pearl fishing to oil exports, Leigh made research trips and became immersed in the fascinating history. Site also includes a Cultural Foundation building with library and arts centre.

Shrewsbury Museum – Moving the collection of local artefacts from the existing museum into the centrally located music hall that is set on historical foundations. New build required and excavation and exposure of Medieval and Tudor and building remains.

Prospect – £1m fit out for new build offices in Waterloo for the trade union.

Folkestone Dental Surgery – £1m design and fit out for 15 new surgeries

SCI – design and refurbishment of Grade I listed building in Belgrave Square

Back Berry Studios – Contemporary design and fit out of offices in Liverpool

1983 to April 2005 John Csaky Associates, The Projects Team, Lewis & Hickey, McColl Ltd, Tilney Pike Shane, Fitch & Co. Clients include;

Exhibitions, Museums, Cultural, Visitor Attractions

Action Stations! Royal Navy Portsmouth

Asian Games opening + closing ceremonies, Doha

Blackpool Zoo

Cats…the ultimate experience, exhibition NMS

Communications Gallery, MSIM

Earth Centre, Rotherham

Expo ’90; British Pavilion in Seville

G8 Summit, Gleneagles, Scotland

Hail Pavilion, Al Janadriyah, Riyadh

London Zoo

McLaren Brand Centre, UK

Motorola – Innovations Centre, Chicago and Motofunktour ’05, UK + Europe

Plymouth Mayflower (£2m)

Rockwell Collins

Wildwalk@Bristol (£4m)

Retail, Transport, Offices

Amey Group (£750,000)

BP Sunbury, Stockley Park, Research + Engineering

Coca Cola Schweppes Beverages

Debenhams

FCUK offices (£650,000) and in-store at Harrods

Heathrow Terminal 4 –5 restaurants, 3 bars, 2 Tax + Duty shops

Hertfordshire County Council

Katz Pictures

London Underground Ltd – Project leader for the LUL Design guidelines with DEGW

Lloyds Bank – New concept banking for Basingstoke branch, pub. Design Week

Marks & Spencer plc

Meadowhall Shopping Centre

Ocean Estates, Marbella

Pamukbank, Istanbul

Piper Building, Wandsworth (£260,000)

Star Alliance (£550,000)

Taylor Woodrow

Virgin Lounge, Euston Station

Leigh has worked around the world in Canada, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Spain, India, Ireland, Belgium and Italy for both large and small established private sector design groups, and larger public sector museums.

Interests include design, fine art, visiting exhibitions, architecture, film, novel writing, photography, dance, sailing, surfing, travel. Leigh also plays the drums.