CREATIVE designer Ken Lloyd spent decades in the fast-moving world of London advertising agencies. The 60-year-old, who lives in Pier Avenue, Tankerton, with wife Nina, has owned his own business for nearly 20 years and works for clients across the world and closer to home.

Julia Collins went to see him and found out why he kept Margaret Thatcher waiting, what happened to him in a Nigerian drugs market and what it was like having Quentin Crisp as an art class model.

How did you end up drawing Quentin Crisp?

I was at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design and trained for three years as a technical illustrator. It was a very hands-on course which concentrated on drawing and he was a regular life model. I was surprised when he first came in because he turned up in a black velvet cape and cravat and carrying a silver-topped cane and I had no idea who he was but as we all chatted with him while the class took place, it became obvious that he was some kind of celebrity.

What was your first job?

I worked on technical drawings of missiles and submarines for the Ministry of Defence. I decided to move on from that because it was very badly paid compared to what my friends at advertising agencies were earning. I then worked for lots of different agencies in London and had about 10 different jobs in my first year alone. A memorable job was the Saatchi and Saatchi Labour Isn't Working campaign for the 1979 general election.

The campaign is back in the news this week now that the Conservatives have decided to go back to the Saatchis for this year's election campaign. What do you think about that?

Some ads you work on seem to be just another job in a long list, but Labour Isn't Working did seem a bit special at the time and ultimately became an iconic example of effective advertising. I remember the day it came into the art studio, it was about 2.30pm and I had to stop everything I was doing and immediately put together paste-up artwork for the ad. It was a bit of a panic as Margaret Thatcher was waiting to see the ad.

I've done a lot of work on election campaigns. At one point in the 80s I was working on the Conservative campaign in my day job and on the Labour campaign as a freelancer in the evenings. Other big jobs included the Tell Sid adverts for the British Gas privatisation. We had a great time working on that one.

What was it like working for big advertising agencies in the 80s?

I worked for Young and Rubicam (corr) in Camden for a while. That was fun because if they had a presentation and won the campaign we would all be invited to the bar they had in the building and be given a bottle of Champagne to drink. There was a lot of money in the industry in those days. If I had to work past 8pm then the companies would pay for a taxi home, even though I lived in Whitstable.

Why did you decide to work for yourself?

I realised the writing was on the wall when Apple Macs were being introduced and companies could get youngsters on Macs to do the jobs of several people for a lot less money. I was made redundant but then went through two years of hell because there was a dispute over how it was done, which I eventually won with Julian Brazier's help. I set up my business, The Karisma Partnership, with my wife Nina and we've been working together ever since. We do a fair amount of local work but we have clients as far afield as Majorca and SKP Pharma in Nigeria.

Have you been out to Nigeria?

I've visited my clients to tour the offices and factories and they arranged for me to see places that ordinary tourists and white people don't go to. I had armed guards with me and I was taken to look at the open-air drug market in Lagos. It was like a scruffier Soho but with narrower streets and really dark and dingy. I was with five Nigerian guys from SKP Pharma and they were introducing me to dealers. It was extraordinary. I got myself into trouble because I had my camera with me and I took a picture of a lady who was selling drugs and she thought I was trying to steal her soul so the men I was with had to get me out of there and pay her off. Another morning I woke up to machine gun fire from armed guards on a vehicle who were warning off bandits.

Tell me about your family.

I've been married to Nina for 36 years. We have a 28-year-old son, John, who is a Royal Marines commando. He's done two tours of Afghanistan but he's based in London now. Our daughter Sarah is 33. She lives in Dorset and works for a big banking organisation in Bournemouth.

Why did you move to Tankerton?

Nina and I used to visit friends in Whitstable and we liked it so much that after we married we decided to move here. We had a terraced house in Argyle Road for five years and moved to Tankerton in 1978. I commuted to London from here for 20 years and coming home on the train was always enjoyable because of the beautiful stretch of track along the coast.

What do you like about Whitstable?

The way it is almost unchanged from when we first moved here, it's still the same place we first fell in love with. People here are lovely and we've got to know so many. It's a bolthole and a nice place to come home to if I've been away.

Is there anything you would change about it?

I would get rid of all the potholes. And I don't like all the nannying of people's behaviour, there are lots of bans on cycling and dog walking in certain places. Most people are well behaved and should be left to get on with things without all the bans being imposed.

What was your first car?

It was a 1937 Ford 8, registration number ELN 29, which was my grandad's car. He decided to stop driving just after I had passed my test in 1967 so he handed it over to me. It was already about 30 years old but it ran like a sewing machine.

What was your first record?

Axis: Bold as Love by Jimi Hendrix. I saw Hendrix live at my art college. We had bands like Pink Floyd and Yes play there before they became really big. The singer of one of the bands booked for a college dance was late one night and this scrawny guy in a raincoat turned up, walked onto the stage and started singing and it wasn't until then that we realised the band was Led Zeppelin.

Who would you invite to a dinner party?

JS Bach, Audrey Hepburn and blues guitarist Robert Johnson. I think they would all have a lot of interesting stories to tell and it would be fun to find out about the person under the veneer.