Our Story

What’s in a name? (Why Crash Rhino!?)

Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights" closed view depicting a spherical landscape with a dark background, part of the triptych's exterior panels.

Let us take you back to the chaotic feudalism of the 16th century, a time when exotic animals were shipped halfway across the world to bolster the menageries of kings.

In 1515 one such animal, a rhinoceros named Ulysses, sailed from the beaches of Goa to the bustling port of Lisbon. 

A framed Renaissance-style portrait of a man with long curly hair wearing a hat, ornate clothing, and a serious expression.

Meanwhile, the renowned printmaker Albrecht Dürer was living out his days in Nuremberg, having engraved his three finest master prints.

In a search for his next subject, Dürer chanced on a letter written by a Portuguese artist, with a rough sketch of a mythical creature he’d never laid eyes on before.

Woodcut illustration of a rhinoceros by Albrecht Dürer from 1515, showing the animal with detailed armor-like skin and text above.

Dürer’s Rhinoceros is an anatomically inaccurate, embellished woodcut of a rhino, based entirely on hearsay. Despite this, it became the reference point for the animal throughout Europe for hundreds of years, and many claim no image of an animal has ever had “such a profound influence on the arts.”

Surrealistic bronze rhino sculpture with textured skin and spherical elements on its back and front, displayed outdoors with a cloudy sky background.

Ulysses’ stony face now adorns the corbels of the Belém Tower. Salvador Dali hung a reproduction of Dürer’s woodcut in his childhood home, and later created his own statue in its name alongside many other artists.

For us, Dürer’s Rhinoceros means a great deal. It’s a statement that creativity and talent can be used to transcend reality. It’s proof that art made to be reproduced can still deeply resonate with those who view it. It’s timeless.

The collective noun for rhinos is a crash. Hence, we’re Crash Rhino. For Ulysses, who sadly never made it to Rome on his second trot across the globe. For a narrative to weave, a story to tell. Because that’s what we do.

Meet the Rhinos

We’re Becky and Sam.

After spending over 20 years combined in professional writing, events, and marketing careers, we realised it was probably time to manage our own company. 

Here’s a bit more background info about the two of us.


Black and white photo of a bearded man with curly hair, wearing a patterned sweater, smiling at the camera.

  • Founder & copywriting expert

    Hi, I’m Sam. 

    I’ve been a professional writer, researcher and marketer for about a decade. I started in immigration – writing comprehensive business plans for UK visa applications – before quickly expanding into digital marketing.

    During my career, I’ve been able to work with some of the biggest companies in the world, and though I’m a generalist I’ve grown to specialise in tech and sustainability. 

    • Partner campaigns for NetApp. NetApp gave me a lot of creative freedom with their concepts. For a campaign focused on AI, I devised quirky alternatives to the abbreviation, like Axolotl Influencers, Armadillo Illusionists and Aggressive Ice-skaters. Designers were then able to bring these concepts to life.

    • Outbound campaign for Digimarc Recycle. I learned about a really unique piece of tech, whilst figuring out how to communicate its complexities as clearly as possible for potential early adopters. You can read more about it in our case study.

    • Global email newsletters for Epicor. I worked with Epicor on curated email copy for each of their 17 different core regions. I enjoyed collating relevant stories for each target audience and considering the intricate differences between each country.

    • I’ve also worked with Unilever on their Walls ice cream brand, IFS on technical whitepapers and a whole lot more. 

  • I read a lot, and enjoy playing narrative-driven indie video games – I occasionally write features, reviews and other articles on games, films and professional wrestling. I’m also currently working on a novel.

    Becky and I both live and work nomadically. I’m the obsessive Google pinner (I have over 1700 places pinned in Japan alone…) in our travelling partnership, and therefore spend a lot of my spare time plotting our future movements.

  • I love the Balkans, particularly Bosnia, which is the one country I think more people should visit. Ohrid is one of the first places we visited on our travels, so it also holds a special place in my heart.

    I’ve also loved living in Rio, Osaka, Shanghai and Chania, though Vienna remains perhaps my favourite city in the world.

Black and white portrait of a woman with medium-length light hair, wearing a patterned shirt and a textured jacket, looking towards the camera.

  • Founder & the wearer of many hats!

    Hi I’m Becky and I’m a bit of a job magpie. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a really varied career working in the TV & Film industry as a screenwriter, as an events organiser for international law firms, in educational recruitment, proofreading and editing for Fortune 500 companies and I’ve even, once upon a time, been an English teacher teaching Macbeth and King Lear to GCSE students. At the core of all these roles has been a fundamental underpinning of clear communication and building relationships with people.

    I love new challenges, blue sky thinking and working with clients to develop exciting narratives and how we can communicate that with their desired audience. My background in creative writing (I’m a published author & award-winning poet) means that I’m constantly coming up with innovative ways to deliver effective campaigns that a reader can connect with.

    • Adapting Frode Eie Larsen’s novels for television. I was commissioned by JMG Stories to take best-selling author Frode Eie Larsen’s crime series ‘What Lies Below’ and adapt it for an English audience. This was a fascinating project which involved bombs going off at publisher’s Christmas parties, learning a lot about police procedural polices following a homicide and enmeshing Scandinavian and British cultural elements. I researched, wrote and developed four series pitch decks following the original source material and it was picked up by a South African production company and is currently in development.

    • Proofreading & Editing for Unilever’s website. I was the main editor and proof-reader for a blog series with accompanying social media content. These blogs were shared on Unilever’s main websites and were broadcast to their 18 million followers across various social platforms.

    • Organising the annual Bridge Conference for Irwin Mitchell at the House of Commons. I was the main organiser for one of Irwin Mitchell’s most integral partnership events of the year, which involves flying delegates from law firms in America to London for a long weekend of networking opportunities. I put together a schedule of a private tour, drinks reception & dinner at the House of Commons, two days of conferences, a guided bus tour of London, seeing a West-end show, accommodation at a five-star hotel, personalised gift bags for each delegate as well as on-hand support for the entire weekend to ensure everything went smoothly. This event alone generated hundreds of thousands of pounds in deals and partnership opportunities for Irwin Mitchell and their American counterparts.

  • Luckily, Sam and I share an innate love of working out where we’re going to eat dinner. So I’m usually looking at Google reviews of restaurants and trying to decide whether I’m having the chicken broth ramen with the extra egg or the char siu pork (hopefully both).

    Whenever I’ve got a spare moment I love to delve into a good book, I tend to inhale them over the course of about two days and not come up for air. My recent favourites have been Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, I’ll Sell You A Dog by Juan Pablo Villalobos and The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris.

    Occasionally I’ll even write fiction myself; I’ve just finished a speculative novel based on gender-based violence in a dystopian society (cheery I know) and now my next project is a sci-fi POV narrative surrounding the daughter of an imaginary dictator. I’m currently reading Edda Mussolini: The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe by Caroline Moorehead which is giving me plenty of inspiration on the subject.   

  • I’ve loved pretty much all the places we’ve visited and lived in over the past few years. I have fond memories of Bulgaria and being invited over to try shepherd’s pie to see how closely it resembles an English one.

    Also being taken to a traditional Vietnamese fish restaurant and learning that you drop the oyster shells on the floor. Trying tonkatsu for the first time and waiting in a line for an hour in Tokyo on Boxing Day (it was totally worth it). Seeing the gorgeous scenery of Bosnia & Herzegovina and buying a cold cherry juice halfway up a mountain. Going on the big wheel in Vienna’s Prater at dusk. Mango sticky rice and coconut ice-cream from a Bangkok street stall in the thirty degree heat. Going on cherry blossom walks in Osaka. Eating cacio e pepe in a tiny Osteria in tor Sapienza. To name just a few.

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