Michael Rayner became a director of the Sydney-based practice Philip Cox and Partners in 1983. He opened the Brisbane office of the practice in 1990, then trading as Cox Rayner Architects. Jayson Blight joined the practice in 1994 and became a director in 2001.

Jayson and Michael were the Project Directors for many Cox Rayner Architects (now Cox Architecture) projects both in Queensland and internationally including the Helix Pedestrian Bridge in Singapore (Project Director: Michael Rayner) and the National Maritime Museum of China (Project Director: Jayson Blight).

They developed an exceptional collaborative working relationship over their years in the Cox Rayner practice, contributing to each other’s projects and design thinking on many fronts – from the future of cities to the crafting and art of architecture. This led to their decision to form their own partnership Blight Rayner Architecture in 2016.