Moves and changes – design industry news

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D&AD has announced a new senior leadership line-up, with Adam&eveDDB’s chief creative officer Richard Brim as president, Jo Jackson joining as CEO, and Jack Renwick as deputy president. Brim replaces Dean of Academic Programmes at Central Saint Martins Rebecca Wright and will be the organisation’s new president for 2022/23, followed by Renwick who will automatically succeed to presidency in September next year.

Jonathan Sands has stepped down as chairman of Born Ugly after 40 years of working in the consultancy, which was previously Elmwood Studios. Though Born Ugly will now be managed by its current senior executive team, Sands will remain involved as a founding shareholder and as landlord to the consultancy in their new Whitehall Quay home.

Ex-Pentagram partner and designer Astrid Stavro has joined Collins as VP creative director. Being based in London, Stavro will focus on supporting the studios European clientele.

Wolff Olins has permanently rehired Martin Hargreaves as creative director for environmental design and strategy. Hargreaves has worked freelance for the studio since 2019 after leaving his global retail experience manager position at Jaguar Land Rover. From 1995-2010 Hargreaves held a 3D designer position for 15 years at Wolff Olins and also worked in its New York studio as a design director in 2013.

Independent strategic design consultancy Big Fish has appointed Graham Hales, former London CEO and global CMO of Interbrand, as chief executive officer. Along with running the now-B Corp-certified studio’s UK business, Hales will seek to develop its new offer in the United States.

Jessie McGuire has been promoted from managing director to managing partner of New York-based brand design studio ThoughtMatter. This makes the studio one of the industry’s few people of colour-led, women-run agencies. ThoughtMatter has doubled in size under the direction of McGuire and also grown its creative and strategic capabilities.

V&A Dundee has appointed six new members to its board who, between them, have experience across business, culture, climate change, civil service, design, diversity, inclusivity, law and media. The appointees are: Stockholm’s National Centre for Architecture and Design director Kieran Long; Glasgow Women’s Library founder and director Adele Patrick; Climate Change Committee chief executive Chris Stark; Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery’s curator of discomfort Zandra Yeaman; Coventry Building Society’s head of legal James Hanlon; media and technology entrepreneur Mike Soutar.

Bristol-based digital product and service design agency Great State has announced Matt Powell as its new creative director. Powell brings 22 years of experience to the role and will be working on projects such as the redesign of the Royal Navy’s website.

Christophe Castagnera has been appointed as head of strategy for Imagination Middle East. The global experience design company will position Castagnera in Dubai, where he will be responsible for developing Imagination’s global presence.

Brand agency Bluemarlin – the team behind the strategy and design for Shell Oil, Colgate, Palmolive and more – has appointed Christopher Schilperoort as its new managing director and partner.

Juliet Layard-Liesching has joined Butterfly Cannon from Bloom as associate managing director. With over 10 years of experience, she will aim to grow relationships with global brands, as she did with Virgin Atlantic and Unilever in her previous role.

StormBrands has hired James Deshays as client director for its newly created Specialist Business Unit.

Jon Gibbs has joined brand design consultancy Derek&Eric as managing partner. This coincides with the agency’s incorporation of a new “accelerated design thinking” concept.

Design Museum has appointed Stella Fong, formerly of M+ in Hong Kong, as its new head of learning. Fong was in her previous role as lead curator of learning at M+ – a museum for visual culture – for eleven years.

Lewis Moberly has recently appointed Velda Croot in the new role of marketing and development director. Croot’s experience includes working with start-up global network agencies and has held marketing and business development roles at agencies including Brandhouse, SGK and StormBrands.

Alice Waterman has been promoted to managing director at BrandOpus, after successfully establishing the studio’s Chicago location in 2019. Waterman has worked across global accounts at BrandOpus for ten years and hope to continue the grow the studio’s reputation in her new role.

Architecture and design studio Benoy has announced James Dixon as its new London director. Dixon has joined the studio from Glen Howells Architects where he led several mixed-use schemes as director.

Global design agency Straight Forward has appointed Keely Shaw as design director and Harry Parnell as client director. Shaw has previously worked at Brandhouse, Elmwood and Design Bridge while for the past five years Parnell has worked between Singapore and London, working across healthcare, personal care and beverage industries.

Consultancies

DNCO has expanded into North America with its newly opened New York City studio. This is the studio’s first location outside of London but the two geographical teams will serve clients through a “one studio approach” as they will collaborate closely on projects.

Interior design studio Rive Gauche London is expanding from eight to 15 staff. The expansion will be completed by summer 2023 and the new team will be part of both domestic and international projects.
If there have been any moves at your consultancy, you can email [email protected]