The Talent
From Junior Creatives to ECDs, delve into career highlights (and lowlights) in our in-depth profiles.
Nicha Witayapaisitsan: Cooking with creativity
The SOUR Bangkok copywriter discusses Gen Z behaviour, Thai advertising’s human truths and turning everyday digital habits into ambitious platform ideas.
Aaron Marshall: Fade in
The Supergood senior creative and copywriter discusses sport, culture, self-expression and making advertising that comes from lived experience.
Jimmy Smith: Entertainment value
Amusement Park Entertainment’s Chairman, CEO and Chief Creative Officer discusses cultural storytelling, fearless ideas and why advertising must earn people’s attention.
The people who make the spots you love, covering all aspects of production, post and sound.
‘Un’ Wuthisak Anarnkaporn: The surreal deal
The Thai director discusses character-driven comedy, creative risk and why the people surrounding an idea matter more than the idea itself.
shots Unsigned: Daria Korsak
For this months shots Unsigned interview, we speak with Ukrainian director Daria Korsak about her music video for Imogen Heap. Here, she talks about working with a huge team of collaborators, fleeing the war in Ukraine, and her creative process.
Otman Qrita: The new cavalier
The Iconoclast director discusses Moroccan identity, fashion as visual language and finding emotional depth in ordinary lives.
Adriana Legay: Cut to the beat
The Final Cut editor and Collectiv Paris Co-Founder discusses emotional editing, creative chemistry and treating every film like a piece of choreography.
Olivia De Camps: The future belongs to fingerprints
SMUGGLER Director Olivia De Camps talks to Lucy Aitken about her love for ‘unforgiving’ short-form, the need for nerve, and how the best work ‘contaminates’ the memory.
Anselmo Ramos: Guided by his gut
Anselmo Ramos, Co-Founder and Creative Chairman of GUT, is a self-confessed ad nerd. He talks to Lucy Aitken about practising courage, the power of human intuition, and his admiration for Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Relta’s storytelling rhythms
Having started out as a music producer, director Relta (aka Richard Pope) moved into creating promos for both indie and big label artists, has also been commissioned to make documentaries, and often infuses his work with a musical perspective. Here director, who is repped by The Corner Shop, tells Carol Cooper how a broken XBox, a house theft and his dad’s love for fossils helped shape his career path.
Chaka Sobhani’s anti-misery mandate
With an impressive career trajectory, multiple awards for her big brand work and personal wins such as being Campaign’s Creative Leader 2022, and consistently featuring in Adweek’s Creative 100, the Global CCO of TBWA Worldwide, is clearly doing something right. Could it be her sunny disposition and belief in the joy of advertising? Carol Cooper shares her glee.
Arundati Thandur: Funny, period.
The FINCH director discusses TikTok-native comedy, performance-led filmmaking and finding authenticity in subjects ranging from menstruation to motherhood.
What's your first memory? Who were your influences? Find out more about your favourite creatives in our in-depth series.
The Way I See It: MJ Delaney
Merman director MJ Delaney can count the Clintons, Spice Girls, Ted Lasso, and the new Christmas M&S ad among her oeuvre, but did you know she had slightly more canine ambitions as a child? Here, she talks to shots about the Welsh breakthroughs, words of wisdom, and perspective-altering baubles that have shaped her career.
The Way I See It: Ellen Kuras
The Corner Shop director and DP Ellen Kuras reflects on her career and creative philosophy, tracing her path from history student to pioneering filmmaker, spanning documentaries, commercials, TV and features. Discussing her feature directorial debut, Lee, she explains how cameras can be used to create meaning and challenge traditional narratives.
The Way I See It: Edgar Wright
Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead, Scott Pilgrim, Last Night In Soho; regardless of your Edgar Wright entry-point, the frenetic filmmaker’s wit and passion makes fans of all who view his work. With a recent eyebrow-raising McDonald’s spot (shot through Moxie Pictures) an indication of more commercial work on the horizon, we caught up with Wright to chat about working with legends at an early age, the creative testbed offered by music videos, and how making yourself your own ‘dream viewer’ is the way to please those crowds.
The Way I See It: Sharon White
Sharon White, current Chair of John Lewis Partnership, is the first ever female to hold this position. Previously she’s held such notable roles as Chief Executive of British media regulator Ofcom and was the first Black person – and the second woman – to hold the title of Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury. In 2020 she received a Damehood in the New Year Honours List. She talked to shots about her pride in the John Lewis Partnership, car-crash weeks as a working mum and inspiration drawn from Michelle Obama.
The Way I See It: Luke Scott
From a boy on the set of his dad’s film, Alien, Luke Scott, award-winning director and the CEO of the Ridley Scott Creative Group, has gone on to gain his own valuable perspectives on filmmaking. His two-decade career has encompassed art directing, set building and directing TV (Raised By Wolves), features, ads and viral content for Prometheus and Blade Runner 2049. He shares his views on panopticons, prime ministers and the folly of space travel.
The Way I See It: Dede Laurentino
The multi-award-winning, Brazilian born Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy UK, André 'Dede' Laurentino, tells us about a difficult adolescence, life-changing trips to Europe, the feelings of inadequacy he has often struggled with, and why every creative person is punching back at the world.
Emma Daines: The human effect
The FIN Design + Effects founder reflects on four decades of VFX, building a people-first culture and keeping human judgement at the centre of technological change.
Omar Jones: Chasing the dream
Director Omar Jones was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Jamaica, Queens. At a young age he moved to the Poconos in Pennsylvania where he fell in love with cameras, before moving back to New York to pursue filmmaking. Beginning as an editor and VFX artist, Jones took on odd jobs around the city to make ends meet before once again moving, this time to LA, where he is represented by PRETTYBIRD and from where he spoke to Daniel Huntley.
Danielle Hinde: Doomsday is da bomb
Danielle Hinde, is the founder of director representation and production company Doomsday Entertainment. She has overseen groundbreaking music videos for Childish Gambino, Die Antwoord, J Lo, Katy Perry, Marvin Gaye, Justin Bieber, Flying Lotus, A Tribe Called Quest, Frank Ocean and hundreds more. Here, she talks to Daniel Huntley about sharing her weirdness, championing new voices in the industry and, hanging out behind the curtain...
Yegane Moghaddam: The fabric of memory
The Oscar-nominated animator discusses turning personal clothing into cinematic landscapes, and why handmade processes still offer space for discovery.
Smith & Foulkes: Double vision
The Riff Raff directing duo discuss three decades of inventive animation, creative partnership and finding fresh possibilities in changing technology.
Dani Coyle: Pulling focus
Combining her ongoing portrait project, Inter-Face, which focuses on the intersex community, and her work [as global creative lead] with Burberry, among other luxury brands, Dani Coyle talks to Tim Cumming about her work, her process, the all-encompassing terrain of social, and her balancing cultural and sexual politics with the lineaments of luxury.
Richard Brim speaks from the heart
After a long time at adam&eveDDB, servicing the headline news that is John Lewis Christmas, it’s been all change for Richard Brim. Now ensconced on the fourth floor of a Soho office block, with a workforce of around 25, Brim is turning his new agency, Ace of Hearts, into a future-focused, brand new style of agency.
Radheya Jang: Playing his cards right
Radheya Jang’s beautiful but dark animated film, Trading Cards, plays with the imagery of crystal balls, fortune cookies, tea leaves and Tarot cards. Here, the director's assistant at BlinkInk talks to Tim Cumming about fortunes, futures and aiming for features.
Anthony Moore: At the centre of the sonic boom
From a chance meeting at a BBQ to becoming Factory Studios’ CCO and owner, Anthony Moore has been at the beating heart of Britain’s advertising soundscape for nearly 30 years. Tim Cumming talks to him about mentors, Mother and Monty the Penguin.
Will Wightman: Gen Z Genius
Jonathan Grant sits down with BlinkInk's mixed-media polymath Will Wightman and discovers a wunderkind writer/director whose febrile mind issued such entities as mutilated farmyard puppets, a murderous grease monster called Mr. Sticky and a man-fly in pants.
Franki says relax
Franki Goodwin, Chief Creative Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi London and Executive Producer at Western Edge Pictures, claims she’s done everything the wrong way round. But that seems to be working out pretty well. Lucy Aitken went to Saatchi’s London HQ to meet her.
Liam Ratliff: Variety is the spice of advertising life
Australian senior creative and copywriter Liam Ratliff has worked at M&C Saatchi, Ogilvy and By All Means, all in Melbourne. Recently relocating to the UK, he talks about his experience of London, his influences, and how a minor brush with the police led to a more creative career.
Rob Galluzzo: A head full of dreams
Rob Galluzzo, Founder of Australian production company FINCH, discusses the power of freedom, how the advertising industry might change, but also remains the same, and how his belief in adventure, imagination and compassion is what keeps FINCH moving forward.