'The most important thing to decide is whether you are a leader or a follower,' he tells me from across a large table in his airy Paris office. It's December, and we're in Dior's menswear headquarters in the 8th arrondissement, not far from the Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde. Anderson is fresh off the Eurostar, having just been crowned Designer of the Year at the Fashion Awards in London for the third consecutive time.
The Chicago office has added Leah Hattendorf, senior vice president-planning, and Matt Sulzer, creative director. Hattendorf steps into a critical role leading the insights community, delivering on the agency's realistics process for clients and prospects. She was most recently at the creative Chicago shop The Escape Pod, and before that at JWT New York, DDB and FCB Chicago. Her client background is a match for Current, with CPG, food, home and insurance expertise.
The conversation about AI and creativity isn't going anywhere, and it was front and centre at Frontify's recent Paradigms conference in Morocco. Jonas Hegi, co-founder and executive creative director of Builders Club, leads one of the most forward-thinking creative studios operating today, blending film, design, and emerging technology for clients like Apple, Nike, OpenAI, and Beats. At Paradigms, Jonas' talk explored what it means to stay experimental, human and craft-driven in a future increasingly shaped by machines.
I'm the creative lead of a direct-to-consumer brand in India with a background in design education and professional experience in the creative field. Over time, I've realised that my inclination toward strategy and creative thinking has helped me solve larger customer-centric problems through design and create meaningful business impact. At the same time, it has taken me a while to grasp the other side of the equation - the marketing metrics, numbers, and data that drive business decisions.
At Shinola, Bailey will oversee creative direction across all brand touch points, including paid, owned and social. Although Ruthie Underwood had previously served as chief creative officer, "This is a new role for the brand," Shinola said. "It will shape how our voice, identity, and creative strategy evolve - while honoring the creative foundation built over the past 12 years. This position will specifically oversee the brand's creative direction across marketing, campaigns and storytelling."
De Bauw and Anderson have led MAL for almost half of its existence, having started at the agency within a day of each other in 2016. Over that period, they've helped MAL expand both its global presence and the type of work it does for Apple, while aiming to raise its creative game. Earlier this year, as evidence of their achievements, Cannes Lions named Apple its Creative Marketer of the Year.