Creative agency Eleven has appointed Jeremy Gibney as a creative director and Rob Esmundo as an associate creative director. In their new roles, Gibney will work on the Apple and Dignity Health accounts and focus on developing high-level concepts for the brands, and Esmundo will work across multiple client accounts, including Apple, Oakley and Dignity Health. They will both report directly to Mike McKay, Eleven’s chief creative officer.
Gibney is an experienced designer with over a decade of experience creating identities for global brands both in agency and client environments. Prior to joining Eleven, he led the creative concept and development of brand user experiences at Gap, including in-store seasonal campaigns, window displays, lifestyle photography and custom flagship environments. Previously, he led the development of design and branding for GQ’s Best New Menswear Designers in America, Diane von Furstenberg, CFDA & Vogue, Product (RED), Havaianas, Threadless, Public Bikes, USA Olympics and Music Festivals Series including SXSW, Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza.
Esmundo is a seasoned copywriter with 14 years of branding experience in apparel, online retail, hospitality, packaging, technology, health care and financial services. He also joins Eleven from Gap, where he served as an associate creative director. In his career Esmundo has helped brands such as Gap, DVF, Adobe, ING, and Meadowood Napa Valley connect to their audiences.
“Our agency has had tremendous growth in the past year, starting with adding Oakley to our roster and culminating with our BLAH Airlines campaign for Virgin America,” said Eleven’s McKay. “We’re excited to keep this momentum going in 2015 with the additions of Jeremy and Rob to our team.”
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More