Brand New School has brought Magnus Hierta on board as executive creative director at its Los Angeles studio. Hierta has had a diverse career, from ECD of Hue & Cry, the design and animation studio he founded, to a VP/creative director role at The Martin Agency. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and began using animation as a means to relay concepts in his building designs. Hierta then shifted into design and animation, as the industry was beginning to coalesce in his native Los Angeles.
During his tenure at The Martin Agency, he was pivotal in winning and managing the global Oreo account, beginning with the “Wonderfilled” campaign. The need for consistent design-focused content led Hierta to start Hue & Cry in 2014 as an animation division of The Martin Agency, working on Geico and UPS, in addition to Oreo. In 2018 he spun-off Hue & Cry as an independently owned and operated studio, seeing the need for a top-tier design company that would use an amplified understanding of agency-side thinking to make better work for clients. Its efforts garnered international awards, including Cannes Lions, AICP, Effie, One Show, and D&AD.
“I think any creative will tell you that we pour all our love for design and making into what we do,” said Hierta. “Brand New School is the perfect place for me to contribute my varied experience and passion.”
Devin Brook, managing partner of Brand New School, added, “As we continue to develop relationships with both brands and agencies, Magnus represents the unique intersection of those two streams of our business. Having collaborated with Magnus over the years, his thoughtful leadership on both the agency and production sides combined with his acute eye for design add immense value to Brand New School.”
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More