Hogarth Worldwide, the WPP global creative content production company, has added Dan Samson as head of creative experience and innovation, and Haniah Omar as creative director.
Samson joins the Hogarth team from Media.Monks where he served as its creative director in Singapore. With over 16 years of experience, Samson brings to Hogarth a diverse conceptual background that comes from working for companies like B-Reel, and with brands such as Red Bull, Meta, Google, YouTube, Samsung, Nike and Evian.
Samson will focus on creative direction and leadership, working to inspire the team of creative content and production experts across operations in EMEA. He will also lead new strategic partnerships globally, in addition to heading up The Foundry.
Samson said he’s enthused over joining Hogarth “during its transformation and evolution, offering world-class creative and rock-solid production that blends innovation, experience and creative technology. As a creative, I love that we can make almost anything at Hogarth.”
Meanwhile Omar also joins Hogarth from Media.Monks. Having worked for the likes of Leo Burnett and Grey Group, she brings over 20 years of advertising experience, working on brands such as LG, Google, Shiseido, Disney, Kia, Evian, and GSK. Omar has a broad skillset with expertise in digital, social and technology-led campaigns, brand repositioning and guardianship, film and print campaigns, and social-issues led work.
Responsible for producing creative work across all channels, Omar will help grow Hogarth’s creative department.
“Right now, we are living through the fastest changes in advertising ever, with technologies like AI and 5G changing everything about how brands reach audiences,” said Omar. “Hogarth is perfectly placed to help brands benefit from this transformation, as the firm has combined top-tier creative, technology, strategy, production and client servicing into one team.”
Samson and Omar will both report to Mehta Mehta, global chief creative officer of Hogarth Worldwide.
Mehta said, “Dan connects creative thinking with his deep understanding of technology to bring a fresh perspective for our future focused clients. Haniah understands human emotions, storytelling and has a keen eye on what is happening in the creative and technology space.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More