Mark Krajan has joined DDB San Francisco as group creative director. He will report to executive creative director Ben Wolan. In this new role, Krajan will oversee Norton, VMware, and new business efforts.
Krajan is Wolan’s first hire to a creative leadership position, making his appointment a vital component of the creative resurgence at DDB San Francisco.
With almost 20 years of industry experience, Krajan comes to DDB from Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners where he served as creative director. During this time, Krajan led numerous Super Bowl campaigns, including a rebranding effort for MINI, a T-Mobile spot with Tim Tebow, and the Evony mobile game launch for TopGames. He also pitched and produced the DraftKings launch campaign during the 2016 NFL season.
Krajan’s award-winning creative portfolio also includes campaigns for clients such as Priceline, Google, Xbox, Microsoft, Hotwire.com, General Motors, AT&T, Chiquita, and El Pollo Loco.
Earlier in his career, Krajan founded his own agency in San Francisco with clients such as Yahoo!, Logitech, San Francisco Visitors Bureau, and the San Francisco Earthquakes. The agency later merged with Teak. Prior to that, he honed his craft at TBWAChiatDay LA and the former McCann-Erickson San Francisco.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More