Director Lindsay Daniels, whose background in design and creative direction informs her work as a filmmaker, has joined the roster of FANCY Content.
Daniels’ work spans both commercials as well as branding and opening title sequences for a string of hit TV shows. She won an Emmy for Outstanding Title Design for the Showtime series Dexter, and was nominated for the documentary Path to 9/11, which aired on ABC. At Publicis in the West, she was a creative director and worked on the T-Mobile and Chevrolet accounts, leading both brands through integrated broadcast, print and digital campaigns.
After making the transition to film–an area of interest since her student days–she’s shot for such clients as Amazon, Microsoft, Garnier, Pinterest and Publix, among others. Her work has been recognized by such creative competitions as the Art Directors Club and Communication Arts.
FANCY partner and EP Phillip Detchmendy said of Daniels’ work, “It’s polished, yet still very relatable. Her design sensibility shows in an elevated level of art direction, and it reflects a diversity in casting with natural performances.”
Daniels’ showreel shines with appealing lifestyle spots touched with warmth and humanity. In “What Matters Most” for Amazon, she combined colorful visuals within a series of tightly-framed tableaus to show off gifts of all kinds, with the message that these trinkets are the things we treasure. And in “One Day, One Microsoft,” she works with the sentiments, ideas and thoughts of company employees from around the world, along with bits of UGC video, to reveal the everyday faces of this technology giant.
Daniels said she’s joining FANCY for a variety of reasons, citing her “great conversations” with Detchmendy and FANCY Content founder and EP Robert Wherry which reflected “a shared vision of how I like to work and how they both work with, and manage the careers, of their directors. I found both of them genuine and authentic. I liked who they are as people, and where they’re from; their pedigrees are very impressive. And having that kind of connection with your team is an important part of growing as a director.”
A native of the Pacific Northwest, she got her start in film while still studying design at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She gravitated towards the moving image, she explained, “because I didn’t feel that print gave me enough room to tell the kinds of stories I wanted to tell.” As a director, she has more ability to achieve her goals as a storyteller, she added. “For me, it’s about creating a more robust, compelling experience. Film lets me connect with people on a more emotional level.”
This desire to forge deeper emotional connections is part of her motivation for joining FANCY as well. “I think Robert and Phillip will be able to take my work to a place that’s more emotional and more meaningful, and has more of my voice in it,” she observes. “Based on my work, they’ll be able to see opportunities where I can have that kind of impact.”
Daniels’ dual background as both a designer and an agency creative director is a decided plus, said Wherry. “She understands what the agencies want to create for their clients, as well as the clients’ needs themselves. She’s sat in those meeting, and knows exactly the concerns of everyone in the room and how much is riding on their decisions.”
Indeed, she sees these as the pillars of her approach as a director. “It lets me come at the work from an informed place,” she said. “I know the process the creative teams have been through, and I know the right questions to ask. And when working directly with clients, I can look at a brief and understand the steps we need to go through to achieve its objectives.”
At FANCY, Daniels joins a directorial roster that includes Toby Dye, Christoph Chrudimak, Geordie Stephens, Ed McCulloch, Rob Fiocca and Nanno Jiskoot. Daniels had most recently been with production house BODEGA.
