Troika Mission Group (OTC: MTWO), a global branding and communications company, has hired Emmy Award-nominated designer Joshua Lynne as a creative director. He begins work immediately out of the company’s Los Angeles office, reporting to Troika founder and president Dan Pappalardo.
Lynne brings more than 20 years of experience on both the brand and the agency side of the industry. He has held positions at leading design agencies including Trollbäck + Company and loyalkaspar, where he has worked with many top entertainment, sports, and consumer brands, including AMC Networks, BBC, CBS, FOX Sports, NBC Sports Group, and NFL Network. His portfolio includes the NBC 2016 Rio Olympics logo, the BBC Brit worldwide launch creative, the Weather Channel redesign, and the logo for CBS Broadcasting’s The Late Late Show with James Corden.
On the brand side, he served as the global creative director for three international audio brands: House of Marley, Sol Republic and Jam Audio. He oversaw all domestic and international creative direction, brand positioning, messaging, marketing, and creative assets.
He holds a BFA in Communication Design from Pratt Institute.
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