Social Deviant, a Chicago-based, full-service creative agency, continues to add creative and strategic talent as it attracts a slew of new business this year from the likes of The Disney Channel, CareerBuilder, Hanna Andersson, Columbia College Chicago and the National Restaurant Association Show.
On the creative side, its ninth hire this year is Lauren Haberman, who was most recently at Doner where she applied her copywriting talents to the Minute Maid and Peapod accounts. Haberman, who studied at the Chicago Portfolio School and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is joining Social Deviant as a sr. copywriter.
Additionally, Darren Coon has joined the agency as a sr. designer from Pivet Design, with expertise in videography, content editing and motion graphics design.
On the strategy side, Christine Cotter joined the Social Deviant team in May as a business and account lead. She was previously at DDB Chicago as a VP/account director. With degrees from American University and Georgetown University, Cotter began her career at VivaKi before moving to Ketchum and then DDB
In addition, Graham Spector, social media and digital strategy director at Aeronaut Brewing, has joined Social Deviant as a content planner and strategist.
“We are always on the lookout for the very best talent–smart, diligent, and kind. With our annual revenues projected to nearly double in 2018, we’re delighted to be adding quality members to our already amazing team,” said agency founder and CEO Marc Landsberg. “We’re building a well-rounded group of talent from both the agency and brand side as we focus on helping our clients do more with less.”
Currently, Social Deviant is recruiting to fill three additional positions. It plans to host a Portfolio Night at its Chicago headquarters on October 24 to identify and help guide promising talent in the Chicago marketplace.
“Whether they end up with a job at Social Deviant or not, we’re committed to playing our part in cementing Chicago’s reputation as one of the world’s great creative cities,” said Landsberg.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More