AKQA has promoted Pierre Lipton to the senior role of executive creative director. In this new position, he will lead the entire creative department in the San Francisco office, which services clients such as Audi of America, Target, Visa, Xbox and YouTube. Lipton joins Brendan Dibona, based in AKQA's Washington D.C. office, as the two executive creative directors across the U.S. Both Lipton and Dibona report to chief creative officer Rei Inamoto who will continue to oversee the creative output for the U.S. and Asian markets. Since he joined AKQA in July 2010, Lipton has had a notable impact as the creative lead for several long-term accounts and new clients. In just his first year at AKQA, Lipton's creative leadership on Xbox, including overseeing Halo Reach, earned several pencils at the One Show Interactive awards, among other international accolades. For both the Xbox and YouTube accounts, Lipton has built entire creative teams of award-winning candidates. He has successfully attracted notable creatives from both traditional and digital shops across the world, including Crispin Porter + Bogusky, TBWALondon, Glue Isobar, John St. and Jung Von Matt….Heather Mitchell has been h ired as post executive producer at integrated prodution studio Utopic. Her most recent position was on the agency side as sr. producer with Burrell where she worked for 10 years on such accounts as General Mills, Toyota and Procter & Gamble….
Stars Among Those Who Lost Their Homes In L.A. Area Fires; Jamie Lee Curtis Pledges $1M To Relief Effort
Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Jeff Bridges, and R&B star Jhené Aiko, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week's Oscar nominations have been delayed. And tens of thousands of Angelenos are displaced and awaiting word Thursday on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city's most famous denizens. Thousands of structures have been destroyed but damage assessments are just beginning. More than 180,000 people are also under evacuation orders in the metropolitan area, from the Pacific Coast inland to Pasadena, a number that continues to shift as new fires erupt. Late Wednesday, a fire in the Hollywood Hills was scorching the hills near the famed Hollywood Bowl and Dolby Theatre, which is the home of the Academy Awards. That fire had been largely contained without damage to Hollywood landmarks. Here are how the fires are impacting celebrities and the Los Angeles entertainment industry: Stars whose homes have burned in the fires Celebrities like Crystal and his wife, Janice, were sharing memories of the homes they lost. The Crystals lost the home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood that they lived in for 45 years. "Janice and I lived in our home since 1979. We raised our children and grandchildren here. Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can't be taken away. We are heartbroken of course but with the love of our children and friends we will get through this," the Crystals wrote in the statement. After her learning her Pacific Palisades home was lost in the fires, Melissa Rivers says she was... Read More