Quiksilver’s Mark Sloan to come aboard as director of design
TBWAChiatDay LA has hired Tanya LeSieur as chief production officer and Mark Sloan as director of design. Both LeSieur and Sloan will report to chief creative officer Stephen Butler, with Sloan joining this month and LeSieur following suit in late March.
As chief production officer, a newly created role, LeSieur will assume a seat on the agency’s management team alongside president Luis DeAnda, CCO Butler and chief strategy officer Nick Barham. She brings with her over 15 years of integrated production experience and will assume oversight of all agency creative output.
“The addition of Tanya, and her role, is a clear sign of our commitment to continue evolving and improving our creative output on behalf of our partners,” said DeAnda. “We are investing in the idea of a ‘make great stuff’ creative culture, and bringing all production capabilities under Tanya is the first big step for us.”
LeSieur comes to TBWA from Saatchi & Saatchi New York, where she has served as chief production officer since 2013. Prior to New York, Tanya spent four years as director of integrated production at Saatchi & Saatchi’s Los Angeles office, where she helped to build and advance the agency’s digital, technology, content and production teams. She also served as executive producer at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for 10 years, overseeing integrated teams for brand and retail work on multiple clients including Comcast, Netflix, Hewlett-Packard, Saturn and Budweiser.
LeSieur has produced award-winning work throughout her career, winning recognition at Cannes, the One Show and the D&AD awards, among others. She has also served on D&AD and AICP Next Awards juries for both Digital and Content, as well as on the AICP Show Curatorial Committee.
As director of design, Sloan will spearhead the origination and growth of the agency’s design capabilities, working closely with the creative and production departments to seamlessly integrate creative efforts aesthetically. Sloan brings with him over 12 years of comprehensive design experience, having launched his own eponymous design studio, Studio Sloan, in 2003.
Simultaneously, Sloan has held lead creative director roles on both the client and agency sides of the business. Most recently, he was creative director at Quiksilver in Huntington Beach, Calif., where he led visual design and established global creative direction for both internal and external brand-focused content. Prior to joining Quiksilver, Sloan was executive creative director at Anomaly in Amsterdam, where he created work for Converse, Fox, Fox Sports, and FitVermogen, a division of ING. He also served as an art director/designer and later as head of design at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, where he worked across brands including Nike, Heineken, Electronic Arts, EYE Film Institute Netherlands and Coca-Cola.
No stranger to the TBWA network, Sloan spent one year as an associate creative director at TBWAMedia Arts Lab working on iPhone 4S while also serving as an instructor at his alma mater, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
“Our mission for the year is to once again turn TBWAChiatDay LA into a creative factory–one equipped with all the skills and craft that is required for the speed at which we need to work, while delivering the quality that is expected of us,” said CCO Butler. “To do this, we are going to need unique individuals. Tanya and Mark are both rightfully renowned for their creative weaponry and their high regard for craft, and having them on board will give us the competitive edge that we are seeking.”
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More