Team One has brought Gavin Lester on board as group creative director, Craig Crawford as creative director and Tim Meraz as director of brand design. Additionally, Phillip Squier has been promoted to group creative director and James Hendry to a creative director’s post.
Lester will serve as group creative director on Lexus; he comes over from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, and previously from BBH, London. Over the years he has worked on such accounts as Levi’s, Audi, HP, Netflix, Comcast, Saturn, Adobe, Perfetti, Warburtons Bread, Lynx/Axe, Lever Fabergé, Birds Eye, Sony Ericsson, KFC, Tower Records, National Union of Students, L.A. Mission, Häagen-Dazs, Peugeot, Abbey National, Greater London Authority, Microsoft and Laphroaig Whisky.
Meanwhile Crawford returns to Team One as creative director on new business after a stint at TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles. In addition to new business, he will also contribute to Team One’s Lexus account whenever possible. And Meraz joins Team One after three years at Publicis & Hal Riney as worldwide design director.
As for the aforementioned promotions, Squier moves up from creative director to group creative director. He originally joined Team One in June 2006. He previously worked at Arnold Boston; Ogilvy Los Angeles, where he served as worldwide creative director on Motorola; Bozell and Fallon, both in New York; DDB Seattle and TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles, among others.
Hendry, who’s spent many years on Lexus at Team One, has been upped to creative director. He will partner with Crawford on all new business efforts as well as on their continued collaboration on Lexus. In his extensive career, James has worked at TBWAChiatDay, FCB, Needham Harper & Steers, The Shalek Agency and Ogilvy, all in Los Angeles, as well as Coleman RSCG London and Hall Advertising in Edinburgh. He has produced highly respected work for Lexus, Sunkist, Wells Fargo, Honda, Fox TV, Farmers Insurance, British Telecom, Speedo and many other brands.
Team One executive creative director Chris Graves noted, “We’re upgrading by bringing in creative leadership that can partner together with me and with each other to build a stronger, more courageous creative culture across all disciplines.”
These hires are the final piece of a puzzle begun in January when the agency literally tore down the walls between various disciplines and consolidated all creative teams from every discipline on the same floor. Graves related, “We found that geography matters. So we created ‘collision spaces’ where people would organically interact.” To which he added, “Don’t underestimate the power of proximity.”
DGA Feature Nominees: Audiard, Baker, Berger, Corbet and Mangold
The field of feature nominees for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards spanning two categories is set. Nominated for the DGA honor for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2024 are: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez, Sean Baker for Anora, Edward Berger for Conclave, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown.
The DGA also revealed the nominees for the Michael Apted Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film. The first-time narrative feature directors are: Payal Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light, Megan Park for My Old Ass, RaMell Ross for Nickel Boys, Halfdan Ullman Tondel for Armand, and Sean Wang for Diddy.
“2024 has been a truly extraordinary year for storytelling--and today’s nominees have created audacious and unique films that expand the possibilities of cinematic excellence,” said DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter. “I am thrilled to congratulate all our nominated directors for their brilliant work, which is visionary, inspirational and speaks to the depth of the human experience. To be chosen by one’s peers is the true marker of outstanding directorial achievement and what makes these nominations so very special.”
The winners will be announced at the 77th Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, February 8.
Here’s a fuller rundown of the nominees in both DGA Award categories:
THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2024 (in alphabetical order):
JACQUES AUDIARD
Emilia Pérez
(Netflix)
SEAN... Read More