FCB Chicago continued to expand its creative department by hiring Kevin Grady as senior vice president, executive creative director. His hiring preceded that of chief creative officer Liz Taylor, who began her new gig as leader of the Chicago office this week.
“There’s a lot of forward momentum here at FCB Chicago, and I’m really excited to have the opportunity to integrate design more centrally into our creative here,” said Grady.
He brings a long history in both design and advertising to the new job.
Prior to joining FCB, Grady spent two years as a global executive creative director at design-focused New York agency Siegel+Gale and several years in Boston, where he was design director with IDEO. He helped rebrand that company’s corporate identity after serving as SVP and director of design at Mullen, where he worked with such brands as Grey Goose, Fage and Benjamin Moore, and CP+B (where he focused on the Gap account).
Grady’s best-known work may be the Grammy-nominated “Singing Cowboy” campaign that CP+B made for anti-smoking group truth, but he also helped design the FDA’s new “modernized” nutrition facts label, which Michelle Obama introduced to the public at the White House in May.
Beyond the agency world, Grady founded and edited two pop culture publications called Lemon and Gum, collaborating with musicians such as David Bowie, Daft Punk and Sonic Youth as well as author Ray Bradbury over the past decade. Thought we were done? Grady also records dark electronic music under the name Black Plastic; his debut self-titled album came out on Cleopatra Records in April, and you can stream the whole thing here.
News of Grady’s hire follows that of Taylor, who succeeded Todd Tilford, and executive creative director Jon Flannery.