AKQA Starts New York Outpost

NEW YORK AKQA is opening an outpost here in November, hiring Framfab’s Lars Bastholm as its executive creative director.

The office starts with at least one client: Energy Brands, maker of Glaceau’s Smartwater and Vitaminwater. AKQA landed Web site development duties from the Whitestone, N.Y.-based company last week without a review.

The shop is currently pitching a technology and financial-services account; if won, those assignments would go to New York.

Bastholm, 35, a self-described “movie buff,” has been a creative director at Framfab in Copenhagen, Denmark, for seven years, overseeing creative for clients like LEGO, Carlsberg Breweries and Coca-Cola.