San Francisco independent agency Swirl has parted ways with its creative director Shira Bogart and does not plan to hire anyone to take her place.
The shop first hit our radar when it hired current and former Deutsch copywriter Jim DiPiazza as its ECD in 2011. (At the same time, it named former Y&R California CEO and DDB New York president John Berg as its president and Co-CEO; he retains that title.)
Today an agency spokesperson confirmed that Bogart left Swirl earlier this month, adding, “they’re not looking for a creative director at this time.”
When asked whether this move marks a strategic shift for the shop, the rep wrote: “Swirl remains a full-spectrum ideas agency with a keen focus on advertising, marketing, communications and retail experiences.”
Bogart has an extensive agency background, spending more than 7 years as a CD/GCD at AKQA San Francisco before heading to Swirl in late 2014. She also worked at Chiat\Day in the early ’90s and spend some time with Apple as a freelancer. While at Swirl she worked on such accounts as Ticketmaster, cloud storage company Box and the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and she’s also been a judge for pretty much every major awards show including the Cannes Young Lions.
Like most agencies, Swirl has gone through a few creative directors in recent years. In the summer of 2014, we posted on the shop’s decision to name former Deutsch art director Chip Sheean as its newest CD–but Sheean, who became creative director and partner at Theory San Francisco last month, apparently didn’t stay long and does not currently list Swirl on his resume. Bogart joined the shop less than three months after the Sheean release went out.
Kevin McCarthy, a veteran of the San Francisco offices of Y&R, Grey, Havas and McCann, took over for the departing ECD DiPiazza in 2012 and still holds that title.