Creative Influx at TBWA\Chiat\Day

LOS ANGELES The hiring of Steve Morris as associate creative director at Omnicom Group's TBWA\Chiat\Day this week completes a spate of recent creative additions that represent the growth of several agency accounts, the shop's executive creative director said.Morris had been freelancing at Omnicom's Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco and for Publicis Groupe's Fallon in New York before joining the Playa del Rey, Calif., shop, said ecd Rob Schwartz. Morris will focus on the Nissan account and report to creative director Joe Shands, Schwartz said, noting that he worked on past Honda campaigns. He added that Morris' work on Adidas ("Runners, yeah, we're different"), when he was at Leagas Delaney, "found a way to the core emotions."Art director Erik Miller, 36, comes aboard in the new position of design director, Schwartz said. He will be assigned to both Infiniti and Nissan. Miller freelanced for the agency on Nissan lifestyle marketing projects and operated his own company, Erik Miller Design. He was also on the design team that tackled the beautification project for the Los Angeles International Airport.Schwartz said art director David Steinke, 33, and copywriter Robin Fitzgerald, 29, have been hired as a team from MDC Partners' Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami, where they worked on Mini Cooper, Borders and Pony. They join the Nissan team and report to Shands. "They helped write pages of the Crispin playbook," said Schwartz. "Their work is unconventional and the work they did on the FX Network's Nip/Tuck is not on the flow chart. It's something you discover."Three new creatives join the Apple team, said Schwartz, and will report to creative directors Duncan Milner and Eric Grunbaum. Copywriter Rob Thompson, 33, arrives from Havas' Arnold, Boston, where he worked on the Volkswagen minivan campaign. "His copy is smart without being too clever," said Schwartz. "If you get the VW brand, that should translate over to iPod." Copywriter Krista Wicklund, 30, and art director Demian Oliveira, 26, hail from Interpublic's Mullen, Wenham, Mass., and worked together at MDC's Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners, New York. "Their book had a maturity for creatives only in the business for a few years," said Milner. "They also had smart, succinct, unconventional media ideas that showed fresh thinking."Copywriter Becca Morton, 32, and art director Brian Lee Hughes, 35, come as a team from Omnicom's BBDO, Detroit, where they "had a great unproduced book for Chrysler," said Schwartz. "It shows they love their work as we do." The team will report to creative director Jerry Gentile and work primarily on PlayStation.Art director Brian Lee Hughes, 35, comes from the agency's San Francisco bureau, where he worked on Fox, FX and PlayStation. Schwartz said he would continue to work on PlayStation but "act as a utility player who bounces around."Copywriter Brad Beerbohm, 34, will be assigned to creative director Tor Myhren on Infiniti. He has been freelancing for the agency since he left Interpublic's Deutsch/LA a few months ago, Schwartz said. Beerbohm has also worked at Omnicom's GSD&M, Austin, Texas.Recent departures at TBWA\C\D include Neal Hughlett, associate creative director and copywriter, who left for Interpublic's Hill, Holiday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Boston, and Tom Kraemer, who went to Publicis' Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York, in August.

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Creative Influx at TBWA\Chiat\Day

Gregory Solman

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