Ogilvy & Mather has appointed the acclaimed art director, Steve
Dunn, as joint executive creative director, ending the first stage in a
prolonged search for a creative chief.
Dunn, 39, has been freelancing since he left Lowe Howard-Spink two years
ago, where he was the head of art. His subsequent plan to launch a
start-up did not come to fruition. Before joining Lowe, he spent a year
at Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Oregon, working as the creative
director on the Nike account.
Dunn, who is famously uncompromising in his creative standards, produced
some of his most awarded work during the 11 years that he spent at
Leagas Delaney, where he partnered the creative director, Tim
Delaney.
There, he worked on clients including Adidas, Nationwide, The Guardian,
Punch, Timberland and Harrods, and rose to the position of deputy
creative director and head of art.
Paul Simons, chairman of Ogilvy, began to look for a creative director
soon after he joined the agency in the spring.
The original plan was for the new creative head to work under the
agency’s executive creative director and vice-chairman, Patrick
Collister, who would take a back seat. But Collister now plans to leave
at the end of the year to set up a creative training centre and the
agency is looking for a copywriter to partner Dunn and share the
creative directorship.
Simons said: ’The reason it has taken such a long time to fill this
position is that I’ve been searching for an impossible dream. I need
someone with energy, who will enforce high standards, but also some- one
who is mature enough to know that you can’t just wave a magic wand to
get what you want.
So it’s about balance.
’Steve has got very high standards, and as he’s matured he has become
more grown-up as to what he can and can’t do.’
Simons is known to have talked to a number of senior London creatives
about the job over the past few months.
The agency is still encountering reluctance from potential employees
because of its location in Canary Wharf.
Dunn began his career at BMP DDB in 1979 under the creative directorship
of Dave Trott. He remained there until 1982, when he moved to Leagas
Delaney.
Perspective, p2 Newsmaker, p20.
