Creative Director at AnalogFolk
London, United Kingdom
- Current
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- Creative Director / Partner at AnalogFolk
- Founder/Creative Director at Bigsmall
- Past
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- Senior Designer at Randommedia
- Senior Designer at Wunderman Interactive
- Designer at Razorfish
- Designer at Startle Digital Marketing
- Education
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- Cumbria Institute of the Arts
- The University of Salford
- Recommended
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15 people have recommended Darren - Connections
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179
connections
- Industry
- Design
- Websites
Darren Simpson’s Summary
Very tall and very happy big Darren has been around the industry for over a decade, during which he’s worked as a designer, art director and design director in numerous agencies in London.
His portfolio includes the creation of award-winning sites for Nike and PlayStation (as well as global sites for Motorola, Vodafone, Land Rover, Ford and Wallpaper.com to name only a few), ground-breaking conceptual work for Coke, innovative installation pieces for Motorola and several other branding projects. Apart from producing work, he has also nurtured students and designers throughout their careers – from judging the D&AD awards in London to mentoring students at Hyper Island in Stockholm. During his extensive career Darren has absorbed priceless digital, strategic and managerial skills that enable him to work as an essential part of any creative team, no matter how big or small.
Darren Simpson’s Specialties:
Anything top shelf or generally height related.
Darren Simpson’s Experience
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Creative Director / Partner
AnalogFolk
(Design industry)
August 2009 — Present (4 months)
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Founder/Creative Director
Bigsmall
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
June 2008 — Present (1 year 6 months)
Bigsmall is the name Thais Delcanton and myself chose as a label for ourselves on our creative team adventure. Maybe one day it's also going to be our very own little studio name.
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Creative
Saint
(Design industry)
2008 — 2009 (1 year )
Freelance creative at Saint. Making the jump from hands on managing teams, projects, process and everything else that came with my roles at Digit and Mook, was a big leap indeed. During my time at Mook I'd found working with a creative partner to be a very fulfilling role, and felt the need to push this side of my career further. Fortunately for Thais and myself, Dave and Simon at Saint recognised that we might be able to help. And thanks to them we spent a great year learning to work with one another, and for me learning to adjust to not being the boss anymore! Good times.
Clients
Knife Crime, Lloyds, LG F1, Gettyimages, Totaljobs, Bacardi... -
Design Director
Mook
(Privately Held; Online Media industry)
June 2006 — June 2008 (2 years 1 month)
At Mook my role involved the management and nurturing of the creative team, as well as raising the standard of execution and output. Inheriting a team of three designers, I quickly developed and grew the team to nine. Introducing Mook's first production process, and encouraging the design team to think conceptually, I created a healthy creative environment with the highest staff retention rate within the company (2 leavers in 2 years).
Clients
Tesco, Ballantines, Drambuie, Mars, RBS, HMRC, as well as award winning work for Nitro, Nike and Sony PlayStation.
Mook helped to refine what I had learned at previous companies: building a team, creating a team spirit, creative process, nurturing staff and setting up inspirational creative events.
Awards
Epica award (Nike Just do it), Y-Design Award (Sony PSP Gangs of London). -
Art Director
Digit
(Privately Held; Design industry)
2004 — 2006 (2 years )
At Digit within my role of Art Director I was responsible for the development of the existing design team and introduction of a creative production process. Managing a team of seven designers I encouraged creative development and creative team events such as entering the annual V&A Village Fete.
During my time at Digit I successfully completed projects for Habitat, Eatcinema, and Five amongst many, and successfully pitched to Coke, Motorola, Vodafone and Wallpaper.
Digit was a steep learning curve, moving from hands on to managing a team of people each with different needs. I learned that a strong team spirit and collective creative desire creates a fantastic working environment.
Clients
Habitat, Wallpaper, Motorola, Coca-Cola, Vodafone, Five, Unilever.
Awards
Future Marketing Award (Coke World Chill), Cannes Lion (Motoglyph) -
Senior Designer
Randommedia
(Privately Held; Online Media industry)
2004 — 2004 (less than a year)
During my short spell as Senior Designer at Randommedia I designed two pitch winning sites for PlayStation and a brand identity for Creativity Incubator. Working with the existing team as a senior designer and reporting to Andy Sandoz I was responsible for design and lead of projects.
Randommedia taught me more about pitching and showed me alternative ways of presenting work to clients.
Clients
Sony PlayStation, Creativity Incubator.
Awards
One Show Award (Gran Turismo 4) -
Senior Designer
Wunderman Interactive
(Public Company; Marketing and Advertising industry)
2003 — 2004 (1 year )
As a Senior Designer at Wunderman my role involved being the lead on several global accounts for Ford, Land Rover and Motorola. As lead on Motorola I was responsible for the production of a global style sheet for the graphic communication / branding for each mobile phone launch. For Land Rover I designed the new global Land Rover site which coincided with the launch of the new Range Rover. On Ford I was lead on micro-sites produced in association with each car launch.
Wunderman gave me valuable exposure to an (almost) integrated agency, where I learned about strategy and the relationships between advertising and digital.
Clients
Ford, Land Rover, Motorola. -
Designer
Razorfish
(Public Company; MSFT; Marketing and Advertising industry)
2000 — 2001 (1 year )
As a Designer at Razorfish I worked on many pitches, as well as designing the reception area for the new London office. Razorfish was an eye opening experience as I joined just before the .com collapse, managing to see some of the excesses that went before (e.g. free lunches, welcome to Razorfish European tour, Friday afternoon social events).
Razorfish helped me see the importance of structure within a team and the importance of inspirational social events to motivate (or excite/stimulate) creatives.
Clients
Razorfish, Natwest, Lloyds building, Pogo. -
Designer
Startle Digital Marketing
(Design industry)
1999 — 2000 (1 year )
My first job was working in the digital start up Startle formed out of Telstar records. Startle was a very small team with incredible clients. Working with Barrie Jones the Creative Director as the only designer I was instantly exposed to leading the design on projects and pitching for work. Highlights included pitching for and winning Citroen UK, and design of the Sega Dreamcast user interface for its internet browsing service (The Dreamcast was the first games console able to access the internet).
Startle taught me to be self critical and refined my eye for detail.
Clients
Telstar Records, Citroen, Sega Dreamcast.
Darren Simpson’s Education
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Cumbria Institute of the Arts
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The University of Salford
Additional Information
Darren Simpson’s Websites:
Darren Simpson’s Groups:
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FWA -
TED: Ideas Worth Spreading -
D&AD -
Digital Gurus London - The Community for Digital Media Folk -
peas recruitment
Darren Simpson’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
