Ziya Danishmend

Current

Sr. Creative Director at Blast Radius

Past

VP, Group Creative Director at Martin Williams
Associate Creative Director at Digitas
Creative Director at Freelance

SVP, Creative Director at Wunderman (Y&R, Inc/WPP)
Creative Director, Interactive at Columbia House
Director, Interactive at DCA Advertising
Designer at Sigma Seven
Designer at Voyager
Designer at Microsoft
Features Editor at Sipa Press
Editor at Magnum Photos

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8 more...

Education

New York University
Tufts University
American Community School, Athens, Greece

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Recommended

13 people have recommended Ziya

Connections

291 connections

Industry

Marketing and Advertising

Websites

Ziya Danishmend’s Summary

Creative Director (art) with 17 years of cross media experience and a deep practice in digital branding, strategy and experience design.

I have worked at both online and offline - above the line and below the line - agencies. I have built and managed creative groups to profitability. I have specialized in integrating traditional creative teams with digital creatives and have found my stride after rediscovering my roots in the world of experience design. ExD is the now and future of marketing. It is not the message - it is the value intrinsic to the experience of that message that counts.

After having lived in Europe and the Middle East for many years I studied anthropology as an undergraduate and specialized in cross-cultural aesthetics. I grew more interested in the narrative form of visual anthropology and spent nearly ten years in the field of photojournalism as an editor developing longer feature stories for magazines. In 1992 after the first Gulf War I returned to graduate school to study Interactive Telecommunications at NYU (ITP).

Ziya Danishmend’s Experience

Sr. Creative Director

Blast Radius

(Public Company; wpp; Internet industry)

April 2007 — Present (2 years 8 months)

Launched a new financial service for Citibank, myFi from Smith Barney - currently in beta. Over the course of the past year and a half I have led the creative team in one of the largest client engagements at Blast Radius. It has proven to be one of the most rewarding and challenging of my career. myFi is a brand new way of managing your financial life. With my interest in behavioral finance we designed an experience that can actually make a difference in your life. myFi is social, information rich and backed by Citi Smith Barney. Designed as a platform it is a model of things to come for financial services. (http://www.myfi.com)
VP, Group Creative Director

Martin Williams

(Public Company; Marketing and Advertising industry)

2006 — 2006 (less than a year)

I jumped at the chance to become the digital practice lead for a sterling level traditional ad agency. Based in Minneapolis and with a wonderful creative group it was a simple adjustment for all to integrate traditional advertising with digital. Clients included Lincoln Financial, Cargill and Syngenta.
Associate Creative Director

Digitas

(Marketing and Advertising industry)

2006 — 2006 (less than a year)

American Express spun off it's financial advisory service and Digitas was tasked with designing and branding it online. I was part of the team and eventual the team lead in the launch of Ameriprise.com. It was a fascinating look into the birth of a new brand within one of the world's largest financial services organizations. (http://www.ameriprise.com)
Creative Director

Freelance

(Marketing and Advertising industry)

2003 — 2006 (3 years )

Worked as a freelance creative in a number of large New York agencies - Deutsch, Grey, and Ogilvy and with MBC in Philadelphia. At Grey and Deutsch worked with pharma clients and at Ogilvy worked with Dove.
SVP, Creative Director

Wunderman (Y&R, Inc/WPP)

(Public Company; WPPGY; Marketing and Advertising industry)

2000 — 2003 (3 years )

At Wunderman NY I was the second hire for their new interactive group in 2000. Within the first few months I won the Citibank account for our team ($4 million) and grew our group very quickly. I was accountable for integrating traditional direct marketing teams with our interactive group - leading workshops to instill a new practice area within the agency. Our group grew to be 37 people. We pitched and won accounts from Pfizer (Pfizer for Living) to the AICPA to AT&T Mobile (with Y&R), Range Rover and more. For my work I was awarded a Lester Wunderman award.
Creative Director, Interactive

Columbia House

(Privately Held; Entertainment industry)

September 1998 — May 2000 (1 year 9 months)

When Columbia House decided to go .com I was hired to build out the creative practice for interactive. Housed within the print group we grew very quickly into an innovation center and became a design group of 18 people.
Director, Interactive

DCA Advertising

(Marketing and Advertising industry)

August 1996 — September 1998 (2 years 2 months)

I was the first hire for the interactive group at Dentsu (DCA Advertising) here in New York. I was brought on to be the principle lead for Canon USA. Other clients while at DCA included JAL and Shiseido.
Designer

Sigma Seven

(Design industry)

July 1994 — August 1996 (2 years 2 months)

Founded a design partnership that was represented by Curious Pictures in New York. We worked with and created digital experiences for many early adopters - The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Atlantic Records, Columbia Records and Sony. I was also tapped to direct television commercials for Reebok and NYNEX. Our work was featured and reviewed in USA Today, New Media magazine and EYE magazine amongst others.
Designer

Voyager

(Public Company; 51-200 employees; PQE; Education Management industry)

August 1993 — January 1994 (6 months)

Designed and produced a CD-ROM (remember those?) for Voyager based on a feature documentary - Comic Book Confidential which was itself featured in USA Today and The Wall Street Journal
Designer

Microsoft

(Public Company; MSFT; Computer Software industry)

June 1993 — August 1993 (3 months)

Worked as a designer building out interfaces for some very early ideas for interactive television. I was at Continuum which was folded into the Advanced Technologies Group at Microsoft. Hung out with Nathan Myrvold and yes - very briefly, it was a meeting - Bill Gates. And it is nice to see that after nearly 15 years ITV is finally on everyone's set top boxes!
Features Editor

Sipa Press

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Photography industry)

March 1986 — August 1992 (6 years 6 months)

Features editor for Sipa Press in New York and Paris, France.
Editor

Magnum Photos

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Photography industry)

September 1984 — March 1986 (1 year 7 months)

Photo Editor at Magnum New York.