Booms & Shakes: February’s boldest strikes, massive appointments and some indicators of what is brewing

Welcome to Booms & Shakes, our month-to-month round-up of the hires, promotions, partnerships and tales making waves throughout the artistic world. And there is no avoiding it: February has arrived with a full inbox.
From institutional appointments that sign generational shift to a flurry of acquisitions, company launches and studio strikes, this month’s Booms & Shakes is heavy with tales that matter (plus a couple of which can be merely enjoyable to find out about).

Look beneath the headlines, and a sample emerges. Earned media is having a second. Social-native companies are being snapped up by greater networks. And a few of the trade’s most revered artistic leaders are moving into roles that really feel genuinely consequential. There’s additionally a delightful undercurrent of individuals coming house: to buildings they as soon as formed, organisations they as soon as led, and cities they’ve cherished.

This is the whole lot that is been making noise this month.

New hires and promotions

David Patton takes the helm at D&AD

The largest appointment of the month (probably the 12 months) is David Patton stepping in as chief govt of D&AD.

David brings a profession that reads like a masterclass within the artistic trade vary. He championed the Sony Bravia ‘Balls’ marketing campaign as senior vice-president of selling at Sony Europe, led Gray London, and served as EMEA president of Gray. He then grew to become international president of Younger & Rubicam, The Mill and MPC Promoting earlier than most lately working Jellyfish Photos.

In brief, he is sat on either side of the artistic equation; as a shopper who backed daring, award-winning work, and because the company chief liable for making it. D&AD chairman Tim Lindsay referred to as it “the proper preparation.” It is exhausting to disagree.

Richard Biggs joins BBC Artistic as govt artistic director

This is one other important signing. Richard Biggs is leaving Unusual to hitch BBC Artistic as govt artistic director this spring, moving into probably the most seen in-house artistic roles within the nation.

Richard’s work at Unusual has been among the many most celebrated of current years, together with the broadly admired Hiscox marketing campaign, and his references from Nils Leonard (who referred to as him “an aesthetic artistic, a uncommon expertise”) set a excessive bar. Richard has described the transfer as “coming house,” which is a pleasant line and, given the BBC’s position in most individuals’s artistic upbringing, one thing that is straightforward to empathise with.

Mat Hunter returns to the Design Council as chief govt

Mat Hunter has been appointed chief govt of the Design Council, returning to an organisation he served as chief design officer from 2010 to 2015. Since then, he is co-founded Plus X Innovation, constructing a community of innovation hubs which have supported greater than 500 entrepreneurs who, collectively, have raised over £250m in funding.

Mat takes over from Minnie Moll, who formed the Design Council’s Design for Planet mission over 5 years, and joins in April. A homecoming with severe intent.

Ben McNaughton joins Saatchi & Saatchi as head of design

After 16 years at Mom London, the place he constructed the communication design division and led award-winning work for IKEA, KFC and Trainline, Ben McNaughton has joined Saatchi & Saatchi as head of design, reporting into chief artistic officer Franki Goodwin.

It is the most recent in a run of senior artistic hires on the company and a transparent sign of the place Saatchi sees its artistic future. As Franki herself put it: “With craft abilities and instruments evolving each day, the gifted people we select to wrangle all of it alongside us have by no means been extra necessary.”

Iris appoints Melo Meacher-Jones as head of social & influencer

World artistic community Iris has employed Melo Meacher-Jones—becoming a member of from senior roles spanning Accenture Track and Droga5 London—to steer its social and influencer providing globally in a newly created position, tied to its ‘Take part or Perish’ technique.

Melo—who brings a uncommon mixture of deep company expertise and severe client-side credentials (Lidl, Nestlé)—gained 9 new shoppers of their first 12 months at Track alone. CEO Zoe Eagle says it greatest: “A uncommon expertise who naturally embodies the Iris spirit.”

Courageous Bison promotes Ric Hayes to chief technique officer

Media, advertising and tech firm Courageous Bison has promoted Ric Hayes to chief technique officer, bringing him onto the manager management workforce after three years as group technique director at SocialChain.

In a newly centralised technique operate spanning Courageous Bison, SocialChain and Interact Digital Companions, Hayes will work alongside Professor Mark Ritson and MTM’s Richard Ellis to develop consultancy and AI-powered planning capabilities. His background spans Carat, Dentsu and McCann, and contains supporting the legacy programme of the London 2012 Olympics.

Verve Singapore appoints Stan Lee as enterprise director

Award-winning experiential company and licensed B Corp Verve has appointed Stan Lee as enterprise director of its Singapore workplace — the primary main rent because the workplace launched in November 2025.

Lee joins from PMG Asia Pacific, the place he was regional occasion and expertise director, and beforehand ran his personal award-winning occasion advertising company, Muse Inc. He’ll report back to nation head Michael Pring, with a remit to construct shopper relationships, develop the workforce and uphold Verve’s sustainability commitments within the APAC area. A transparent sign that the Dublin-founded company’s APAC ambitions are severe.

Launches and new ventures

Unusual formalises its fame ambition with a brand new PR, Tradition & Affect observe

Unusual Artistic Studio has launched a devoted PR, Tradition & Affect observe, led by incoming managing associate Randy Manicks. Previously MD of John Doe and named each PRCA Professional of the 12 months and Business Chief of the 12 months, Randy has led culture-first work for Nike, Instagram, Guinness and LVMH. At Unusual, she’ll sit alongside current practices spanning design, experiential, artwork and leisure.

Co-founder Nils Leonard is characteristically direct concerning the reasoning: “We get requested each week ‘Who does our PR?'” The observe is the reply, however it’s additionally the formalisation of one thing Unusual has all the time accomplished: construct cultural reference factors, not simply marketing campaign moments. PR director Claire Eden, who joined from The Romans final 12 months and has already pushed initiatives for The Odd and Proton VPN, will assist Randy within the observe.

Widespread Curiosity backs Knock Three Instances: a PR company constructed for the AI period

One Inexperienced Bean founder Kat Thomas is launching Knock Three Instances, backed by a seven-figure funding from Widespread Curiosity (the group behind Amplify, Child Tooth and Otherway, amongst others).

The pitch is restricted and fascinating: as client behaviour shifts from conventional search in direction of AI-generated solutions, earned media and editorial credibility matter extra, not much less. Thomas has constructed her whole premise on that perception, positioning the enterprise because the UK’s first PR company constructed from the bottom up for the GenAI period.

The company is presently in a pre-launch section with a small group of founding shoppers, with a co-founder and senior workforce to observe within the spring. One to observe.

ZEAL launches Joe Public because it builds a specialist FMCG ecosystem

Simply weeks after buying social-first studio Tommy, model activation company ZEAL has launched retail and shopper PR company Joe Public. It’s going to be led by former Cirkle leaders Ruth Kieran (as CEO) and Amy Searle (as managing director), who’ve deep expertise throughout Diageo, Birds Eye, Ferrero and PepsiCo between them.

Co-founder Stewart Hilton is specific concerning the logic: shoppers stored asking for PR that integrates correctly with activation, somewhat than being bolted on as an afterthought. Joe Public exists to reply that.

After three consecutive years of 30% development, ZEAL is clearly investing from a place of confidence somewhat than necessity. The form of what they’re constructing (activation, social-first content material, and now retail PR) is beginning to look deliberate.

Seen Studios launches Seen Metropolis, beginning with Manchester

Seen Studios, the B-Corp design and manufacturing company behind work for Nike, Dr Martens and Converse, has launched Seen Metropolis, an perception and content material collection exploring grassroots tradition throughout cities worldwide.

Conceived by senior strategist Gursharan Panesar, artistic partnerships lead Billie Skuse-Denley and director and photographer Fhuad Braimoh, the primary quantity focuses on Manchester, spending actual time with three native creators: Gone Norf, AK Gramm and Baka Bah.

The ensuing movies and report are value your time, not least for the discovering that Manchester’s artistic identification is now constructed from inside: self-validation has changed the necessity for exterior recognition. The following metropolis will observe later this 12 months.

M&A and growth

Residence acquires OK COOL

The Residence international artistic community has acquired OK COOL, the social-native company based in 2016 by Liz Stone and Jolyon Varley; two individuals who, notably, didn’t come from promoting. Liz had a background in style, whereas Jolyon had backgrounds in artwork, music, and expertise. What they shared was an early conviction that social would grow to be an important channel for manufacturers.

That wager appears to be like prescient now. With over 100 workers throughout London, New York and Sydney and shoppers together with Spotify, Nike, Lululemon and Mandarin Oriental, OK COOL is among the only a few UK-founded independents to have reached real international scale. The deal retains OK COOL’s model and management intact inside Residence’s rising community, which already contains Buck, It is Good That and Large Ant.

Lonsdale opens its first US workplace in New York

Paris-founded unbiased branding consultancy Lonsdale has been in enterprise since 1961, with shoppers together with Heineken, Nestlé and L’Oréal. Now it is opened its first US workplace in New York’s Style District, coinciding with a brand new challenge win from The Hershey’s Firm.

The workplace is led by artistic director Michelle Mak and accounts lead Steffie Palang, each becoming a member of from sister company forceMajeure, and supported by international chief development officer Jocelyne Henri Danet. For a consultancy that has taken 65 years to open a US workplace, the timing feels deliberate. Michelle’s framing—that manufacturers at the moment must “simplify, make clear and reinforce” what they convey to the cultural dialog—is an affordable abstract of the temporary’s goal.

Weave appointed to rebrand Arts Centre Melbourne

Melbourne model and design company Weave has gained the appointment to create a completely new model identification for Arts Centre Melbourne, Australia’s largest performing arts centre, staging greater than 1,000 occasions a 12 months throughout its three main venues. The rebrand is timed to coincide with the Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation, Australia’s largest cultural infrastructure challenge. It’s scheduled to launch alongside the reopening of the Ian Potter State Theatre in late 2026.

Managing director Marijana Simunovic described the win as “a uncommon alternative” to construct an identification for a dwelling expression of Melbourne’s cultural power. It is also a reminder that the urge for food for severe, institution-level identification work has not gone anyplace.

Studios, areas and milestones

Sheila Fowl returns to Lever Avenue — and helps form it

Inside and place branding studio Sheila Fowl has moved again into 24–26 Lever Avenue in Manchester’s Northern Quarter; the heritage constructing the place co-owner Jon Humphreys and founder Atul Bansal spent greater than 15 years between 2009 and 2018, serving to remodel it from a fire-damaged warehouse right into a hub for the town’s artistic group.

This time, they don’t seem to be simply tenants. The studio is actively curating the constructing’s occupier combine, with current arrivals together with café Nomad, lighting specialist Lumenear UK and wellness model Construction. “Love made us do it,” stated Jon. That is a ok motive, to my thoughts.

Artistic Mouse enters a brand new chapter underneath Steve Bond and Rob Powell

After greater than 20 years on the studio every, Steve Bond and Rob Powell have taken over as co-owners of Artistic Mouse, following the retirement of founder Invoice.

The Leicestershire-based design and pictures studio, now in its twenty sixth 12 months, has developed from mail-order catalogue work to a full-service artistic operation, and the brand new house owners are clear about their ambitions: hold working with nice individuals on initiatives that genuinely excite them, and construct a office the place individuals take pleasure in displaying up.

LAZERIAN marks 20 years

Manchester artwork and design studio LAZERIAN is celebrating twenty years of material-led, curiosity-driven observe in 2026. Based in 2006 by Liam Hopkins, the studio was exploring cardboard as structural furnishings and e-waste as sculptural materials lengthy earlier than sustainability grew to become a compulsory company dialog.

Latest and ongoing initiatives embody work at Manchester Airport Terminal 2 and the Chelsea Flower Present. Twenty years in, it is nonetheless recognisably itself, which, in an trade that tends to homogenise its independents, is value one thing.

Canny Artistic rebrands — and introduces a advertising monster

North East model design and net company Canny Artistic has launched a daring new model identification to mark its tenth anniversary and a strategic pivot in direction of the B2B market. The rebrand, anchored by the strapline ‘Taming advertising monsters since 2015’, is constructed round a brand new mascot, Mark, an enormous furry purple monster who embodies what founder Tony Hardy describes as “the unpredictable brilliance of the artistic sector.”

Model mascots are nearly extraordinary in B2B, which is exactly the purpose. Hardy is candid concerning the calculated threat, but in addition concerning the actuality it displays: most B2B advertising groups are stretched impossibly skinny, anticipated to handle the whole lot from video to social to ROI reporting on their very own. Mark is the monster they’re all wrangling. It’s kind of daft, intentionally so, and it really works.

Leopard Co kicks off 2026 with three new wins

Birmingham-based advertising company Leopard Co has began the 12 months with three new retained shopper appointments: freeze-dried pet deal with model Wildcrofts, international CNC equipment provider Kingsbury Manufacturing, and Edgbaston beauty surgical procedure clinic Kat & Co.

The wins span PR, paid media, social, influencer and full-service technique, and observe a powerful near the company’s third 12 months, which included being named Newcomer Company of the 12 months on the PRmoment Awards. Based in 2023 via the merger of Spottydog Communications and Huge Cat Company, Leopard Co is discovering its stride.

What all of it means

Zoom out, and February tells an fascinating story. The acquisitions of Tommy and OK COOL, and the launch of Joe Public, all level in the identical path: social-native and earned-first capabilities are being folded into bigger company ecosystems.

In the meantime, the appointments at D&AD, the Design Council and BBC Artistic counsel that establishments liable for setting and defending artistic requirements are actively selecting leaders with real-world company expertise somewhat than profession directors. Lastly, the launches of Knock Three Instances and Unusual’s PR observe sign a real rethink of what earned media and cultural affect really imply, as AI adjustments the way in which individuals analysis and uncover.

The trade is reconfiguring. That is what that appears like in observe.