Ideas The&Partnership’s 7 New Creative Hires Define Themselves by
The&Partnership has just bolstered its creative department with three new creative duos and a senior creative, bringing experienced creatives and emerging talent together to raise the creative ambition across the client base and support the agency’s rapid expansion over the last two years.
To get an idea of the kind of creative each of them is, we asked each of these creatives to share a piece of someone else's creative output that most helps to define them as a person.
Mika Alcock, senior creative based in London, joins The&Partnership from VMLY&R, where since the start of the pandemic, they have immersed themself in the digital world - tackling media-agnostic briefs. Having previously spent six years at BBH, honing their craft across multiple disciplines, Mika brings with them over 40 international awards including Cannes Lions Gold in Film, an IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix, six Lions and six D&AD pencils.
Mika Alcock, senior creative
It would have to be the life’s works of Stewart Lee. Politics is a difficult thing to navigate in comedy, but with the rise of populism, it’s ever more important that people are doing it well.
Stewart’s recent boycott of Spotify has highlighted that he’s putting action behind his words, and I love that his repetitive sarcasm is like a mirror being held up to the stupidity of so many things in modern society.
I like to think that I take a bit of Lee into every brief that I approach and I’m certain that he would hate that. That just makes me love him even more.
The&Partnership signals new creative team Osagie Samuel and Gareth C E’s first placement in advertising since first meeting at the School of Communication Arts 2.0 in 2021. Having transitioned into advertising less than a year ago, with diverse backgrounds in video editing, directing and event production, Osagie and Gareth have already received industry recognition, winning black, yellow and white D&AD pencils, at D&AD’s New Blood Awards 2021.
Osagie Samuel, creative
Robocop (the original Paul Verhoeven one from 1987 not the dodgy recent remake) is a long held creative influence for me. It’s entertaining on a visceral and populist level as an action film, while satirising capitalist corporate culture and asking the question ‘what makes us human?’
Plus it has some great spoof ads and newsreels that seem prescient when watched 30+ years later.
I’d buy that for a dollar.
Gareth C E, creative
The album ‘Love This Giant’ by David Byrne & St Vincent.
It’s one of my favourite albums and is a masterclass in postmodern art. The music is tuneful and funky, but also off-kilter. It sounds like music you’ve heard before, but at the same time is unnerving and moves in unpredictable ways. It’s totally catchy but weird at the same time. The abstract lyrics veer from evoking distant dreamlike memories to rambling inner monologue reflections.
I guess I aim to work in a similar way to how the album is formed, (pop with a strange twist) and the effect it has on the listener (visceral and fun but slightly unnerving).
Working together for nearly 10 years, Ryan Delaney & Emma Thomas are an established creative team, who have won Best Newcomers at CreativePool alongside accolades at Cannes Lions and Creative Circle. Having worked at Fallon, Grey and Above & Beyond, they have pioneered work including the 'Driven By Something Different' brand platform for Skoda, and' Life Is This Very Moment' for Very.co.uk. Mentoring new and emerging talent is fundamental to their approach and philosophy as a creative team, having led placements and hired and mentored young teams at Grey London.
Ryan Delaney, creative
David Bowie’s songwriting technique has always stuck with me. He used to write different words and phrases onto pieces of paper and cut them up individually. Then he’d lay them down and move them around to make lots of different random pairings.
Making new relationships through osmosis. 1+1=3. It’s a good way to fight ‘creative block’ and a good way to start from a new perspective – don’t overthink it, just randomise it.
Emma Thomas, creative
The Spice Girls.
From a very young age, they showed me all about Girl Power; finding your voice and utilising that to create change. Those five women used their creativity to influence a whole generation of females to go out and be unapologetically them. This is something I’ve taken into my creative work and attitude today.
Huge shout out to Mel B, who showed me the double whammy, that girl power and being a northerner go hand in hand.
Eszter Boldov and Armna Khan join the agency as an emerging creative team. They met studying BA Advertising at the London College of Communication. Since graduating in 2020, they have taken on creative placements across adland, both in London and Lahore, Pakistan. They’ve won several awards along the way including The Drum Chip Shop Award in 2020 and Creative Conscience Award in 2021.
Eszter Boldov, creative
Tibetan sand mandalas.
The mandalas are made from coloured sand and are ritualistically destroyed when completed. They are absolutely beautiful and require days and often weeks of work to complete, just to be destroyed at the end.
They symbolise the transitory nature of material life in Buddhist doctrines. To me, these sand mandalas also symbolise the idea of full immersion into creative activity; creation for the sake of creating, without any everlasting value or purpose.
Armna Khan, creative
In Pakistan, we have a specific name for creative problem solving: ‘Jugaad’. Jugaad is a mentality or approach that seeks solutions in adversity. The word refers to the practice of bending rules and thinking laterally to make something work for you in the limited resources you have available.
I love how surprising and effective jugaad can be and the optimism that is needed to think under such strict constraints is incredibly inspiring to me.
The creative work I’ve loved in the ad world adheres to a similar pattern of thinking, such as The Bridal Uniform for UN Women. It solves big problems in surprising ways to create impactful, lasting change.
