Isobar US Expands UX & Creative Department with New Hires

Isobar US has announced four key hires within the agency’s creative and UX departments, following a slew of new business wins and organic growth from existing clients.  

Damien Girardi joins Isobar as a creative director. He spent the last five years at Rosetta, where he was an associate creative director. Previously, Girardi worked at Draftfcb as a senior art director and began his career at Foote Cone & Belding as an art director.

In the UX department, Isobar tapped Chad Vavra as director, experience strategy and design. Vavra was previously director of user experience at Rosetta and SVP creative director/user experience at Ruder Finn Interactive. He began his career in experience design at The Barbarian Group and Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare.

Isobar also hired Tom Mascardo as an associate director, experience strategy and design. Mascardo comes to Isobar from Sub Rosa, where he was a UX lead and strategist. Previous roles for Mascardo at R/GA and Razorfish focused on experience design and information architecture, respectively.

“After an incredibly successful 2014, we’re hiring aggressively to handle an influx of new business,” said Isobar US co-CEO Jeff Maling. “Damien, Chad and Tom all show impressive talent for creating smart solutions that focus on the digital nature of our lives today, and we’re thrilled to have them join our team.”

Isobar embraces the idea of “liquid talent,” meaning that talent from all around the world can be tapped between offices based on business needs or personal life changes. That said, Isobar is pleased to welcome Tim Dawson, experience design lead, to New York City from his native Australia, where he worked in Isobar’s Melbourne office. Additionally, creative director Ricardo Salema relocates from Isobar’s Boston office to New York City.