Moves and changes: design industry news

People

Pentagram will welcome two new partners this month, Samar Maakaroun and Andrea Trabucco-Campos. Maakaroun will join its London office, while Trabucco-Campos will join the New York office.

Both are graphic designers who previously spent time at Pentagram before going on to set up their own practice and both share a love of language, typography and storytelling. With these new appointments, the agency now has 24 partners across four offices globally.

Peter Knapp, formerly chairman at Landor & Fitch, has joined strategic branding consultancy Manasian&Co as chairman. Manasian&Co founder Kate Manasian, who has previously worked with Knapp, says he will bring “an understanding of how global brands operate across markets as well as sector and geographic experience that [its] clients are looking for”.

Manasian&Co has also appointed Amanda Dartford as its managing director and Caroline Lloyd as director of finance. Russell Lloyd, formerly of Eight Inc. and Seymour Powell, and Bev Burgess, founder and managing principal at growth consultancy Inflexion Group have joined as strategic advisors to Manasian&Co’s board.

Reed Words has announced Neil Whitfield as its New York creative director. Before joining Reed Words, Neil was verbal identity director for Design Bridge and Partners and has experience creating comprehensive verbal identities for household names, such as Mastercard.

The British Council has announced Dr Paul Thompson as its new chair, with effect from January 2024. He succeeds Stevie Spring CBE who ended her term as Chair in December 2022. Sarah Sands, who is currently Acting Chair, will return to her role as Deputy Chair in January 2024.

Thompson is a leading authority in educational and cultural institutions, with his career spanning the Royal College of Art (RCA), Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, and the UK’s Design Museum.

Flow Creative has made two new appointments and an internal promotion. Clare O’Mahoney will start as head of creative production, while Matt Volp starts as head of animation. Animator and illustrator Winston Tsang, who has been an animator at Flow for four years, has been promoted to Art Director. The appointments come as Flow looks to expand its senior team and strengthen the branding, motion and narrative animation capabilities at the agency.

Mother Design has appointed of Kathryn Jubrail and Kirsty Minns as partners in London. The duo have been at the studio since early 2020, bringing almost 40 years of collective expertise in brand strategy and creative across industries and mediums.

Singapore-based retail marketing and design agency Purple has announced two personnel moves that look to strengthen its headquarters. Elssy Teo has been promoted to general manager and Caroline Colin has been appointed creative director across Purple’s integrated services.

Global experience innovation agency Designit has hired Kevin O’Connor as director of growth, Meghan Byrnes-Borderan as executive experience design director, Myles Washington as experience design director, and Amanda Santello as experience design director. According to the agency, O’Connor, Santello and Washington have deep client-side experience, while Byrnes-Borderan has a track record in building high-performance design practices within networked agencies.

Consultancies

New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) has appointed Wolff Olins to overhaul its brand, marking its first change in nearly ten years. The 132-year-old institution is implementing a new strategic framework to chart its path for the near future and beyond and the brand evolution will involve everything from brand strategy to identity, including logo, colour and typography and communication attributes such as tone of voice and personality.

If there have been any moves at your consultancy, you can email abbey.bamford@xeim.com