Debbie Stylianidis: Travel Across Cultures and Creative Adventures
Multilingual international producer Debbie Stylianidis has worked with top directors and clients from all over the world during her 20 year career in production. From taking her first steps at McCann in London to working in Athens and now Diamond Rocket, the international service division of La Joya, a Spanish production company.
In this interview, LBB speaks with the self-confessed creative nomad on her influences growing up, how this shaped her passion for advertising and her aspirations for latest venture, Diamond Rocket.
LBB> Tell us about your influences and inspirations growing up.
Debbie> I was always very creative from a very young age. Always curious, seeking new interests to keep my creative juices flowing. I was a sponge to everything and everyone that surrounded me in general, and I also travelled a lot from a very young age so I was always receptive to and intrigued by new influences and cultures.
One of my main passions as a child was wildlife, David Attenborough was my hero and National Geographic my go-to thanks to my dad’s vast collection of magazines. I was lucky enough to go on safari during my teens because my mother was born and raised in Tanzania to Greek parents and we still had family and friends who lived there at the time. My father was also born in Africa, in Eritrea. Both Greeks from the “diaspora”.
I think that’s where I get my “nomadic” tendencies from, and how I moved from the UK to live and work in Greece, and then on to Spain, with such ease and adaptability. I certainly consider myself a citizen of the world, rather than of one particular country.
LBB> From there, how did you end up in advertising / production?
Debbie> I think my love for creativity, craft and travel, and my thirst for experiencing different cultures, is what attracted me towards the world of advertising.
My first ad job was in a tiny B2B agency situated right smack in between the massive head offices of McCann Erickson and Saatchi in London. As I walked to work every day, I dreamed of one day working in a big advertising agency. Sure enough, in 1999 it came true and I got a lucky break, landing a job as assistant producer to the head of international TV production at McCann Erickson London.
I literally got thrown into the deep end, working on international productions straight away, coordinating and travelling to shoots in South Africa, Hungary and Poland among others.
LBB> What have been some of your career highlights since?
Debbie> After a couple of years at McCann, I decided I wanted to move to Greece and “discover my origins”, so I looked for and found a job in one of the biggest production companies in Greece at the time, based in Athens.
It was a time when Greece was starting to get on the map as a destination for production services and there was also an influx of international directing talent coming to shoot local advertising campaigns. That job was my first contact with leadership and I rose to the occasion, coordinating and establishing the international department and bringing many foreign directors to shoot local campaigns in Greece, when demand for such was also booming.
Doing this job is where I met one of the most international directors of commercials, Alejandro Toledo, with whom we shot various big ad campaigns for Vodafone, the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
After four years in Athens, it was time for me to move again (once a nomad…). I didn’t want to go back to gloomy London weather (particularly after getting used to the glorious Med way and quality of life), so I took up the offer from a production company in Madrid. Another amazing school for me, but also my home for the next 17 years, where we created and produced some incredible international campaigns in Spain for clients from China, Russia, US, UK, Germany and France.
LBB> You then moved to La Joya to set up Diamond Rocket. What was it about the company that resonated with you?
Debbie> After receiving a call from Maripaz Lara who was looking for an international producer, I joined La Joya to put the company that was one of the top three production companies in Spain, on the international map.
And that’s when Diamond Rocket was born, as the international division of La Joya, to provide production services in Spain for clients from all over the world. We’ve just recently successfully completed an amazing international production for an automotive client!
The amazing team of EPs and producers at La Joya and their collective experience in production on both local and international projects with feature film and commercials directors from all over, is truly the fuel that propels the Diamond Rocket brand as a solid and reliable production partner in Spain.
Between us we speak Spanish, French, Greek and English, and I’m also personally brushing up on my German, which I used to speak really well when I was 16, which was a long time ago now (haha)...
LBB> What are your aspirations with Diamond Rocket for the year to come?
Debbie> My aspirations for Diamond Rocket as a production service brand is to create honest, solid and long-lasting relationships with clients who will come back to us again and again, not only because we produce to the best international standards, with the best crews providing optimum creative and production solutions in Spain, but also because we put SOUL into every production that we support, and because our clients enjoy the shooting experience with us.
There is no bigger satisfaction than receiving emails of gratitude from a client after a shoot, for having supported their production and their vision with such professionality as well as such soul and hospitality.
