TBWA\London will be working with a new company, Paul Belford Ltd, set up by the award winning art director Paul Belford. Belford will work across the agency’s client portfolio, which includes Adidas, Nissan, Aquafresh and Four Seasons.
The appointment marks a return for Belford to TBWA, where he won six D&AD pencils over his three years with the agency from 1998. Belford, one of the most awarded art directors in the world, also spent three years as creative director at AMV from 2003, working under TBWA\London chairman and chief creative officer Peter Souter.
Paul Belford Ltd was founded earlier this year with Martin Brown, former creative director and head of creative at Wolff Olins. The new company is based in Howland Street next to TBWA’s offices in Whitfield Street and will be undertaking assignments for TBWA as well as developing its own business.
As well as working across TBWA\London’s advertising campaigns Belford will also bring design and branding capabilities to the agency and clients within the TBWA global network.
Over his illustrious career Belford’s work has featured in the D&AD Annual every year for the past 18 years across a range of disciplines including art direction, copywriting, graphic design, typography, photography and digital - producing awarding winning work for brands including The Economist, Waterstones, Tate Gallery, MTV, The Guardian, Nissan, Snickers and Guinness.
Belford will report to TBWA\London Chairman and CCO Peter Souter.
On the appointment Belford said: ‘It’s very exciting. Good things are happening at TBWA\London. I’m looking forward to helping out on advertising campaigns but also working on design projects for TBWA\London clients and TBWA network clients around the world. An interesting feature of this deal is that we’re also free to develop our own client base.’
Peter Souter, Chairman and CCO of TBWA\UK said: ‘By any measure Paul is the best art director in the country. If I were a client or a young creative I’d want to be where he is.’