After a sequence of great adjustments to IPG company R/GA because it restructures and strikes away from its metropolis mannequin within the U.S. and as an alternative implements a rustic mannequin with 5 disciplines powering the enterprise, the company is making one other noteworthy change by selling Shannon Washington to chief artistic officer, making her the primary Black girl U.S. chief artistic officer within the historical past of all holding firm companies.
“My job is to create the absolute best setting at R/GA to make the most effective work. This represents a extremely pivotal time, not simply with me, however for R/GA as a complete,” Washington advised Adweek.
In her earlier function as svp, group govt artistic director at R/GA, Washington led artistic work for shoppers equivalent to Advert Council, Google, Sephora, Samsung and Uber and can now proceed her artistic efforts on a a lot bigger scale. On this new place, Washington continues to point out the influence she will be able to make within the artistic world.
A few of her notable works embody Advert Council’s “Love Has No Labels” marketing campaign which powerfully tells the story between siblings and Sephora’s “Black Magnificence Is Magnificence” marketing campaign which sheds gentle on the importance of Black magnificence and tradition campaigns. As a testomony to her expertise, Washington was featured in Adweek’s Inventive 100 in 2020.
Regardless of R/GA’s restructuring—it laid off about 5% of its New York workplace in June and closed its bodily workplace areas in New York and San Francisco in November—the company and Washington stay devoted to evolving and bringing various folks collectively to create significant work, particularly by way of a pandemic.
“The worth of intersectionality is one thing that satirically got here to gentle within the pandemic due to the best way we needed to work,” Washington stated. “In particular person I wished to ensure I acknowledged the worth that everybody dropped at the method and [help everyone feel] seen and heard, however working in a hybrid tradition, it grew to become clear to me that I had to think about new methods to do this.”
Serving to creatives be seen and heard
Now three years into her time on the company, Washington hopes to proceed her private purpose of placing work on the forefront as she finds a technique to take the most effective of what the company does and inject a way of place and tradition into the work.
Washington is repeatedly aiming to create an area the place everybody can really feel seen and heard. And as a artistic girl of coloration, she emphasizes the significance of making areas the place different creatives of coloration can have alternatives.
“It’s important to maintain the door that you just open; you don’t stroll by way of that door by your self,” Washington stated. “There was a generational shift in our trade [and] we’re beginning to see far more girls of coloration in medium and junior positions. My purpose is to maintain them right here. Recruitment is one factor, however for me it’s all about retention. For creatives of coloration it’s actually about supporting and seeing [others] and acknowledging that [they] are going to have a special expertise.”
