At 14, I got a brand-new Canon Super-8 camera, and with it a very specific life plan took shape: by 15, I’d be North Carolina’s premier D-grade horror director.
Several decades (and gallons of fake blood) later, that dream is technically on hold. A fortuitous detour into advertising (after a BA from the University of Pennsylvania) became a 20+ year run leading creative at top agencies and building iconic, business-driving work for some of the world’s most influential brands.
Today, I run an independent consultancy (a.k.a. Jim Elliott Studio) helping ambitious companies find a distinct voice and point of view in the world, and then crafting that voice to the nines until it’s making headlines and slow-dancing with the zeitgeist.
Previously: Executive Creative Director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (San Francisco), overseeing Comcast/Xfinity; before that, CCO at Arnold (Boston/NY) and CCO at Y&R (NY); and, earlier still, my first tour at GS&P.
Industry recognition: Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, Clios, Effies, ADC, ANDYs, LIAs, New York Festivals, Webby Awards, Radio Mercury, and FWA. Work for Nike and Häagen-Dazs is housed in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); Häagen-Dazs’ “Help the Honey Bees” received The One Club’s first-ever Green Pencil; Hyundai’s rebrand helped turn a struggling automaker into a durable success story.
Most importantly, I’m the proud father of two boys (human) and one girl (K-9), and the proud husband to one wife (also human). And yes, I still own that Super-8, and occasionally threaten to rekindle the horror career if this advertising detour ever meets a suitably gory demise.
