I’m a creative director crafting original content, conceptual campaigns, and digital experiences for some of the biggest brands in the world.

My work has been recognised by The Webby Awards, The One Show, ADC Awards and D&AD, and featured in publications including AdWeek, It’s Nice That, The Verge and Wired.

Current:
Creative Director at Zendesk, where I lead Campaigns and manage a talented team of designers and copywriters.

Previous:

Senior Art Director at Yolt, a FinTech start-up inside ING, where I was responsible for brand look and feel across all touchpoints, including video campaigns, OOH, events, organic and paid social, site UX and design, and brand collateral.
Senior Digital Designer at One Darnley Road where I led projects on clients including the Smithsonian Institution, Square Mile Coffee Roasters, HarperCollins, Winkworth and luxury e-commerce destination, The Garnered.
Designer at VMLY&R where I worked on key projects for Premier League, Xbox, Land Rover, Bentley, Nike, Colgate, The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Starling Bank, Virgin Active and PwC. VML was awarded 9th place on Ad Age's 2016 Agency A-List.
Senior Designer at Northstar where I relaunched Audi Magazine’s iPad app.
Digital Designer at WNM Digital.

Recent awards:
Webby Awards 2024
Nominated for B2B Branded Entertainment

Lovie Awards 2023
Silver Winner & People’s Choice Winner for Corporate Communications Website, Shortlisted in Branded Content

RGD Branding Awards 2023
Winner for Branding Identity - Rebrand & Refresh

D&AD Awards 2022
Wood Pencil Winner for Writing for Design, Finalist for Digital Experiences

ADC 101st Awards 2022
Winner for Experiential Design

The One Show 2022
3x Shortlist for Social Impact, Digital Design, Websites

Tribeca X Awards 2022
Winner for Best Episodic

Webby Awards 2022
4x Honoree for Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign, Data Visualisation, Website Navigation/Structure, Technical Achievement

Architect Magazine Awards 2022
Honor Winner for Interior, Small Office

Lovie Awards 2021
2x Winner in Websites

Awwwards Annual Awards 2021
Site of the Year shortlist

Webby Awards 2021
2x Winner for Mobile User Interface; 3x Nominated for Art Direction, Branded Editorial Experience, Corporate Social Responsibility; 1x Honoree for Branded Entertainment Documentary

The One Show Awards 2021
1x Winner & 1x Shortlist for Digital Design

Vimeo Staff Picks 2021
1x Best of the Year for Branded Videos, 1x Best of Month, 2x Staff Picks

Brand Film Awards 2021
Winner for Animation; Honorable Mention for Direction; Finalist for Purpose

Shorty Awards 2021
2x Winner for Branded Content Series and Long Form Video; 2x Finalist in B2B and Community or Employee Engagement

Lovie Awards 2020
2x Winner in Advertising; 4x Winner in Video; Shortlisted in Website

Vimeo Festival Awards 2020
Winner for Livestream Event

BIMA Awards 2016
Winner for Mobile; Shorlist for Automotive & Native Apps; Commendation for Use of Mobile

DADI Awards 2016
Commendation in UX/Usability; Commendation in Technical Innovation; Automotive shortlist

My work has been written about in:
AdWeek, It’s Nice That, Design Week, Campaign, Wired, Bloomberg, In-House In-Focus, The Verge, The Drum, Popular Science, YCN, LSN Global

Bucket list:

Sports team logo
~~Sports league~~
Criterion collection cover
~~Graphic design for a movie~~
~~Programme a talk series~~
Book cover
~~Win a Webby Award~~
Host SXSW talk
~~Beer can~~
Major movie poster
~~Major movie promo campaign~~
~~Museum exhibition~~
Art gallery branding
~~Storefront design~~
Airline branding
~~Say hello to Jason Isaacs~~
Produce a podcast

Recent speaking engagements:

The Infinite Canvas: Exploring AI’s Creative Potential, 2024
Figma Config, 2022
The Better Brand & Content Summit, 2022
Remote Design Week, 2021
In Conversation With Steven Heller, 2021
Zendesk Creative Careers, 2020
Unthink Tank host, 2019

Awards jury panel:

Webby Awards, Executive Member and Chair for Software Services & Platforms
Lovie Awards
Anthem Awards
ADC 101st Awards

Side projects:
I am the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of FAN THE FIRE, a tastemaking arts and culture magazine. The magazine has built up over 5m readers, made it to the front page of Reddit and launched a travel column called The London List. The magazine started life as a magazine on the PSP over 15 years ago, one of the first ever portable digital magazines.

My other side projects include founding Type 1, a companion app for type 1 diabetics. Type 1 was taken on as an in-house project at VML London.

I also ran a club night in London called 'Friday Night Fist Fight', putting on over 50 events at venues including The Old Blue Last, Koko, Catch, Madame Jojo's and Queen of Hoxton.

For speaking opportunities you can contact me on: hello@sambathe.com