Lauren Hystead and Lauren Swago have joined Chicago-based agency SOCIALDEVIANT as associate creative directors who will work across multiple pieces of new business.
Hystead and Swago first worked together at FCB Chicago from 2012-15, where their creative director thought it would be fun for two Laurens to work together–with Hystead as copywriter and Swago as art director. Their work together proved so successful that they joined Chicago’s Trisect Agency as a creative team in Dec. 2015, where they remained through 2018.
What started as a project for Valsar Paint developed into a partnership for the Laurens that’s going on six years and their third agency together. Other clients the pair has worked on include Kmart, Slim Jim, and the Chicago Bears.
“From our first conversation with agency president Linda Johnson and COO Dave Shuck, we could feel the energy of SOCIALDEVIANT,” said Hystead. “There’s an immediate sense that big things are brewing and we really just want to be a part of that.”
Added Swago, “With all the work coming in, we’re excited for the opportunity to help SOCIALDEVIANT expand their capabilities and grow relationships with new and existing clients.”
According to agency CEO and founder Marc Landsberg, SOCIALDEVIANT’s revenues shot up by almost 70% in 2018 (fueled by the win of seven new clients in recent months, including CareerBuilder, E.& J. Gallo and The Disney Channel). This growth led the agency to actively recruit to fill these and several more roles.
Hystead graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a B.A. in journalism and strategic communication in 2011, joining FCB Chicago shortly after graduation.
Swago attended the University of Georgia, graduating with a B.B.A. in finance in 2007. She taught English for a year before switching gears and attending The Creative Circus from 2010-12. She landed at FCB Chicago in Aug. 2012, where the seeds of the Hystead-Swago creative partnership then took root.
Hollywood’s Oscar Season Turns Into A Pledge Drive In Midst Of L.A. Wildfires
When the Palisades Fire broke out in Los Angeles last Tuesday, Hollywood's awards season was in full swing. The Golden Globes had transpired less than 48 hours earlier and a series of splashy awards banquets followed in the days after.
But the enormity of the destruction in Southern California has quickly snuffed out all festiveness in the movie industry's high season of celebration. At one point, the flames even encroached on the hillside above the Dolby Theatre, the home of the Academy Awards.
The fires have struck at the very heart of a movie industry still trying to stabilize itself after years of pandemic, labor turmoil and technological upheaval. Not for the first time this decade, the Oscars are facing the question of: Should the show go on? And if it does, what do they mean now?
"With ALL due respect during Hollywood's season of celebration, I hope any of the networks televising the upcoming awards will seriously consider NOT televising them and donating the revenue they would have gathered to victims of the fires and the firefighters," "Hacks" star Jean Smart, a recent Globe winner, wrote on Instagram.
The Oscars remain as scheduled, but it's certain that they will be transformed due to the wildfires, and that most of the red-carpet pomp that typically stretches between now and then will be curtailed if not altogether canceled. With so many left without a home by the fires, there's scant appetite for the usual self-congratulatory parades of the season.
Focus has turned, instead, to what the Oscars might symbolize for a traumatized Los Angeles. The Oscars have never meant less, but, at the same time, they might be more important than ever as a beacon of perseverance for the reeling movie capital.
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