FROM GERRY FARRELL. EX CREATIVE DIRECTOR LEITH AGENCY.
GARETH HOWELLS – CREATIVE STAR
I’ve worked with some great creative people since I started in the business 32 years ago. Some have become film directors, others freelance copywriters and a few have ended up at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV.
But Gareth’s up there in my Top Four because he embodies so many different qualities and skillsets and he has mastered them all.
I’m in a good position to judge. He started with me as a junior art director, progressed to being my right hand guy, Deputy Creative Director, and then ended up founding his own highly creative agency, Newhaven, becoming in the same moment not just my professional enemy but also my close personal friend of many years’ standing.
Gareth was the art directing half of the very best creative team I ever worked with: the famous Dougal and Gareth. They were instrumental in making Leith the agency it is today. It was their work that crowned our finest hour – winning the pan-European launch of the Honda ‘Joy Machine’, a creative strategy much copied but never equaled. Hot on the heels of Honda came Carling, Britain’s biggest brand at the time, with more pitch-winning work from Gareth and Dougal. They won Leith our first Campaign Gold Lions for their hilarious Irn-Bru posters. And their work went on to win Gold at Campaign Posters. They were such a talent at Leith that they were even invited to meet Her Majesty The Queen and The Duke Of Edinburgh at a reception for Scotland’s finest creative people.
Gareth won honours at Cannes again with work for Tennents Lager that took him to Iceland, Thailand and India. It was Tennents that finally took Gareth away from Leith, to become Creative Director of Newhaven, a fine agency that wasn’t long in making an impression on D&AD and other national awards juries.
If you survive in this business long enough you learn that a lot of the country’s most talented creative people are actually not very nice – self-obssessed, bitchy, big-headed. I’ve only ever heard nice things said about Gareth behind his back.
In running his own company, Gareth learned the ability to sit at the top table and talk the language of business or government with the chief stakeholders in the company. This is a skill only the country’s top creatives ever master.
I’m particularly lucky in that I managed to lure Gareth back for a second stint at Leith. Once again, all his personal and professional qualities shone through, whether he was working for a huge international food brand like Baxters or an under-funded charity like HALO, the landmine-clearing charity.
This is what you’ll get from Gareth, whatever project you give him, however tricky the communications problem you need him to help you solve: absolute, passionate commitment to the cause; an unstoppable stream of strong creative ideas; excellent collaborative skills; an instinctive grasp of business strategy and communications solutions that work across all media; most of all, you’ll get leadership – Gareth’s a man who’ll help you get where you’re going.
Without his talent and energy, Leith wouldn’t be half the agency it is today. I may have lost a colleague since Gareth set up his new business, but I’ve got a lifelong friend whose professional abilities
I’ve worked with some great creative people since I started in the business 32 years ago. Some have become film directors, others freelance copywriters and a few have ended up at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV.
But Gareth’s up there in my Top Four because he embodies so many different qualities and skillsets and he has mastered them all.
I’m in a good position to judge. He started with me as a junior art director, progressed to being my right hand guy, Deputy Creative Director, and then ended up founding his own highly creative agency, Newhaven, becoming in the same moment not just my professional enemy but also my close personal friend of many years’ standing.
Gareth was the art directing half of the very best creative team I ever worked with: the famous Dougal and Gareth. They were instrumental in making Leith the agency it is today. It was their work that crowned our finest hour – winning the pan-European launch of the Honda ‘Joy Machine’, a creative strategy much copied but never equaled. Hot on the heels of Honda came Carling, Britain’s biggest brand at the time, with more pitch-winning work from Gareth and Dougal. They won Leith our first Campaign Gold Lions for their hilarious Irn-Bru posters. And their work went on to win Gold at Campaign Posters. They were such a talent at Leith that they were even invited to meet Her Majesty The Queen and The Duke Of Edinburgh at a reception for Scotland’s finest creative people.
Gareth won honours at Cannes again with work for Tennents Lager that took him to Iceland, Thailand and India. It was Tennents that finally took Gareth away from Leith, to become Creative Director of Newhaven, a fine agency that wasn’t long in making an impression on D&AD and other national awards juries.
If you survive in this business long enough you learn that a lot of the country’s most talented creative people are actually not very nice – self-obssessed, bitchy, big-headed. I’ve only ever heard nice things said about Gareth behind his back.
In running his own company, Gareth learned the ability to sit at the top table and talk the language of business or government with the chief stakeholders in the company. This is a skill only the country’s top creatives ever master.
I’m particularly lucky in that I managed to lure Gareth back for a second stint at Leith. Once again, all his personal and professional qualities shone through, whether he was working for a huge international food brand like Baxters or an under-funded charity like HALO, the landmine-clearing charity.
This is what you’ll get from Gareth, whatever project you give him, however tricky the communications problem you need him to help you solve: absolute, passionate commitment to the cause; an unstoppable stream of strong creative ideas; excellent collaborative skills; an instinctive grasp of business strategy and communications solutions that work across all media; most of all, you’ll get leadership – Gareth’s a man who’ll help you get where you’re going.
Without his talent and energy, Leith wouldn’t be half the agency it is today. I may have lost a colleague since Gareth set up his new business, but I’ve got a lifelong friend whose professional abilities
I wouldn’t hesitate to commend to you.
