BMF continues to grow with three new hires

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Tim Simon Aaron Matt.jpgBMF has made three new hires to ensure the continued delivery of fresh thinking into new and evolving digital areas.

Pictured left to right are Tim Smith, Simon Koay, Aaron Michie and Matt Barnes.

Aaron Michie, interactive concepts director said: “It’s part of our natural growth into delivering consumer experiences that work across all media; a focus we’re calling BMF Experience Design. As digital interaction moves further from the PC and into our mobile phones and the physical world, we want to make sure we have the knowledge and craft in the business to both understand and capitalize on the new opportunities for our clients. These new hires will certainly help us get to where we want to be.”

Matt Barnes, lead experience design director, comes to BMF (via a sharp, intense set at Host) from AllofUs – one of the leading interactive studios in London – where he worked alongside CD and recent D&AD President Simon Sankarayya across a wide range of digital and physical interactive projects.

Barnes has worked with global brands such as Nike, Nokia, Sky, Sony, Westfield, The BBC and XBox as well as British institutions such as The Tate Modern, The Science Museum, The Natural History Museum, The NHS and The V&A. More recently downunder, he has been involved with Coke, Air New Zealand, Sydney Water, Vodafone, Bankwest and TWA.

 

Says Barnes:  “Its a super exciting time to be joining BMF, where I’m focused on bringing further understanding of interaction and experience design to the table. The intersection of creative thinking and innovation in technology is what wakes me up, and the idea that what we are selling are not things or services, but the experiences that they encourage, engender, support and advocate. Or, put more simply, the best things in life aren’t things.”

 

Simon Koay (art director) and Tim Smith (creative technologist) arrived at BMF from Colenso BBDO where they originally worked as a digital designer and developer, before forming a digital creative team and over last three and a half years. They formed the core of a small, award-winning digital team.

Particular successes included working as both digital creatives and hands-on, on projects such as the New Zealand Book Council ‘Read a Book at Work’, Vodafone ‘Symphonia’ and V Energy Drink ‘100K Cash Drop’.

In their time at Colenso BBDO, the digital team was twice winner of B&T interactive agency of the year, ‘Read a Book at Work’ won the Grand Axis Award, picked up at Cannes and other international award shows, and they were involved in other local and international awards.

Smith was also the inaugural winner of the 2010 “Advertising’s Next Top Model” competition. Women were said to be momentarily blinded to his flaws before normality was restored.