Names to know: 20 visionaries shaping the future of creativity

In an ever-evolving creative landscape, a new generation of visionaries is emerging, disrupting the industry and leaving an indelible mark on the world around us. From pioneering entrepreneurs to innovative brand leaders and multidisciplinary creative forces, these are the movers and shakers propelling their respective fields forward.

So, who are the names we need to know? To answer that question, we turned to Frontify, our favourite cloud-based, brand-building platform.

Frontify is best-in-class software for simplifying brand management, and there's not much about branding they don't know. Hence, every year, they release their celebrated Brand Visionaries list, which shines a spotlight on people across the U.S. and Europe who are changing branding and design for the better.

In the article, we've picked 20 names from 2024's list that we reckon Creative Boom's readers need to know about. How many have you heard of? Read on to find out.

1. Tania Boler

Tania Boler is the founder and president of Elvie, a London-based company that develops innovative technology products to improve women's lives in overlooked categories such as breast pumps and pelvic floor health. Founded in 2013, Elvie has grown into a global market leader for premium breast pumps in the U.K. and U.S.

Under Boler's leadership until 2022 as CEO, Elvie launched six products across two categories that have received international awards and recognition. In 2021, Boler was named GLAMOUR's Women of the Year Technology Gamechanger.

She's also passionate about women in engineering. "In the U.K., the engineering workforce is made up of only 16.5% women, which is baffling to us," she says. "At Elvie, we design solutions for women and therefore believe women should be part of the solution. One plus one, right? Not rocket science."

2. Liza Enebeis

Liza Enebeis is the creative director and partner at Studio Dumbar/DEPT, an award-winning international branding agency in the Netherlands. Previously at Pentagram London, she worked on several major branding projects, such as the visual identity for Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the D&AD Creativity Festival, and the Van Gogh Museum refresh.

She co-founded and hosts Typeradio.org, the first podcast focused on type and design. In 2018, she was elected into the prestigious Alliance Graphique Internationale design association. Since 2021, she has been part of the Board of Trustees for D&AD in the U.K.

"Collaborating within and across teams is probably the best part of a project," she believes. There is no hierarchy; we just work together to make the best work we can."

3. Camilla Brandow

Camilla Brandow is a strategist, writer, and creative director based in Hove, England. She has a rare talent for making sense of complex topics and giving them clear strategic focus and creative expression through words and visuals.

She has worked with major brands across multiple, taught leadership and communication at universities like the Stockholm School of Economics and given talks at events like TEDx Stockholm on effective altruism.

We especially love her take on how LinkedIn and social media can distort what success looks like to people, as expressed in this Medium article. As Camilla puts it: "It's a jungle for people to navigate, and it's an even greater battle for us brand-folk, who, let's be honest, are putting more fuel on the fire to this self-fulfilling prophesy of fake it 'til you make it."

4. Ete Davies

Ete Davies is the EMEA chief operating officer at Dentsu Creative in London. He is an experienced strategic and operational leader in the creative industry, with over 20 years of experience leading teams at agencies including Engine Group, AnalogFolk, AKQA, Tribal Worldwide, Digitas and SixandCo.

He is passionate about driving innovation and social change in the creative industry. He co-founded WeAreStripes and founded CultureHeroes to create opportunities for black, Asian and minority ethnic talent. He also chairs the U.K. chapter of #blackandbrilliant, serves on advisory boards, and mentors through programs like Bloom and SheSays.

We love the advice he gave to budding creative leaders in a recent episode of the podcast The Courageous Leaders Club. "It's all about creating the right environment for those people to get together and to work together to make interesting things and solve complex problems," he explains. "You also need to understand your vulnerability and actually grow and respect the opinions of others, which makes for more rounded leaders."

5. Ben Eliass

Ben Eliass is the co-founder of Estrid, a razor brand that is challenging market leaders such as Gillette. Born in Iran, Eliass split his childhood between Iran and Sweden before studying law but dropping out to become a successful poker player. He began investing in Stockholm consumer brands, meeting Estrid's other co-founders – photographer Amanda Westerbom and entrepreneur Alan Aygun.

The idea for Estrid came when Westerbom realised she and her friends preferred using men's razors over women's options. As an outsider himself, Eliass was drawn to building an inclusive brand with a quality product for everyone. In 2019, the trio founded Estrid, working scrappily out of Eliass' apartment with a global freelance team.

Now, with over 70 employees, offices, and a presence in over 10,000 European stores, Estrid has seen remarkable success by offering a body-positive, inclusive alternative in the shaving category powered by Eliass' entrepreneurial drive.

6. Kjetil Wold

Kjetil Wold is an internationally award-winning executive creative director and founder of ANTI, one of Norway's top independent advertising agencies, with offices in Norway and Minneapolis, U.S.

Under his leadership, ANTI has won over 50 acclaimed national and international awards at major shows like Cannes Lions, Cresta, The One Show, Epica, Red Dot and more. This includes the Cannes Grand Prix for the Bergen International Festival in 2014.

One of the youngest recipients of Norway's highest creative honour, the Golden Pencil Price of Honour, Kjetil is an experienced lecturer on visual communication and a sought-after keynote speaker at local and global events like Pecha Kucha Night Tokyo.

7. Patricia Medeiros

Hailing from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Patricia Medeiros is a creative director currently serving as the E.U. Creative Director for Coca-Cola at StudioX/WPP in Madrid. She has nearly 20 years of experience working at top creative agencies worldwide, including Africa, Ogilvy, Grey, DDB, and more.

An advocate for diversity and female empowerment, Medeiros has created award-winning work for major brands like Netflix, Spotify, KFC, McDonald's, Unilever, P&G and LaLiga.

Her campaigns for Coca-Cola at the E.U. level have earned global recognition, and she's received honours including Cannes Lions, One Show and El Ojo IberoAmerica. In 2022, she was named one of The One Club's Next Creative Leaders for her game-changing creativity and leadership perspective.

8. Verena Pausder

A Hamburg native now living in Berlin, Verena Pausder is a prominent entrepreneur and has been CEO of the Startup Association in Germany since December last year.

A leading voice on digital education in Germany, she founded Digital Education for All e.V. in 2017 to provide children with equal access to digital learning. In 2022, the organisation launched a website for schools and parents on digital educational offerings.

In 2022, Verena and fellow co-founders took over the women's soccer team F.C. Viktoria Berlin with the goal of advancing it to the Bundesliga within five years. Her book Das Neue Land is a Spiegel bestseller and won the Frankfurt Book Fair's Entrepreneurial Book of the Year in 2020. She also co-hosted the popular Fast & Curious podcast on startups and was featured on Forbes Europe's Top 50 Women in Tech list in 2018.

9. Giovanna Engelbert

Born in Milan, Giovanna Engelbert is a creative director, editor, and fashion consultant with over 20 years of experience in the luxury fashion industry. She has an unerring sense of the contemporary aesthetic and is known for blending sophistication and playfulness through her deep knowledge of art, music, dance and film.

Since 2016, Engelbert has consulted as creative director for Swarovski Professional, creating inspirational publications and overseeing artistic collaborations. With teams in NYC, London and Stockholm, Engelbert is an influential voice shaping luxury brand creativity through her multidisciplinary perspective.

In 2017, she released her autobiography, Gio_graphy: Fun in the Wild World of Fashion. In 2020, she was named global creative director for Swarovski Crystal Business, overseeing branding, products, campaigns and more across the merged Swarovski divisions.

10. Toan Nguyen

Toan Nguyen is a pioneering entrepreneur in the advertising industry. He specialises in combining gaming, sci-fi, fantasy, and other subcultures with major brands. In 2020, he founded the company Jung von Matt NERD, which is based in Hamburg and focuses on the "new pop culture" of gaming, anime, Web3, and the metaverse.

Nguyen got his start in sports marketing but became fascinated by the emerging world of esports and gaming culture. He soon realised these niche subcultures were interconnected into one larger "superculture."

"I faced quite some resistance when I chose NERD as our company name," he recalls. "Some from our partner board criticised the negative connotations." But this is the pop culture of today's generation, he believes. "Whereas past generations idolised musicians, movie stars or athletes, younger people today are just as likely to idolise a fictional character from the world of gaming."

11. David Moon Ki Lee

Hailing from Montreal, David Moon Ki Lee now splits his time between New York City and Los Angeles as chief creative officer at Squarespace. His role involves leading the award-winning in-house creative team, which in 2023 was awarded the number one globally recognised in-house agency by The One Club for Creativity.

Under his creative leadership, Squarespace has produced 10 Super Bowl campaigns, with Lee winning an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial. His team's work has also earned top honours at Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clios, Webbys and other major shows.

But he's still as excited by his work as ever. "Having the opportunity to work with Martin Scorsese to bring this year's milestone Super Bowl campaign to life is surreal," he recently raved on LinkedIn.

12. Lisa Smith

Lisa is an executive creative director with over 20 years of experience working at creative agencies, boutique firms, and in-house at organisations such as the V&A Museum and Chobani. She's currently the global ECD at JKR in New York.

At Chobani, she built and led the creative team responsible for re-imagining the brand across design, packaging, advertising, digital, experiential, and innovation efforts. This transformation was recognised as one of Fast Company's 'Most Innovative Branding' initiatives in 2019, earning her team Ad Age's 'In-House Agency of the Year' honour.

Lisa has also judged major shows like D&AD, ADC, Clios and Effies and has spoken at events, including DesignThinkers, Creative Summit and AIGA conferences.

13. Giorgia Lupi

Giorgia Lupi is an acclaimed information designer and partner at Pentagram in New York who advocates for 'data humanism'. In other words, she takes a humanistic approach to data visualisation, creating engaging visual narratives that reveal insights about people, ideas and organisations.

She is the co-author of the books Dear Data and Observe, Collect, Draw, which pioneered a hand-drawn, artistic approach to data journalling, and her popular TED Talk on this topic has received over one million views.

Lupi's innovative work has earned her recognition as one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business, a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council, and a National Geographic Explorer. The Museum of Modern Art commissioned her for a site-specific piece and include her work in its permanent collection.

14. Bozoma Saint John

Bozoma Saint John is a trailblazing marketing executive, entrepreneur and author who has shattered glass ceilings throughout her career. Her influential roles have included global CMO at Netflix, CMO at Endeavor, chief brand officer at Uber, head of marketing at Apple Music and iTunes, and head of music and entertainment marketing at PepsiCo.

She is a vocal advocate for diversity and workplace inclusion, inspiring change and empowering women and underrepresented groups. Born in Ghana and raised in the U.S., her inspirational journey exemplifies perseverance and ambition. She created The Badass Workshop to empower outsiders to achieve success.

Her work has earned numerous accolades, including induction into the Marketing Hall of Fame, American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement, and Billboard's Women in Music Hall of Fame. And she has expanded her impact globally as an ambassador for the African diaspora, special envoy to Ghana's President, and philanthropic ambassador.

15. Roxy Young

Roxy Young is Reddit's chief marketing and consumer experience officer. She has a proven track record of using data insights to develop and execute effective marketing strategies and played a key role in the 2024 launch of Reddit on the stock exchange.

Just as importantly, Roxy doesn't just talk the talk but also walks the walk as a passionate user of the platform she promotes.

"I spent the Super Bowl in the game thread in the r/taylorswift community on Reddit, and it was the most wholesome way to spend a few hours watching a sporting event," she recently wrote. "From the flood of pet pics for good luck to the mini tutorials on American football, it was a shining example of a vibrant community. Props to the dedicated moderators for creating a healthy place for Swifties to come together."

16. Bráulio Armado

Bráulio is an award-winning graphic designer and illustrator originally from Portugal who is now based in New York City. He has designed posters and artwork for several musicians, including Frank Ocean and Róisín Murphy, and has exhibited internationally.

Previously the art director at Bloomberg Businessweek, his work has been featured in a wide variety of publications. Recently, Selfridges commissioned him to bring the department store's 2024 calendar celebration to life.

Bráulio's work is bright, punchy and graphic, and his playful use of typography is reminiscent of psychedelic music and film posters of the 1960s. Bráulio's latest book, 2017, is filled with his chaotic and vibrant work from the title year.

17. Ana Andjelic

Based in New York, Ana is the global chief brand officer for ESPRIT. In her previous role, she led the celebrated rebrand of Banana Republic, which resulted in a 27% sales increase. She has also held positions as the CMO of Mansur Gavriel and the chief brand officer of Rebecca Minkoff, where she introduced the Female Founders Collective platform.

Ana is also a columnist, speaker and advisor and writes a popular weekly newsletter, The Sociology of Business. She published her first book, The Business of Aspiration, in 2021 and was named one of the World's Most Influential CMOs by Forbes in 2020.

18. Inga Wiese

Inga Weiss is a chief marketing officer and a certified business and team coach, whose known for her forward-looking perspective. "The future is not a place we will go," she says. "It is a place we will create."

An experienced senior marketing executive with over 15 years of experience working in online businesses and the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, she's recently been helping to transform Germany's largest vehicle marketplace, mobile.de, from a pure classifieds platform into a modern provider of individual mobility solutions.

As a certified business coach, Weiss is a strong believer in developing people and enabling teams to successfully navigate complex, integrated projects in marketing and beyond. She values diversity in teams and mindsets as the foundation for success.

19. Henning Klimczak

Henning is co-founder of Sherpa Design, a branding agency based in Hamburg that serves well-known clients such as the Lufthansa Group, Eintracht Frankfurt, BrewDog and German Red Cross. He previously worked at the Peter Schmidt Group for Audi, Continental and Henkel, among others.

Sherpa was founded to break outdated agency stereotypes and take a leading role in the industry. Its name refers to the people in the Himalayas who support mountaineers on the way to the summit, similar to how the agency advises its customers individually, finds the perfect strategy, and accompanies them on their way together. The agency recently opened a second location in Frankfurt.

20. Zarah Bruhn

Zarah Bruhn is a German social entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Social-Bee, a social enterprise that has supported companies employing refugees since 2016. She is also the commissioner for social innovation in the German Ministry of Education and Research and a member of the Council for Sustainable Development in Germany.

As the founder of Social-Bee, Bruhn has led innovative campaigns like 'Soft Skills Can Come The Hard Way' and 'Spot the Refugee' to combat prejudices against refugees and highlight their valuable skills for the job market. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she launched the Bring and Ring platform to facilitate shopping assistance for at-risk groups.

In addition to her entrepreneurial pursuits, Bruhn is a passionate advocate for female entrepreneurship. She frequently appears as an expert speaker on integration and women in business at major conferences like Bits & Pretzels and TEDx.