Chris Townsend Email & Phone Number

London, England, Gb

London, England, Gb

In 2019 Poke became Publicis•Poke. This saw me take the lead for the EE team. Highlights include the BAFTA 2019 campaign, turning the world’s first CGI supermodel Shudu, into the world’s first 5G AI stylist. Not only did the work win multiple awards for innovation, it also lead me to speak on the Interactive stage at the Cannes Lions festival. In 2023 as part of the one EE team I helped transform the brand to launch new EE.

London, Greater London, Gb

Working as part of a dedicated Heineken team within Poke, I was responsible for leading digital campaigns across the various Global Heineken partnerships: UEFA Champions League, F1, Rugby World Cup, Heineken Light and brand, overseeing teams of creatives, art directors, designers to deliver extraordinary digital experiences.

New York, New York, Us

Key Accounts: Bentley, Sony MusicAs Senior Art director, I continue to lead the digital creative for Bentley, working with the brand agency as well as the client to continue the BeExtraordinary campaign.I actively participate in pitches, helped develop social content for Colgate to reposition their product in the beauty market.Alongside client work, I created a short VR film in support of homelessness. The film was shown at London’s first VR cinema and taken across Europe, with all proceeds going to the charity. The work was also recognised at The FWA, The Webby’s and Shortlisted at Cannes.I was also chosen as VML Visa Global competition winner, taking me to the Sydney Australia office.

New York, New York, Us

Key Accounts: Bentley, Virgin Active, XBOXMy biggest highlight for VML was leading the creative for Bentley’s #BeExtraordinary campaign. Their most successful campaign in Bentley’s history.My role expanded to take the lead on XBOX creative: reviewing work, presenting and pitching. I also created online content for the Virgin Active website, leading the project from idea to execution.Along side work I took pride in being part of BIMA Digital Day, The Great British Diversity Experiment and D&AD New Blood Portfolio reviews.

London, England, Gb

Key AccountsAdidas Body Care, Activision (Skylanders, Call of Duty), UKTV (Dave, Watch & Alibi)In 2009 Five by Five had repositioned itself as an ‘Ideas Agency’, no longer limited to it's digital roots, but driven by the belief that an idea can come from anywhere and live anywhere, fitting the new proposition of “Boundaryless Ideas”. My main role was being lead creative for Activision, supervising creative teams and leading pitches. Notable pitch wins include: Adidas Body Care, UKTV and Patron Tequila. It was also essential to identify and work collaboratively with a variety of specialists to ensure we produced creative and innovative work of the highest quality.This has lead me to send a beer and a curry into space (powered by tweets), make a magician become a house hold name and create a scripted reality film.

London, England, Gb

As Senior Designer I headed up the campaign design team, specialising in FMCG and gaming clients where I took concepts from idea to execution. My role as the creative lead saw me work collaboratively with the Creative Director and/or Art Director as well as mentoring and leading the junior designers. With the emergence of social, my role became more integrated with the planning team to ensure that strategy was at the heart of our creative thinking. Experimental rich media advertising also played a large part in my role. Creating bespoke formats and page takeovers. I was involved in developing concepts, sketching ideas, green screen film shoots and design. In 2009 Activision took my Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 concept, globally.

During my time at Five by Five, they sent me out to work in the fairly new LA office as cover while searching for a new Creative Director. During my short stint in LA, I was responsible for the creative output as well as enjoying pitch success.

Southampton, Hampshire, Gb

Digital was at the heart of everything and I worked on generating conceptual ideas for campaign sites, widgets, banners, emails and a range of other supporting collateral.To ensure our ideas we're executed to perfection, it was essential I worked in close collaboration with the creative lead, the creative director and the digital developers.

After leaving Alchemy I pursued a life time ambition to go traveling. During my time away, I made a promise to try anything new. So I jumped off a number of very high things, ate weird insects, made life long friends, experienced different cultures and narrowly avoided a Tsunami. Along the way I worked for several design agencies on a freelance basis in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

As Lead Designer my responsibilities included: Developing design concepts, overseeing the design process and mentor the junior designers.Major clients included: General Electric, Centrum Multivitamins, Anadin, Twinings and Apple.

During my first 6 months I was promoted to Designer and was responsible for creative input and design for one of the teams at Alchemy. I also had an active role in usability and usability testing as well as HTML production.

Off the back of my graphic design degree show, I was offered at job as Junior web designer. In the interview, it was the Creative Director that inspired me to take a leap into the unknown world of the web. Starting at the very bottom and learning on the job, I taught myself HTML, Flash and how to design in 256 colours.