BBH expands Black Sheep Studios with focus on content, design and music

BBH is expanding its BAFTA-winning Black Sheep Studios to form a full-service production company, reflecting the changing needs of clients in the seven years since its launch.

Black Sheep Studios will continue to work with BBH clients and remains rooted in the agency’s Power of Difference philosophy, but adds a new direct-to-brand offering through content, design and music oversight. This means that it will develop external relationships to build its own list of clients, providing agile, bespoke and production-focused solutions in content, design and music supervision.

As part of the expansion, Andy Cooke joins as head of design and Sophie FitzGerald takes over as executive producer, forming a leadership team alongside creative director, Rory Forrest. Head of Black Sheep Studio is Stephen Ledger-Lomas, who is also BBH’s production manager.

In addition to embodying the power of difference, Black Sheep Studios aligns with BBH’s longstanding commitment to delivering beautifully crafted work that impacts culture and moves the dial for their clients. He will also support BBH’s ongoing commitment to finding and nurturing the next generation of creative talent in Britain, and will be actively involved in the Unsigned Union, working with emerging talent around the world, as well as supporting BBH’s Differently Does It short film competition. , launched earlier this year.

This year, the content studio has already produced some wildly popular work, including the latest Wild deodorant advert and recent Tesco TikTok viral sensation Voice of the Checkout. Black Sheep Studios will expand to make its services available to external clients who have agile content creation requirements. The design studio, led by Andy Cooke, encompasses a wide range of disciplines, from UX and UI to brand identity, including its own new look, created by senior designer Isabella Cheung. The music studio continues to offer music research and licensing, custom composition, re-recording supervision and audio strategy.

Stephen Ledger-Lomas, Director of Production at BBH, said: “Our mission at BBH is to create beautifully crafted work that has a positive impact on our customers, our culture and our industry. Black Sheep Studios is BBH’s premier production offering, allowing us to bring world-class thinking and production talent up front for the right kind of brief. We are also proud to be less present, which gives us the opportunity to ensure that we bring difference to the forefront of our creative collaborations.

Andy Cooke is an award-winning designer and most recently worked in freelance roles at R/GA, Google Creative Lab and Design Studio. His varied career has included a three-year stint as creative director at Education First in Switzerland; the launch of his own design studio, while simultaneously managing a streetwear boutique and a pizzeria; a co-author credit from the Thames & Hudson People of Print publication; and teacher at the University of Staffordshire. The brands he has worked on are equally varied, including Coca-Cola, Samsung, IKEA, Eurosport and Nike.

On joining BBH’s Black Sheep Studios team, Andy said, “BBH is currently at an inflection point, with huge momentum behind creative output and an opportunity to elevate the role of design within the organization. . The opportunity to lead this outing with the London team is something I couldn’t ignore and as I come into the business with experience without any traditional advertising agencies on my CV, I’m looking forward to bring a non-traditional perspective of what it might all look, smell, sound, smell and taste like.

Sophie FitzGerald spent seven years at We Are Social in their in-house production studio, before joining Sky as senior producer. More recently, she has been freelancing, including a stint as a senior producer at The Or.

Sophie, on taking on her new role, added, “I am so excited to be part of this new chapter for Black Sheep Studios. This approach and offering is fresh and distinctly different, not only because we’re able to keep design and music under one roof, but also by having the backing and backing of the industry powerhouse that is BBH. I look forward to the journey ahead of us and feel lucky to lead such a strong and talented team.

Rory Forrest, Creative Director of BSS, said: “BSS is in the business of manufacturing – and in our age of a universal social storefront, every brand of any size, from supermarkets to small businesses, should always be. It’s never been more consistent, but the right face or the right movie can change a company’s fortunes. Bringing these units together, especially with talents like Sophie and Andy, allows us to meet this need better than ever. »

Black Sheep Studios started in 2015 and was one of the first in-house studios of its kind, providing nimble solutions for clients requiring fast-paced, long-form or low-budget content, often for social channels. Since then, he has earned a reputation for creating some of the funniest, quirkiest and most impactful work in the industry, including the 20-minute film “Home” for the United Nations Development Program in Kosovo, which won the BAFTA award. for Best British Short Film and a Golden Lion at Cannes.