Ian Wharton
- Founder, CEO
- United Kingdom
- Member since 2013
Ian Wharton has a 19-year track record of high-profile design and innovation and has been honoured by the Royal Television Society, Apple Design Award, D&AD and the Art Director’s Club in New York. He has served as part of the creative leadership for agencies in WPP and Publicis Groupe, is the Founder of healthtech company Aide and is the author of Spark for the Fire: How Youthful Thinking Unlocks Creativity.
Ian has represented clients including Formula 1, Volvo Cars, H&M, Virgin Atlantic and the Clinton/ Branson-founded production company HiddenLight. Previously, he was one of the founding partners of tech startup Zolmo, a studio known chiefly for its award-winning work with Jamie Oliver which became an international bestseller with over 20 million downloads. Zolmo was ranked in Design Week’s Top 50 Design Consultancies in its first year.
He graduated best-of-show from university with the acclaimed short animated film Solar (2007). He later joined visual effects company The Mill as an art director, designing commercials for Audi, Nokia and game trailers for Electronic Arts and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
Ian has spoken at 30+ conferences around the world and contributed to BBC World News, The Guardian and Creative Review. He is a regular visiting lecturer at top creative universities in the UK and an advisory board member of D&AD Shift, a free night school for underrepresented young creatives. He has since been named an Art Directors Club ‘Young Gun’, one of Creativepool’s Top 100 Influencers, BIMA’s Digital Hot 100 and Campaign Magazine’s ‘Most powerful people in advertising’.
Contact Ian.
