Branding consultancy Wolff Olins has appointed senior Amazon creative Tim Allen as its first president for North America. Allen previously served as executive creative director for Amazon's product design studios where he led a team of technologists and designers. Prior to Amazon, he led experience design at both R/GA and Sapient Nitro, winning Cannes Lions, D&AD, Andy, One Show and Webby awards for work including Nike Training Club, and Nike's first iOS app, Nike+ Active. At Wolff Olins, he will oversee growth in its New York and San Francisco offices.
Canadian creative shop Lowe Roche will close by the end of the year, four years after founder and CEO Geoffrey Roche left the agency he opened in 1991 as Geoffrey B. Roche & Partners and sold to Interpublic Group of Cos. in 1997. The Toronto shop was one of the first to be named Ad Age's International Agency of the Year in 1998, and was one of Canada's most acclaimed agency brands. Canada's Marketing magazine reported the closing of Lowe Roche, and that the office had dwindled to about 30 to 50 people. Post-Lowe Roche, Mr. Roche and his son Alexandre started dog site 3MillionDogs.com and a fashion app called WearToday. He's also a lively presence on Twitter, where he doesn't like Donald Trump.