Meet the 2012 Creativity 50

A handful of 50: (From left) AKQA's Rei Inamoto, CAA Marketing's Jesse Coulter, Jonathan Mildenhall of Coca-Cola (seated), Smuggler's Patrick Milling Smith, Reshma Saujani of Girls Who Code, R/GA's Nick Law, Smuggler's Brian Carmody and Damian Kulash of OK Go, taken on the stage of the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, home of the Tony-awarded Broadway musical "Once". Photograph by David Yellen Welcome to the 2012 Creativity 50--our eighth installment of the year's 50(+) most influential and groundbreaking creative thinkers and doers, representing a broad spectrum of disciplines. Over the last year, their contributions have shifted the creative landscape in advertising, art, business, technology, pop culture and more, making the world a much more invigorating, entertaining, caring, innovative--and overall, better place. Among them, you'll find those carrying out the legacy of a brand synonymous with happiness, the production pros who translated their lessons from the commercials world to a Tony-winning Broadway hit, the agency-turned gaming boss who proved that creative skills are incredibly useful--and lucrative--in the CEO seat, talents who bridge the gap between branding and entertainment, an aspiring politician who has taken on the charge of steering more young women toward careers in technology and more. While you may recognize a number of this year's inductees, we trust that you'll find many surprises as well. But most important, we're hoping you come away more inspired, and more excited to make your own bold ideas happen. Linda Boff, Paul Marcum and Katrina Craigwell, GE Jeff Charney, Progressive Leslie Berland, American Express Craig Inglis, John Lewis Ron Johnson, JCPenney Mads Nipper, Lego Jonathan Mildenhall and Pio Schunker, Coca-Cola Martijn Van Der Zee, KLM Airlines Keith Villa, Blue Moon Brewery Robert Wong, Google Creative Lab Agency Innovators Jesse Coulter, Jae Goodman, David Messinger, CAA Marketing Rei Inamoto, AKQA Nick Law, R/GA Maxi Itzkoff and Mariano Serkin, Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi Ted Royer and Nik Studzinski, Droga5 Glenn Cole, John Boiler, Robert Nakata, Matt Jarvis, 72andSunny Aziz Ansari, Comedian Bjork, Performing Artist Louis CK, Comedian Lena Dunham, Director/Writer/Producer Matthew Inman, The Oatmeal E.L. James, Author OK Go, Musicians/Performers Kelly Oxford, Comedian Brian Carmody and Patrick Milling Smith, Smuggler/Once Graydon Sheppard, Director/Comedian Petter Westlund, Anders Wahlquist, Pelle Nilsson, B-Reel Jason Zada, Director Graham Douglas, Copywriter/Problem Solver Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code Evan Strusinski, Food Forager Olajide Williams, Hip Hop Public Health Nick Woodman, GoPro Suran Goonatilake, Bodymetrics Dustin Mierau, Path Babak Parviz, Google Project Glass Ryder Ripps and Jonathan Vingiano, OKFocus Ben Silberman and Evan Sharp, Pinterest Gaming Giants Eric Hirshberg, Activision Tim Sweeney, Epic Games Alan Rusbridger, The Guardian Franca Sozzani, Vogue Italia Richard Turley, Bloomberg Businessweek Katia Beuachamp, Birchbox Maurizio Cattelan, Artist Jonathan Mak, Designer Mauro Porcini, Designer Ron Potesky, Pantone

Meet the 2012 Creativity 50

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