After working at top shops including 72andSunny and McCann, Gabrielle Shirdan founded Kitchen Table in 2021.
On a recent client shoot in Philadelphia, Gabrielle Shirdan stood on a street where the first campaign she created in college, encouraging city dwellers to clean up their trash, was still displayed across the street from her most current campaign for a new docuseries.
“It was this juxtaposition; a started-from-the-bottom moment,” she said.
Shirdan, 33, has risen high since that first ad, and all the while she’s lifted others with her.
She’s a true trailblazer—as a freshman in college, she convinced LevLane to hire her as an intern despite being told the Philadelphia-based agency only takes juniors or seniors as interns. She ended up winning her first ADDY while in school and interning at LevLane, where she then worked for about six years.
After going on to work on big brands at top shops including 72andSunny and McCann, she founded her agency in 2021: Brooklyn, New York-based Kitchen Table, where she is chief creative officer. The idea behind the name is that everyone should be able to have a seat at the table, and the agency exclusively works with brands that are founded or owned by people of color. Its ethos is “creating work for the culture from within the culture.”
“If I continue to put the same work that I put into the world’s biggest brands into the brands that are founded by diverse founders, then we’re getting somewhere in terms of changing the world,” Shirdan said.
Those brands include grooming and skin care company Bevel; Issa Rae’s hair care line Sienna Naturals and Braeve jewelry collection; and The 15 Percent Pledge, a nonprofit encouraging retailers to pledge at least 15% of shelf space to Black-owned businesses. For Sienna Naturals, Kitchen Table created a campaign (below) championing textured hair that generated more than 6 million views and an impressive 300% sales increase.
Shirdan also created and launched this year at Cannes Lions the first Black- and woman-owned holding company, Heir Loom, which now houses Kitchen Table alongside full-service agency CHÉ Creative, branded content shop Love Song Studios and strategy house CulturePort.
“When we all have a seat, we all eat. That’s what we’re working to create: More chairs, more seats, more space,” she said.
I love the dinner question—the agency table is named Kitchen Table, so it makes sense! It’s an easy answer for me: Jay Z. I missioned this agency to level up the narratives of Black and brown brilliance, to make a lot of Black and brown billionaires through elevating their brands and businesses, ultimately changing the world—taking our expertise from Madison Avenue to MLK Blvd. And that’s what Jay-Z has done—from Marcy to the mainstream. He said, “Everybody can tell you how to do it but they never done it.” I’d turn the dinner into a business meeting to build.
I’ve curated my Instagram and LinkedIn feeds with some of the most inspiring creatives—from chefs to interior designers and more. I surround myself and fill my feed with people that make me want to be greater.
Does Apple News count as No. 2? Can’t change the world if we don’t know what’s going on all around it.
It’s Q4 so … pitch decks, briefs, comms tables, creative decks, emails.
“The Bear” is excellent. The monologues should be taught in film school.
I don’t know if I ever will … though I’m intrigued by the “mini-retirements” trending on social right now. My hustle is hereditary. I knew I wanted to be in advertising since I was 9. Got my first full-time job when I was a sophomore … yes, being tired of it is tempting, but for some reason, I’m still in love. Kitchen Table and Heir Loom will outlast me … I likely won’t retire, but just reimagine what “work” is. Time will tell!
