Brett Wickens

Brett Wickens (born April 15, 1961[1] in Hamilton, Ontario) is a British-Canadian creative director[2] known for his work with identity design. He is a partner for the Ammunition Design Group, and is currently living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Formerly, Wickens was a pioneer of Canadian electronic music and a member of the band Spoons from 1979 to 1980.[3]

Brett Wickens
Born (1961-04-15) April 15, 1961
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
CitizenshipCanadian
OccupationDesigner, former musician
Known forLogo design and branding, Spoons, Ceramic Hello
Notable work
The logotype for HBO's The Sopranos
Spouse(s)Coraline Langston-Jones
Children2

Biography

Wickens worked with British graphic designer Peter Saville[4] as a partner in his London studio during the 1980s and 90s, where they developed renowned campaigns for clients as diverse as Yohji Yamamoto, Factory Records, Peter Gabriel and the French Ministry of Culture. In 1990 he became an Associate Partner in Pentagram's London office.

In 1993 he moved to Los Angeles[5] to become VP Creative Director at Frankfurt Balkind Partners, where he directed new media initiatives and created campaigns for most of the major Hollywood studios. Wickens designed the logotype for HBOs The Sopranos.[6]

In 1999, Brett became the Global Creative Director of Sapient before joining MetaDesign as VP Creative Director in 2002,[7] where he directed interaction and branding projects for clients including Adobe, Coca-Cola, Four Seasons, McAfee, San Francisco Ballet, SanDisk, Shangri-La Hotels, Sony, Viacom, J&J and FICO.[5]

Wickens was a founding partner of DreamSurface, a mobile application design company best known for the product TimeTuner.[8]

He has been a guest speaker on NPR, contributing editor at EYE magazine, teacher at the California Institute of the Arts, and speaker at many symposia, including the RGD Design Thinkers Conference 2008 in Toronto, and the Creative Review Click Conference 2010 in San Francisco.

Wickens was awarded in 2016 the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award.[9]

Music career

Brett was also a pioneer of electronic music in Canada. Brett played keyboard and was a member of the band, Spoons from 1979 until 1980.[3] After leaving Spoons he joined with Paul Abrahams to release a single and album on the Mannequin record label, founded and owned by Abrahams and released an album under the name Ceramic Hello with fellow musician Roger Humphreys that has now been re-released several times.[10] He has composed with William Orbit, Jah Wobble, Andy McCluskey (OMD), Martha Ladly and others.

Personal life

Brett Wickens is married to Coralie Langston-Jones and together they have twins, Jasmine and Sophia. They reside in the town of Lucas Valley in Marin County and live in an Eichler house.[11]

References
  1. "Brett Wickens Video, Interviews". OVGuide. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  2. Silva, Horacio (22 September 2002). "Outstanding Alien". The New York Times. p. 82. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
  3. "Spoons". CBC Music. Archived from the original on 2018-07-11. Retrieved 2016-05-10. Spoons played their first show together on December 14 1979 at their high school in Burlington Ontario." "Rob Preuss, a 15-year-old fan of the band joined in 1980 to replace the departed Wickens
  4. "Behind the Leeo Logo: A Q&A with Brett Wickens". Leeo, Inc. 2015-01-09. Archived from the original on 2015-03-18. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  5. "Brett Wickens". Design Thinkers. 2008. Archived from the original on 2016-05-06. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  6. Wilson, Mark (2013-11-22). "From The Sopranos's Logo Designer, A Brilliant Brand ID That Morphs Over Time". Fast Company Design. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  7. "Creative Professionals & People". Graphic Design USA. 2009-03-01. Archived from the original on 2016-06-03. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  8. "Radio Ink Magazine". www.radioink.com. 2009-10-21. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  9. "Brett Wickens". AIGA San Francisco. 2018-02-04. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
  10. "Ceramic Hello". Discogs. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  11. Bowling, Mary Jo (2016-05-06). "A Classic Eichler Home Steps Into the 21st Century". Curbed. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
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