Hans Dorsinville Joins Select World as Its First Chief Creative Officer of North America
After 15 years at Laird Partners, Hans Dorsinville has joined Select World as chief creative officer of North America.
The well-regarded creative will be the first individual to hold this post in the agency’s 25-year history. He will help Sabrina Yu, managing director, to comanage the New York office. Dorsinville, who starts with Select today in the lower Broadway offices, aims to ramp up Select into more of an all-encompassing agency. Rather than have people think of Select as the beauty agency, Dorsinville wants people to think of Select as the agency that can make their brand relevant — whatever the brand may be, whether it be technology, beauty, wine and spirits. “What I’ve always loved about this industry in particular is the fact that it is inspired by everything that happens around the world whether that’s culture in general or art, film food, theater, pop culture — everything,” Dorsinville said.
Noting that he is African-American and Yu is Asian, Dorsinville said their running an agency together sends a signal out to the industry that is really important today. “I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve got the opportunity to show the world that this is possible,’” he said.
With its “solid foundation,” Select was just in need of a little reinvigoration “to make them part of the conversation whether that be on the digital side, the ideation and the creative side or just kind of elevating the whole thing.” Dorsinville said. “Communication of brands spans so much more than just beauty. It’s beauty, fashion, lifestyle brands…my goal is to really get in there and solidify a new vision for the company that finds its roots in this kind of relevance of today in how you speak to consumers and what they care about.”
As one of Adweek’s Creative 100 for 2017, he was recognized by the magazine for being among the “18 Top Creative Leaders Whose Ads Are Breaking Through Into Culture.” Really energized by the response to his work for Lane Bryant’s #ThisBody campaign, which relayed messages of body diversity and body acceptance, Dorsinville said work like that could influence a lot of different industries not just fashion and beauty appealed to him. Dorsinville said, “Thinking that brands really have a responsibility to society and they have to exist for a reason was really exciting to me.”
Dorsinville first teamed Laird working in-house at Donna Karan when a fellow Parsons grad asked Dorsinville to come help out in 1993. After they ventured out on their own in 2002, they were “super lucky” to have not only Donna Karan as a client, but also Gap, Dorsinville said.
A spokeswoman for Laird Partners said Tuesday that a replacement has not been named yet for Dorsinville.
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