Young Guns

Ian Wharton has served on the global creative leadership of design and innovation firms within WPP and Publicis and is the author of Spark for the Fire: How Youthful Thinking Unlocks Creativity.

At AKQA, Ian built creative teams in two countries representing Volvo Cars, Formula 1, H&M and Virgin Atlantic. He also led AKQA’s annual student competition Future Lions.

Ian previously directed the creative output of technology startup Zolmo, known for the Apple Design Award-winning products with Jamie Oliver, some of the top-grossing apps with over 20M downloads. Zolmo was honoured by D&AD, The Webby’s and ranked in Design Week’s Top 50 Design Consultancies.

Ian graduated best-of-show with short animated film Solar in 2007, earning a Royal Television Society Award. Later joining VFX company The Mill as art director. He featured in Young Guns 8, BIMA’s Digital Hot 100 and Campaign Magazine’s A-List.

Previously, as one of its four founding partners, Ian led the creative output of tech startup Zolmo. The studio was known chiefly for its Apple Design Award-winning apps developed in joint venture with Jamie Oliver, some of the top-grossing, top-rated apps for iPhone and iPad with over 20 million downloads. During that time, Zolmo was honoured by D&AD, The Webby’s and ranked in Design Week’s Top 50 Design Consultancies.

Ian graduated best-of-show from university with short animated film Solar (2007), earning a Royal Television Society Award. He later joined visual effects company The Mill as an art director, designing commercials for Audi, Nokia and later worked as an in-house animation director on films for Electronic Arts and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. He has since been named an Art Directors Club ‘Young Gun’, one of Creativepool’s Top 100 Influencers, BIMA’s Digital Hot 100 and Campaign Magazine’s A-List.