Denomination welcomes new personnel in winter reshuffle

By James Lawrence

Published: 09 December, 2022

Leading design agency Denomination has expanded its managerial team, appointing three new members to work in the firm's US, UK, and Australian offices.

Recognised as Design Agency of the Year in the Harpers Design Awards 2022, Denomination has hired Simon Gawn, Butler Looney and Jonny Kearns.

Simon Gawn, previously national general manager at McCann, has been appointed managing director at Denomination’s headquarters in Australia. He also spent 10 years at Ogilvy in New York, London and Sydney and has built brands and campaigns for IBM, Coca Cola, Mastercard, Philips, Microsoft, eBay, and Amex.

Meanwhile, Butler Looney has been given the role of executive creative director at Denomination’s US office. Previously he was creative director at Headspace Health and prior to this, held the same role at Ginger, an on-demand mental healthcare company that then merged with Headspace.

“I intend bring some of that big brand design thinking into Denomination, as well as what I’ve learnt from the tech sector, such as the best practices around web design,” said Looney.

Finally, Jonny Kearns, previously an associate creative director at Marks, has been appointed creative director to Denomination’s UK office. According to Domination, “Kearns is an award-winning identity and packaging creative director, who has worked at several top design agencies, including Boundless, Identica, Bloom and his own agency, Carrousel.”

Rowena Curlewis (pictured), CEO and co-founder of Denomination, commented: “These appointments are a step towards Denomination’s goal to become the “unrivalled design expert in the drinks industry, by leading change with new thinking in all areas: design, innovation and sustainability.”

Denomination was singled out for high praise by the Harpers' judges, particularly for its work with the alcohol-free brand Hand on Heart, in addition to Mount Pleasant's label redesign – an established Australian brand in need of an image update.

“From the redesign of an iconic Australian wine brand to a beautifully enticing new lemon aperitif, Denomination wowed and wooed above other contenders, along with much else besides. Different all, these were nonetheless designs that drew the judges in, combining elegance, balance, often subtle yet sophisticated attention to detail, with cues that clearly hit the well-executed briefs,” said Harpers' editor Andrew Catchpole.

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