#CircusForum Don Shelford
Droga5
#CircusForum The Creative Circus hosts special guests every Friday in the Carol Vick Bynum Theater as part of our Friday Forum Series. Special guests include top industry professionals from Ad Agencies, Design Shops, & Top Companies, Circus Alumni & more!
We’re happy to share that Don Shelford, Group Creative Director at Droga5 will be speaking on Friday, October 20th at The Creative Circus.
Don Shelford, Group Creative Director | Droga5
Donald Lee Shelford went to college at Boston University where he studied Graphic Design and Communications. After graduating he set out to find that perfect job to compliment his Bachelor’s Degree, so he moved to the Caribbean and took a job as the Captain of a 50-foot sloop. In his two-and-a-half years of island hopping, he survived hurricanes, two shipwrecks, and many grueling hours playing croquet with the locals. Then one day he decided to leave the stressful backstabbing Caribbean sailboat captain’s life behind and seek shelter in the carefree world of advertising.
So he moved to Boston and took a job as Art Director on the Volkswagen account at Arnold Worldwide. He happily worked on Volkswagen for six years until leaving to travel and surf in Mexico and Guatemala. After a year in paradise, he decided it was time to return to the working world, this time at Goodby Silverstein & Partners. After a few short months of hard but fruitful work in the San Francisco fog, he visited the embassy and acquired an Irish/EU passport through his dear grandmother and off to the Netherlands he went. Don settled into a lovely apartment on the canals of Amsterdam, bought an old barge, and peddled his rusty Dutch bike to his new job as a Group Creative Director at Wieden + Kennedy.
While in Amsterdam, most of his work time was spent heading up the Electronic Arts and Coca-Cola accounts, while most of his playtime was spent drinking local beer from very small glasses, smoking funny cigarettes, meeting his future wife, and enjoying all that Europe has to offer. After three years of trying to pronounce the phrase “Twee biertjes alsjeblieft,” Don decided it was again time for a new challenge and moved back to the USA to pursue a Directing career in Los Angeles, where he worked on music videos, commercials, and comedy shorts for Funny or Die. But soon the call to work at W+K came again, this time in Portland, Oregon, so Don packed his bags and his bicycles and headed to the rainy NW to work as Group Creative Director on Nike North America, Levi’s, Target and a host of other clients. After many years in the NW it was time to head back east to Brooklyn, NY where he takes a ferry every morning to Droga5 on Wall Street where he’s working on Wall Street-y things like JPMorgan Chase, and not so Wall Street-y things like MailChimp, CNBC, The New Museum, and Quilted Northern. It’s an amazing job with an even more amazing commute, and that’s saying something.
Throughout his career he has been fortunate enough to win the Grand Prix at Cannes, the Grand Prize at the Andy Awards and the $100,000 Grand Kelly Award. The One Show, D&AD, NY Art Directors Club, The AICP, and Clio Awards have all given him very impressive metal pencils and statues, none of which he can properly explain to his parents.
If you are looking for Don, he can usually be found in the Droga5 office staring at his apartment across the river, or in his apartment staring at his office. But in either case he has his phone, so just give him a ring.
Don Shelford of Droga5 will take the stage in the Carol Vick Bynum Theatre this Friday, October 20th, at 1:30PM. Follow @creative_circus on Twitter and search the hashtag #CircusForum to follow the live-tweeting of the event.