With over a decade’s worth of experience working across live-action, commercials, and branding, Lauren Hartstone has found a venue to leverage her talents: Sibling Rivalry. “[Sibling co-founders] Mikon Van Gastel and Joe Wright are such an incredible balance–their work is consistently beautiful, refined, and smart,” she said. “The mix of Sibling Rivalry’s experiential, brand and commercial work is also particularly appealing to me. Having spent the past year freelancing with them, I have found the studio to be a genuinely fun and inspiring place to work.”
As creative director, Hartstone will not only assemble the teams and take the lead on projects from idea through delivery, but will attempt to articulate concepts, bring them to life visually and work daily with clients through pitching, presenting and collaborating. According to the Sibling CD, working as both a director and designer has proven beneficial and informative in her new position. “For me, being a designer and director is intertwined,” Harstone added. “The range of projects– graphic, filmic, illustrative, is definitely what keeps me engaged and I let one influence the next. It makes me a pretty hands on creative director. I don’t generate ideas in a void and I like working it out with people. I design and pull references at the start of every job, no matter what the medium or platform, because for me that’s a big part of my process.”
During her career behind the camera, Hartstone has honed her craft at the likes of well known studios including Imaginary Forces, Loyalkaspar and Gretel. Along the way, she has collaborated with top-tier brands such as Google, HBO, Spike TV, Pepsi and Smirnoff, rebranded African American female-focused network Centric, earned Emmy nominations for her main title designs for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and The Pacific and has spoken at events like OFFF Barcelona. With her storied background and proven versatility, Hartstone is well-suited to serve as Sibling Rivalry’s new creative director according to studio partner Maggie Meade. “Lauren comes to us with such a depth of creative talent and taste level that she will be a true leader to help push the future of Sibling,” the exec said. “Plus, who doesn’t want a strong female to help mentor other women in the design and film industry?”
