Windmill Lane Launches New Commercials Team [Full Press Release]

Advertising

[Windmill Lane Commercials Team]

[Estimated Reading Time – 5 mins]

Windmill Lane’s passion for commercials remains as fervent today as it was upon foundation. With the appointment of key staff and the promotion of Jess Felton to Head of Commercials – Ireland’s longest running post production studio has issued a statement of intent for 2023 and beyond. 

According to Core’s 2023 Outlook report (as published in the Sunday Independent last week) the Irish advertising market is forecast to grow again in 2023 by around 3.8% to hit €1.43 billion, with most media channels to get a boost. And with the optimism, not to mention competitive nature, around the advertising market in Ireland – Jess is keen to provide a streamlined and cost effective service to current and prospective clients.

Jess Felton

Jess has many years experience in post-production both in Ireland and overseas, specialising in commercials for a wide range of national and international brands and clients. Jess has exhibited a passion for nurturing new talent from Ireland and further afield. She is also heavily involved with local Commercial committees in Ireland, including the upcoming Emerging Directors Awards. 

[Jess Felton]

Speaking of her promotion Jess said:

The shape of the Windmill Lane commercials team had changed dramatically in the last three years. We saw some heavy hitters in Windmill Lane decide to change their destinies (as many people did!) The ability to pivot and pivot fast when the pandemic hit has certainly stood to us. We have had to rebuild and recruit for a different market, a different world. It’s been fascinating seeing all the chess pieces being thrown up in the air and seeing where they fall. We have a really exciting team of creatives – old and new – and being able to introduce them to a very changed Dublin agency scene is very exciting. 

Creative Directors

[Donal O’Keeffe]

Jess will be supported primarily by Head of Production Deborah Doherty as well as the teams in Editorial, Audio, VFX and Colour. Jess will be aiming to bring her experience and know-how to grow this long standing side of the business and promote talent to both new and existing clients. Key to that support are Windmill Lane’s Creative Directors – Donal O’Keeffe & Manus Goan. Fresh off their work on Glenhaven’s unique and visually arresting campaign Donal & Manus have an ambitious vision for Windmill Lane going forward. 

Over the last 12 years Donal has worked across Film, TV and Advertising. Having worked with global brands including; DAZN, Nike, Amazon, Virgin and FIFA. Donal’s wealth of experience, including a 12 year stint in the UK where he last worked for MPC, will prove crucial to Windmill Lane’s vision.

Windmill Lane Commercials is, for me, the perfect combination of skill, ambition and scale. We are a tight, extremely talented and highly motivated collective. It’s the story of modern day Ireland; with a very ambitious and experienced drive but also retaining a personable and friendly approach. Bringing experience from across the globe back to Dublin and reaffirming Windmill Lane’s gold standard in commercials and creative design. 

[Manus Goan]

The advertising world is dependent on many creative partnerships and, luckily for Windmill Lane, Manus Goan & Donal are a team that promises great things moving forward. Having honed his skills in New York City and working as Head of Creative at Windmill Lane since 2022 Manus has worked with clients including; Tesco, Deloitte, An Post and Pepsi.

Over the past year we have refreshed our creative department with Donal and Sarah (Gillick) joining the team and I am excited to continue to share our talent and expertise with our clients. We have been diligently working on growing our network of highly skilled and specialist freelance artists both here and abroad, in order to create bespoke teams that are perfectly suited for each client’s projects. This modular approach puts creativity at the forefront of our offerings and allows us to cover a broad range of styles and technologies to suit our client’s needs, says Manus. 

Youth and Experience

[Vita Mak]

A key building block of this new-look Commercials team arrived toward the end of 2022 when Windmill Lane managed to land the services of Vita Mak. Vita has worked with major accounts including; White Claw, Adidas and Denny. Speaking recently about the year ahead Vita says:

Before moving to New York – I had started my professional career in advertising with Huskies so to be back in Ireland working with this really talented team is exciting. It’s actually great to be part of the creative team after the recent rebuild – as I have the chance to put my stamp on Windmill Lane’s commercial vision early doors.

[Lee Hickey]

Vita may be a newbie but it’s not all new faces round the halls of 29 Herbert Street. Lee Hickey has been a senior commercials editor in Windmill Lane for over 15 years. His commercial work has been recognised with multiple ICAD and Shark awards for editing. In 2007, he edited New Boy which was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2009 Oscars. This is a very solid set of hands to have and fortunately the love Lee has for his craft has not abated over the years; 

As Jess has stated – this is a different market compared to the commercial world I started off in at Windmill Lane. But that’s a positive. New people and new thinking are essential to keep things fresh and interesting and this team has all the right attributes to continue to do really great work which is exactly the reason I wanted to work in Windmill Lane in the first place, says Lee.

[Renata Fitzpatrick & Sarah Gillick]

Rounding out the team will be Renata Fitzpatrick (Producer) and Sarah Gillick (2d Compositor and Creative).

Renata says; Our team brings a wealth of expertise to the table, whilst still remaining fresh and open to exploring new and innovative approaches to each project. We look forward to working with clients, old and new, to bring their creative visions to life.

Sarah says; It’s exciting to be part of this new vision for WML Creative moving forward, and to contribute ambitious and inspiring content to the Irish Creative scene.

Windmill Lane have made a number of key appointments recently – not just in commercials -, including Stephen Pepper in VFX, and spearheading this ambitious drive is their CEO Dave Quinn (recently featured in a Sunday Independent profile piece). Having been with the business since the 1980’s Dave has always had a love for commercials and was keen to share his excitement; 

“This iteration of our Commercial offering is definitely one of the strongest we’ve ever had. Jess is a fantastic choice to lead this great new team, and to produce and deliver excellent creative content to our Advertising clients.“

VFX Team: 

• John Kennedy (Head of VFX) 

• Stephen Pepper (VFX Supervisor)  

• Fred Burdy (Head of CG)

Audio Team:

• Mick Creedon (Head of Audio)

• Tom Morris (Re-Recording Mixer/Sound Editor)

• Mark Henry (Senior Audio Engineer)

Colour Team:

• Dave Hughes (Head of Grading)

• Matt Branton (DI Colourist)

For more information visit: www.windmilllane.com 

Written by Jason Gaffney

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