Founders Of Multi-Million Dollar Art Brand Ikonick Unveil New Creative Agency

by Freya Drohan

Introducing Open Residency, the new-age marketing agency founded by Ikonick’s innovative and forward-thinking founders Jeff Cole and Mark Mastrandrea. With Open Residency, digital artist Cole and Mastrandrea will be able to deliver campaigns and design work for digitally-native brands through access to the Ikonick in-house creative team, an extensive artist network, and a select artist management roster curated exclusively by Cole.

The duo’s latest move comes after a decade of collaborating with high-profile fashion brands and creating licensed artwork with pop-culture icons and partnering with Gary Vaynerchuk to build an art empire which was valued at $30M in late 2019.

Jeff Cole, known to his 750K Instagram followers as @cole has established a cult following as a result of his other-worldly, hype sneaker driven social content and viral campaign work including; creative directing Nike and Adidas marketing campaigns, canvas collections with brands like Monopoly and NBA, and getting reposts of historic moments made by @cole from names like Lebron James, J Balvin, Lewis Hamilton and Chris Brown.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jeff Cole (@cole)

Joining Cole on the Open Residency artist management roster at launch to serve third party clients and also produce proprietary NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are Israeli-born 3D artist and 21st Century Sculptor, Gal Yosef and award-winning Disney Animation artist, Alex Alvarado.

“It’s time to break the traditional agency model. Now more than, creativity needs to live at the forefront of brand campaigns to win over the hearts and minds of consumers. We’re living in a digital age and from first-hand experience building our own brand, we know that marrying creativity with the overall business strategy is key to success,” Cole said in a release.

According to the release, Open Residency will provide a suite of innovative creative services to brands including; 3D animation, NFT design and distribution, motion graphics, video editing and visual effects, concept creation, art directing, and storyboarding. Digital marketing services will include social strategy development, ambassador programming, partnerships and collaborations, press placement and digital media integration. And future clients are in good company too, safe in the knowledge that they will gain access to an exclusive network of existing agency relationships with brands including KITH, Nike, Adidas, Disney, SEGA, Viacom, Marvel, and more.

“Open Residency is a passion project for us,” Mastrandrea said. “It’s a natural extension of the work we already do behind the scenes with Ikonick. We receive frequent inbound inquiries from brands and individuals looking for creative guidance, advice and support. We’re bringing together best in class artists and digital marketers to build an unmatched creative hub that blue chip brands and individuals can trust to execute campaigns at the highest level. We’re excited to represent brands that fight our ethos and vision of storytelling above all.”

Watch this space!

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on all the latest fashion news and juicy industry gossip.

You may also like

Leave a Comment