Justine Powell

Creative director.
Brand and marketing strategist.
Cape Town.

I have always loved problem-solving, and I still do.

Creativity, for me, is magical. It is an intangible alchemy of innovation and alternative thought: believing anything is possible, and being brave enough to suggest ideas that are revolutionary and completely unexpected.

It also needs to be on strategy, with a clear objective, and ideally infused with humanity. Finding those solutions to real business problems is my passion, and it’s where I flourish.

I started on print ads at Ogilvy and now run marketing and creative for a global software company. I’m always curious, and right now that means working out how AI can make our creative work better.

Ads you could hold.

Print from the Ogilvy and Draft FCB years, for clients who let an idea be the whole page.

go on, pick one up

Print ad for Baywatch: two giant red Life Savers sweets rising from the bottom edge of a yellow page.

Baywatch

M-Net

Two Life Savers on a yellow page. The show needed no other introduction.

The elephant was taken.

EPI-USE’s symbol is the elephant, so when I led the rebrand of EPI-USE Services for AWS, the business needed an animal of its own. Whales migrate, they’re highly intelligent, and they’re extremely sensitive to their environment. For a team that migrates companies to the cloud, that was the brief.

The whale carried the brand guidelines, the website, and a full campaign built around a free W.H.A.L.E. assessment: solution brief, eBook, a webinar co-presented with AWS, drip email and paid LinkedIn.

Opening spread of the W.H.A.L.E. eBook, with folds of purple and coral light.
EPI-USE Services for AWS brand guidelines cover with a humpback whale.
LinkedIn ad offering a free Microsoft Workloads Migration Assessment.
Valentine’s Day social post with a pink 3D heart.

One designer, then a global team.

I joined EPI-USE Labs in 2017 to build its marketing and creative function from scratch. It grew from one designer to a team of more than ten, working in five languages across brand, web, film and digital, and it supported fivefold revenue growth.

One of the biggest challenges was building a design language around data, so that complex, abstract methods could be explained without giving away the intellectual property.

Interactive periodic table of SAP products for EPI-USE Labs.
An interactive presentation for iPad Pro, 2019. Sales teams and clients could drill into exactly the business problem in front of them.
Isometric render of a software landscape as a pale miniature city.

Twenty-eight years, four desks.

  1. 2017 to now

    Creative Director and Digital Marketing Lead

    EPI-USE Labs

    Built the global marketing and creative function from scratch, and grew it from one designer to more than ten around the world. Led the rebrand and launch of EPI-USE Services for AWS.

  2. 2009 to 2017

    Creative Consultant and Creative Director

    Independent

    Brand strategy and integrated campaigns for SMEs and global clients. TV, print and digital, directing teams of designers, videographers and stylists.

  3. 2001 to 2003

    Creative Director

    Draft FCB, Johannesburg

    Integrated TV, print and brand campaigns for Toyota, Edgars and Oros.

  4. 1997 to 2001

    Senior Art Director

    Ogilvy, Johannesburg

    Campaigns for DStv, M-Net, kykNET, Dove and Sun International, and mentoring the junior creative team.

Awards

  • Silver Loerie ×2, kykNET print campaign
  • London Advertising Awards, finalist
  • Student Loerie, corporate identity design
  • Student Loerie, book cover design
  • Aardklop Awards, best campaign

Education

  • Red & Yellow Creative School of Business
    Diploma in Advertising and Marketing
  • University of Natal
    Bachelor of Commerce