ABOUT

A strategically led and craft focused Creative Leader honing my skills across creative disciplines as a thinker and doer since 2001.

A strategically led and craft focused Creative Leader from Sweden, honing my skills across creative disciplines as a thinker and doer since 2001.

My multi disciplinary background gives me a unique approach when working with clients and creative departments as a present and hands-on high level thinker; bridging the gap between executive conversations and detailed executions. This approach enables me to lead teams in delivering strategically strong and beautifully crafted brand experiences that ultimately delivers on business needs and drive growth. Always with a consumer hat and storytelling lens at the heart of it all.

I come fully insured with credentials from some of the worlds best creative agencies like R/GA NYC, BBH and 72andSunny Amsterday. my most recent positions saw me hold client side (Executive/Senior) Creative Director titles to manage fully stacked multi disciplinary in-house agency functions with a strong and healthy creative culture.

At Deliveroo, a global tech start-up racked #1 on FT 1000 2018 list, saw me set up a fully functional in-house agency from scratch in less than a year - consulting on everything from global marketing re-alignments through to local creative processes and enabling my client to originate and execute all their brand creative in-house. I did this whilst simultaneously setting a creative vision for the company and, together with my amazing team, produce multiple global campaigns that delivered trackable elevation in brand awareness and business growth under my creative leadership.

At Meta I established the creative department to overhaul Meta’s work offering, Workplace from Meta. Putting together a lean but mighty team of 10 people with the power to bring B2C thinking to a B2B space. Together we created a differentiated brand within the Enterprise SaaS category and carved out an ownable space for the brand.

I come fully insured with credentials from some of the worlds best creative agencies. My latest position at Deliveroo, a global tech start-up racked #1 on FT 1000 2018 list, saw me set up a fully functional in-house agency from scratch in less than a year - consulting on everything from global marketing re-alignments through to local creative processes and enabling my client to originate and execute their brand creative in-house. I did this whilst simultaneously setting a creative vision for the company and, together with my amazing team, produce multiple global campaigns that delivered trackable elevation in brand awareness and business growth under my creative leadership.

I strive to lead by example with three guiding principles :

(1) build trust through transparency

(2) advocate a collaborative environment by facilitating conversations

(3) assign accountability to promote ownership

If you would like to work with me, just give me a shout at hello@helinkotan.com

If you would like to work with me, just shout at hello@helinkotan.com

IN OTHER PEOPLE'S WORDS

"A phenomenal addition to an agency in need of creative leadership, vision, and execution."

As the key stakeholder with the client during creative direction, Helin led an integrated team across user experience, visual design, and development, from concept through to delivery.

As the Creative Lead, Helin led an integrated team across user experience, visual design, and development, from concept through to delivery. She was an integral part of the initial shaping phase (through workshops and client ideation/review sessions) and was the key stakeholder with the client during creative direction. She quickly established a progressive experience and design vision with the team and drove the programme with a close eye on that vision. She strongly advocated for quality, which ultimately drove the beautiful end product.

Helin is a creative lead through and through. She works closely with team members, giving them clear direction, discussing ideas and helping cut through ambiguity, and holding them accountable to creative quality. She was - at the same time – a pleasure to work with, and inherently understood the needs of both Account and Programme Management stakeholder groups. She worked closely with me to develop options that would meet her (and the team’s) vision, while keeping commercial and timeline viability in mind. She’d be a phenomenal addition to an agency in need of creative leadership, vision, and execution.

PAUL HARROP, SENIOR MANAGER AND PRODUCT LEAD, SAPIENT

"Helin’s creative guidance gave us structure & the chance to spread our wings creatively."

We absolutely loved working for Helin as our Creative Director. Her strong strategic talents made the creative process flow so smoothly. Her creative guidance gave us both structure and the chance to spread our wings creatively. Added to that her beautiful visual and verbal style were inspiring. Helen gave clear direction, allowing us to meet tough deadlines with confidence. But most importantly Helin created a calming atmosphere to work, something so rare and so valuable.

HANNA HERRERA & CAT HOWARTH, CREATIVE TEAM, ACNE GROUP

"Work really well in that space between strategy and ideas."

I spent the best part of a year working with Helin and Emma and have only super positive things to say about them. As part of a successful pitch team for a fashion brand, they approached an e-commerce brief in a really fresh and invigorating way. With the project proper they worked really well in that space between strategy and ideas - influencing the positioning and shaping a framework to ensure their ideas had a real foundation. All in all they were a joy to work with and I very much hope I get the chance to do it again.

STEVE THOMPSON, ECD, RAZORFISH LONDON

A SELECTION OF MY AGENCY AND BRAND EXPERIENCE

SEE ALL WORK