Toronto agency Zig is losing one of its founding partners with Elspeth Lynn leaving the agency next month to move to England.
“It has nothing to do with Zig, it’s all for personal reasons,” said Lynn. “I was born in London and my family is all over in the U.K.”
Lynn came to Canada with her family in 1974, and since then both of her parents and her two sisters have returned to England.
“Zig has been an amazing company to be a part of, but I decided it was time for a new chapter,” she said.
Lynn, an art director, and longtime creative partner Lorraine Tao had already made a name for themselves as one of the country’s top creative teams when they joined with Andy Macaulay to open Zig in 1999.
As creative directors at the agency, the duo were instrumental in the rapid growth and successes of the agency in the early years, although they gave up the CD reins to focus on client work in 2006. Since then Martin Beauvais has overseen all creative work at the agency as executive creative director, with Stephen Leps and Aaron Starkman serving as creative directors.
“Any time somebody of Elspeth’s talent leaves, you are sorry to see her go,” said Macaulay. “When you work as closely as we have for 10 years, you either kill each other or develop tremendous personal affection for one another.”
And while Macaulay will will miss his longtime partner, he said the agency is also well positioned to absorb her departure.
“This company is 125 people now, and it long ago ceased being about the three founding partners,” he said.
Lynn is also giving up her ownership stake in the agency. Macaulay confirmed no new partner has been added to the mix, with ownership divided between MDC, himself, Tao and managing director Shelley Brown.
Of late, Lynn and Tao had been spending most of their time on Zig clients Eska, IKEA and Corus.
Briony Wilson, most recently with DDB Dallas but a former co-worker of Lynn’s at DDB in Toronto, has returned to Canada and will replace Lynn as Tao’s partner.
“I feel better that Lorraine will have a great partner,” said Lynn. “There is a great sense of compatibility between them, and it allows [Zig] to have a senior female team for [its] clients.”
Lynn leaves for England on Dec. 19 and said she’ll take six months off before looking for agency work in London.
