Independent agency Rethink has launched a design practice, bringing together its services in brand strategy, visual identity, packaging, and design systems under a formal offering for clients. The practice will operate across its North American offices in New York, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.
Larissa Marquez, former executive director of operations at Brooklyn design studio Gretel, has joined Rethink as managing director of the new design group. Based in New York, she reports to Sean McDonald, Rethink’s partner and global chief strategy officer.
“I saw an incredible opportunity,” Marquez said of the job. “Rethink has a strong legacy and reputation, and that was important for me as a next step in my career.”
While Rethink has done award-winning design work for clients such as Kraft Heinz, Molson Coors, and KitKat, design had never been packaged as part of its offering on par with its advertising services.
With this new practice, “design is no longer a subsidiary of advertising. It is a peer of advertising,” said McDonald.
She added that a design practice allows Rethink to benefit from “the client relationships of an advertising agency” while also “focusing on design and output.”
“We are highly conceptual and mix strong strategic thinking with strong visual storytelling,” she said. “That combination is very distinctive.”
Also joining Rethink Design’s leadership is executive creative director of design Rich Greco, previously a design leader at JKR and Droga5; partner and executive creative director Hans Thiessen, a longtime Rethink exec; and Rethink partner and group creative director Alex Bakker.
McDonald said the structure gives design leaders like Greco and Bakker a more defined leadership role on client accounts, with design treated as a standalone discipline rather than a support function.
Rethink Design’s teams include a mix of junior and senior talent across North America, and the agency is “very deliberately looking to hire talent at the junior end,” McDonald said. The agency is home to talent like Zoë Boudreau and Jesse Shaw, who recently won gold at the Cannes Young Lions Design competition.
The agency plans to “scale to the opportunities” it gets, but Marquez declined to comment on whether it’s hiring for the team.
For Rethink Design’s first year, McDonald said the focus will be on integrating with the broader Rethink team, creating quality work, and growing momentum with clients.
“If we continue to build out case studies and any number that represents the best work in the world, that will be great,” he said. “But the real opportunity is to learn and integrate all of Larissa’s experience with all of the experience that we have.”
Marquez added: “For us, the most important thing is to set the standard really high from the beginning.”
