NOW Agency

Us, not them

Tristan Fabriani

President | Founder | CCO

Tristan Fabriani (aka Lee St. James) loves telling stories. Even though he grew up knowing he would be a visual artist of some kind, an illustrator maybe like Norman Rockwell? At heart he is a storyteller. Personal stories, family stories, made up stories, brand stories, any kind of story.

He grew up building things with his Kentucky grandmother (it's a long story) later earned a BFA in design and ceramics and ultimately a Masters in sculpture (more stories, some quite juicy).

He has written music (stories), ads (stories) and articles (stories), made films and other things (stories), taught college, birthed ideas, fathered children (lots more stories).

He’s been honored internationally, by every major award show: Cannes, CLIOS, The EFFIE's, The ONE SHOW, MPA Kelly awards, the OBIE’s, the ANDY's and the $100,000 Grand Athena. He has also served as a juror on many of these shows.

Served as Executive Creative Director in some of the best agencies in the world, TBWA\Chiat Day, Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis on many of the best companies and brands in the world. Heineken, UBS, GSK, Procter & Gamble, JetBlue, Alitalia to name a few. He’s even created a couple of successful agencies of his own.

Tristan knows a lot about this business with lots of stories to tell. Most importantly though, he knows what he doesn’t know yet. He has the drive, tenacity and brains to figure it out and then … create the right solutions and put the right teams together to solve most any marketing or executional challenge we might face together.

Lastly, Tristan believes in story telling and in something Mark Twain said, "Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story, unless you can't think of anything better."Top

Claudia Conti

CEO | Founder | Seismic Engineer

Claudia is the spark of our organization, the nice one, until you cross her and then she is every bit the fiery Italian one.

Born in the center of Italy and by the sea, and raised in a family where art and science have always been interwoven. She trained and worked for several years as a seismic engineer, immersed in numbers, calculations and building sites, where she learned the value of hard work and study.

Then Claudia was asked to try her hand at representing illustrators for Illozoo, a global illustration agency. She quickly became their most prolific and successful agent and started her own company “and then …” and now, NOW.

Now rounds out the full service offering, the thinking and ideation part of the business.

Wait, did you say “seismic engineer”? Yes, she is really good at identifying where the fault lines are, where strategies are potentially weak and how to shore them up, every agency should have their own seismic engineer.

Claudia is a tremendous researcher and student of people and human condition. She “gets” people.

She thinks of art and beautiful design as an antidote for people, a distraction that helps them to smile and provides relief from the everyday pressures of life. She will happily tell you she has been saved by a few artful moments of kindness and that she likes to return the courtesy.Top

Carlo Muttoni

VP|Strategic Director

Carlo Muttoni, after graduating in Graphic Design at IED in Milan, moved to Los Angeles where he attended Direction and Tv Production at UCLA. He joined the Hollywood industry, creating posters and illustrations for Peter Green Design; in the meantime, he founded and directed Bla, a magazine on American trends and corresponded as a journalist for several Italian magazines. Back to Italy, he spent a few years at Lowe Group as an art director.

He quit advertising and embarked for a solo round the world journey on a motorcycle. In the following four years he worked as a cook in India, hotel manager in Australia and safari guide in Africa.

Back to Italy, he earned a living as a strategic planner, ending up in Grey United, Milan. In 2015 he founded Owan, an outdoor company specialized in luxury products.

He's director of the White Museum, curator of Extraordinart and president of Brandpowder, a creative firm for experiments in communication.

He draws comics and children books in his free time. Carlo loves dogs.Top

Ron Rheingold

Social Strategist | Hollywood Raconteur

Ron Rheingold brings over a decade of experience in influencer, social, and brand marketing. Beginning his career at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment in the Music, and then later Commercials and Endorsements Department, Rheingold worked with A-list artists, celebrity TV personalities, and traditional acting talent, and major brands such as Mercedes Benz, Sonos, and CoverGirl.

Leveraging his expertise in branding, Rheingold was a Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships at BeautyCon Media, a worldwide community of content creators, celebrities, fans and brands with international festival, e-commerce, and content divisions.

In his spare time away from his mobile phone, he enjoys flying a tiny Cessna, swimming back and forth indoors, and strumming a rusty six string.

Refers to himself in the third person.Top

Ted Parrack

Global Business Strategist | Nice Guy

How to build a global strategist? First, be born into a Steel city agency family … think the set of MAD MEN. Know from childhood this is your calling.

Prepare with an English Speaking Union scholarship, BA, MA and MBA. Rise through the agency ranks. Join British American Tobacco to lead Innovation, then U.S. Marketing, Global Marketing and Corporate Strategic Planning.

Next move to Brown Forman (SVP, Wine Marketing) blessed with regular trips to Italy and their superb Bolla client. (Weekends at Lake Como, dinners at the inn where Machiavelli wrote The Prince in the bargain.)

Return to the agency business, earn the privilege of working for U.S. and global leaders in alcohol, aerospace, chemicals, tech, luxury goods and CPG.

Such as BASF, EDS, Diageo, Davidoff of Geneva, Pepsico, 3M, Dryfus Financial, Kraft, Unilever, Loro Piana and Bruno Magli. Help launch Boeing’s spectacular 787 DreamLiner and 777LR.

Given Ted’s academic credentials, you might expect a scholarly demeanor, but the reality is more NFL: massive, shaved head,. 6’, 118 kilos and assorted rugby scars. (He played prop of course.)

All on strategy, he’d say, for a man raised under Pittsburgh’s smouldering night skies, lit red by blazing blast furnaces and inspired by its legendary Steelers.

Expect to be challenged, inspired and, most certainly, laugh.Top

Steve Sohl

Design Director

Steve Sohl has worked and played in advertising for over 20 years. His clients have included Fortune 500 companies like DIAGEO, PepsiCo, AOL, Unilever, Kraft, NBC and others.

As creative director for these companies and their brands, he developed award-winning campaigns while building long lasting relationships. In the last few years, he has focused his skill set on pure design.

From print to packaging, identity to in-store, online to OOH. Steve and his team’s work is always visually stunning.Top

Noel Nickol

Creative | Human

Noel Nickol is an award-winning writer and creative director who has spent over a decade bringing his unique thinking, insights and bold creative sensibilities to some of the world’s most iconic brands including Cadillac, American Express, Hallmark, Verizon, Avis, Prince, and Seventh Generation, among many others.

From breakthrough social/digital to large-scale global campaigns, Noel puts humanity and creativity at the heart of everything he does. He also really likes the movie Blade Runner.

His work has been featured in places like the New York Times, USA Today, Good Morning America and ESPN. Industry awards and showcases such as the Clio’s, EFFIE’s, Google Creative Sandbox, the FWAs, Creativity and Communication Arts have also recognized him.Top

Brian Flatow

Director Client Services

Brian is the founder and Chief Miner of Girardville Miners’ Cooperative where he helps brands define their voice, build affinity and win. He considers himself a brand catalyst and thrives on leading the development of powerful strategic platforms and integrated creative work across key touchpoints. He has a track record of leadership, building strong partnerships and knowing how to create powerful teams of cross-discipline talent.

As an original member of The Ad Store, New York and its former President, Brian filled many roles, including creative director/copywriter, brand planner, account manager, producer and, at times, “outsourced CMO.”

Brian has had particular success helping relatively unknown brands become not just famous but iconic. His work with JetBlue produced breakthrough creative that allowed the start-up airline to compete against bigger budgets and cultivate an almost cult-like following. For Zappos.com he

captured the voice of a unique culture and introduced the brand to new customers by developing an ownable umbrella platform and portfolio messaging that were delivered through multiple media channels.

And his work on the first-ever Super Bowl spot for GoDaddy.com propelled the brand to become the number one domain name registrar overnight.Top