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New Company Will Connect Brands with Unique and Diverse Voices Outside of the Industry

Stink Studios, the global creative studio that is part of Stink, is launching a new creative collective called Not For Hire (NFH). Comprised of unique and diverse voices – such as artists, photographers, fashion designers, gallerists, musicians, comedy writers, and makers – the collective will offer brands the opportunity to tap into a community of “artists for advertising” to create, develop and execute breakthrough creative. 

Not For Hire will be led by Stink Studios execs Kunal Muzumdar, Managing Director; Michael Kushner, ECD; and Isabella Tobiason, Director of Not For Hire. Initial clients and projects for the new company will be announced in the coming months.

Described as a “who’s who of who’s next,” working with Not For Hire will provide brands with a number of key advantages, including access to a diverse group of talent, new and unexpected perspectives on their business, and a flexible business model that makes it easy to plug NFH into existing marketing plans. It also gives the members of the collective access to brands and opportunities that they wouldn’t normally be a part of. 

“The fact that these talented folks are not from the world of advertising, and are not ‘influencers’ in the traditional sense, is part of their superpower,” said Muzumdar. “They bring a tremendous amount of creative and cultural perspective to their work, they don’t think in ad formats, and now brands can see the power of these non-traditional partners in their work.”

There are currently 20 members in the collective, including:

• Maya Man: Artist focused on contemporary identity culture on the internet. Her websites, generative series, and installations examine dominant narratives around femininity, authenticity, and the performance of self online. She is the creator of the browser extension Glance Back and the Art Blocks curated collection FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT. 
• Isabella Lalonde: A New York based artist & creative director, Isabella founded her label Beepy Bella in 2019. Her unique, whimsical jewelry and accessories have created a lasting impact on the industry, as well as built a cult following through celebrity placements on figures like Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Bad Bunny, Bella Hadid and many more. 
• Alex Sovoda: Alex Sovoda is a creative director, filmmaker, and event producer. Most recently earning a Vimeo staff pick for the short film "Compounding Negativity," which also screened at the NoBudge Festival in NYC. He is the founder and Editor-In-Chief of Enzo The Magazine, a multi media publication centered on restoring hope in the community. 
• Lily Max: Lily Max is a London-based designer. In addition to being the head designer for innovative eyewear brand, A Better Feeling, her design portfolio features collaborations with graffiti artist KATSU and footwear designer Ancuta Sarca, as well as custom pieces for music artists like Rosalia, J Balvin, and Eartheater.
• Yuma Burgess: Ψ. Φ. Symbolist / London-based sculptor Yuma Burgess, specializes in crafting timeless objects that merge modern technology with archaic values. Yuma's work attempts to introduce irrationality or mystery into our increasingly computational world.

Muzumdar and his team came up with the idea for NFH as a solution to what they consider a broken system.

“So much of what we’re seeing in the industry looks the same, and that can make things easily forgettable,” Muzumdar added. “This is because so many of the agencies making the work (and the people in them) also look and think the same. But there is an incredible creative community doing amazing things in other parts of culture, and we’re excited to bring these two groups closer together. As we’ve always told our client partners, if you want work that’s different, you need to work differently. Not For Hire helps solve that problem.”