📁 SITA SHAHInfoWork
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Award winning Creative Director specialising in music & culture, brave storytelling and amplifying marginalised communities

Offering services in: Creative Direction, Creative Strategy, Copywriting, Art Direction, Film Directing, Artist Relations, Partnerships, End to end project ownership


Client list

Spotify, Netflix, Nike, TikTok, Google, Ray-Ban, Ballantine’s, ASOS



Awards

MTV VMA Nominated, 2x Grand, 2x Gold, 1x Bronze Clio Awards



Outside of work

Electronic artist helping run two grassroots collectives disrupting norms in arts & culture


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Spotify DnB


The first DnB documentary to hero a woman of colour
Spotify had seen a 94% rise in listenership of Drum & Bass. To celebrate this, I concepted and directed a story entitled "DnB: In For Life", capturing the lifelong and undying love for the scene. Alongside artists from an existing Drumsheds line up, I brought on board DJ Flight (an OG of the scene) and sourced archive photography from legendary artist Eddie Otchere. The result is the first DnB documentary to hero a woman of colour and one of the most engaged with organic posts on Spotify UK socials. 

  1. Overall Creative Direction
  2. Concepting
  3. Film directing
  4. Casting assistance
  5. End to end project ownership

Native Instruments Absynth 6


Weird by design
Native Instruments were re-releasing the legendary Absynth and came up with the line “weird by design”. I proactively concepted some big ideas to launch the synth. I paired up otherworldly visual artists (like weirdcore) with handpicked experimental music artists to create weird and wonderful content inspired by the synth’s black and green UI. The campaign helped reach sales goals for the synth in the first month of its re-release.

  1. Overall creative concepting
  2. Artist curation
  3. Design Direction
  4. End to end project ownership


    Netflix Queen Charlotte


    The world’s first orchestra made up entirely of women of colour
    Queen Charlotte (a Bridgerton prequel) is about a young woman of colour rising to prominence and power. In order to promote the show’s release, together with the Netflix team I concepted a one-of-a-kind music video spotlighting “new queens” and highlighting the lack of diversity in the orchestral space. We assembled a 74 piece orchestra made up entirely of women of colour and brought them together with Alicia Keys to perform a classical rendition of “If I Ain’t Got You”. The result is an MTV VMA Nominated and 3x Gold Clio winning music video, aiming to inspire a whole new generation of musicians from non traditional backgrounds.

    1. Creative Direction
    2. Concepting
    3. Working hand in hand with music video director
    4. BTS film directing
    5. End to end project ownership

    Youth Music & Spotify


    Documenting the power of youth centres
    Spotify were partnering with grassroots charity Youth Music to create a fund helping 15 youth centres across the country keep their doors open. We were tasked with launching the fund and communicating the importance of it. There had been lots of beautiful campaigns about the power of youth centres (including a recent one by Youth Music) and it was important we were able to stand out in order to drive earned reach. We calculated how many youth centres were at risk of closure each week and showcased the possibility of what could happen in these spaces in just one week. I worked with young director Frankie Spence (who had grown up going to youth centres) to bring a hero video to life and photographer Alex Kurunis for a series of billboards platforming the talented young people at the heart of these spaces.

    1. Overall Creative Direction
    2. Concepting
    3. Copywriting
    4. “Open Doors Fund” look and feel


    Ray-Ban Homebass


    Grassroots raves with Ray-Ban
    Ray-Ban’s audience were becoming increasingly millenial and the brand were looking for new ways to connect with Gen Z. For the launch of their new Pulse collection, we had the idea of partnering with Homebass (a rising grassroots collective throwing raves out of a van) to put together a series of events around the UK targeted at a younger consumer. I named, branded and curated the event series, working with designers to bring it to life. The key challenge was to balance the somewhat premium nature of Ray-Ban with the “raw” nature of Homebass. Tickets were available exclusively through a Whatsapp hotline, throwing back to the raves of the 90s. 

    1. Overall Creative Direction
    2. Design Direction
    3. End to end project ownership


      Spotify Nature


      An antidote to mixed media fast cuts
      Spotify creates a yearly social-impact campaign for World Mental Health Day and were looking for a new angle to cut through the noise and create positive change. I worked with Spotify to encourage people to "Take a beat" and tune into the healing power of nature sounds. For this campaign we cast rapper and zoologist Louis VI to showcase the mental and physiological benefits of nature sounds. I worked with Director Whitney Conti to bring to life a series of hero videos and an on platform "Hub" housing nature sounds.

      1. Overall Creative Direction
      2. Concepting
      3. Copywriting
      4. Campaign look and feel


      Ballantine’s True Music


      Decentralised storytelling in South America and Sub Saharan Africa

      Ballantine’s whiskey has had a partnership with Boiler Room for 10 years, throwing events around the world. But the only content that existed around this partnership was hour-long DJ streams on YouTube. I spotted an opportunity to make the most of the set design and artist time, creating unique short-form content for Ballantines’ social channels. I pitched to do this in my first week at a new job, resulting in us going to Johannesburg, Kenya and Colombia to film social content. I pushed for a de-centralised approach, using local DOPs and production crews in each region to bring the creative to life.

      1. Overall Creative Direction
      2. Concepting
      3. Local crew sourcing
      4. Film directing
      5. End to end project ownership