SOL DE JANEIRO (2024)
CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER
After a fruitful year of creative partnership, I'm thrilled to be joining beauty's buzziest brand, as interim Chief Creative Officer in order to implement the brand's new creative chapter and evolution, along with leading all global creative responsibilities.
THE ROW (2023-2024)
CREATIVE & BRAND CONSULTANT
Long term creative partnership with THE ROW on the strategic and creative evolution and growth of the brand.
TĒKLOS (2023)
CHIEF BRAND ARCHITECT
In July 2023, Teklos founded his namesake studio in New York City, offering Bespoke Brand Architecture to global luxury brands by appointment.
BRAND PARTNERSHIPS:
THE ROW, SOL DE JANEIRO, FORD MODELS, SCENT BEAUTY, SABRINA CARPENTER, LANNINGSMITH.
ESTĒE LAUDER COMPANIES (2018-2023)
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL CREATIVE
Since 2018, Teklos has been Senior Vice President at Estée Lauder Companies and Global Chief Creative for 11 out of the 30 brands in the designer fragrance, men’s and skincare portfolios. He led all creative strategy, product design, advertising, store design, consumer experiences and creative operations for Aramis, DKNY, LAB SERIES, Donna Karan, Kiton, Michael Kors, Origins, Tory Burch, Tommy Hilfiger, ZEGNA and consulted on Tom Ford and other company creative initiatives. He was the only creative to be trusted with the strategic and creative reset of this many brands across all category clusters.
Klitos Teklos brought all creative concepts and executions in-house, (product design, campaigns and interiors), by training and empowering his teams, rather than outsourcing the work to agencies.
Under his leadership and in less than 4 years, he was able to turn around his brands by achieving astonishing double to triple digit growth and market share gains, recruiting a new range of consumers and building re-energized buzz and awareness. He introduced digitalization via new technologies from AR, VR to web 3.0 experiences, and made innovation, sustainability, inclusion and diversity his top areas of focus.
He was able to play up his strength of understanding global versus local and regional inititatives, to ensure relevance and resonance across all markets and platforms. He has succeeded in the skincare-competitive China and APAC regions and was able to deliver outstanding fragrance success in the key markets of UK, EMEA and North America, as well as emerging ones such as Latin America and the Middle East. He was also the only creative trusted with resetting 3 out of the 4 heritage brands at the company.
His work at Estée Lauder Companies has earned him multiple product design nominations and awards, as well as “media campaigns of the year” wins and jury participations for international competitions.
FASHION ADVERTISING & BRAND DEVELOPMENT
AIR PARIS (2007-2018)
PARTNER, CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER
As Partner and Chief Creative of the prestigious agency Air Paris, duties included all brand work from concept and brand development to creative direction, and production of global campaigns and content across all media platforms for luxury brands in fashion, fragrance, beauty, skincare, hospitality and wellness. It also included development of new brands and strategic repositioning for global and regional markets.
CLIENTS:
Jil Sander, Longchamp, Lancome, Want Les Essentiels, Juicy Couture, Moet and Chandon, Kate Moss, Elizabeth Arden, Dolce & Gabbana, Elie Tahari, Guess, John Hardy, David Beckham, Kylie Minogue, COTY, Halle Berry, Nic+Zoe, Estée Lauder, Laura Geller, AHAVA, Erbaviva, NEST fragrances, Murad, Revive and many others.
AR MEDIA (2003)
ART DIRECTOR
As the Art Director at advertising agency AR MEDIA, the work spanned from conception and production to execution and final design for global fashion campaigns.
CLIENTS: VALENTINO, VALENTINO COUTURE, VALENTINO RED, BRIONI, CALVIN KLEIN, DOLCE & GABBANA, VERSACE, ESCADA, JONES NEW YORK.
EDITORIAL CREATIVE DIRECTION & PUBLISHING
VOGUE (2014-2016)
Guest for international editions of VOGUE magazine such as Vogue Mexico and Vogue Latin America. Invited to conceptualize, shoot and curate the themes, covers and fashion stories.
SURFACE MAGAZINE, New York
As the creative director, responsibilities included leading the creative department to create a new aesthetic for all aspects of the Surface brand: the redesign of the magazine, all productions and on-set art direction for all photoshoots and special advertorial collaborations, the marketing collateral for print and online, as well as event and exhibition design.
SURFACE, THE AGENCY
Creative Direction and design for all advertising services and exclusive collaborations with other major designers, fashion houses and luxury brands. The client list included: MASERATI, LEXUS, RADO, W HOTELS, LLADRO, BOFFI, B&B ITALIA, VEUVE CLICQUOT, PUMA, TRAVEL CHANNEL, MIAMI ART BASEL, SALONE DEL MOBILE and others.
THE ANNUAL AVANT GUARDIAN COMPETITION
Creative Direction and event design for the popular annual event and exhibit in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago, hightlighting the year’s top fashion photographers.
DIEGO UCHITEL POLAROIDS
Published by Damiani Press
Editor, Creative Director and curator of the top selling photography book. The book has received great press in many publications such as the New York Times, T magazine, Wall Street Journal, ELLE and InStyle, has been picked as one of the year’s 8 best coffee table books by the Oprah Winfrey book club and is in the Harvard Library. The book was curated and exhibited at the prestigious Milk Gallery and is now in its 2nd edition
AWARDS, ACCOLADES AND PRESS
Teklos has received multiple awards and accolades for his work, including the National Design Award Nomination by the Cooper Hewitt Museum, the excellence award by the Art Directors Club of New York, the American Society of Media Photographers and the International Fragrance Foundation. He also served as a judge on many juries for fashion, beauty and film international prizes and competitions.
EDUCATION
PRATT INSTITUTE, NEW YORK
Graduated from Pratt with highest honors and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications Design / Advertising Art Direction and a degree in Art History.