Icebreaker has promoted Creative Director Rob Achten to VP of product and creative director. His duties will now include product design as well as ensuring that Icebreakers brand identity, strategy and design direction are consistently carried through to all design disciplines. The company announced that Sandy LaRowe, VP of product design, since January 2007, is leaving to take on her next challenge.
“We are happy to announce that Rob will be taking on the product team and will be moving to Portland from Wellington,” said Icebreaker CEO and Founder Jeremy Moon. “Rob brings over 10 years of Icebreaker history, passion and drive to this role. This change deepens the relationship between brand and product as we continue to evolve our product.”
Achten joined Icebreaker in 2003, and has built a strong team responsible for brand, graphic and retail design. His role is to ensure Icebreakers identity, strategy and design direction are consistently carried through to all design disciplines. Before joining Icebreaker, Achten co-founded Origin Design, an agency based in Wellington, New Zealand. Origin started out as a boutique design company, and soon began collecting design awards. The agency attracted increasing numbers of corporate clients, but Rob found that industry upstart Icebreaker had become his favorite client.
“Working for Icebreaker felt a lot more real than working for corporate types,” said Achten. “I like Icebreakers commitment to nature and to sustainability, and enjoy doing work that had a real connection with something. When you work for Icebreaker, youre very close to your consumers. If one of your ideas doesnt work, you hear about it very quickly. As a designer, it keeps you honest.”
Achten has won numerous design awards over his career, including a Stringer award for graphic design in 1995 and again in 2004. The Stringer award is the supreme award for outstanding achievement in the BeST Design Awards, New Zealand designs equivalent of the Oscars.
