Mark Braddock, Founder and Creative Director
Mark Braddock was born and grew up in Perth, Western Australia. His international adventures began eight years ago when he was asked to represent Australia in the Young Creatives Competition at the Cannes Advertising Festival.
From there he was offered a job in Edinburgh, Scotland at Smarts Advertising, where he worked for two years.
Mark worked at Ogilvy, New York on the IBM account - the world’s largest integrated account at that time. He rose to senior art director on accounts such as American Express and Jaguar Cars.
His talent did not go unnoticed. Mark was headhunted by one of the most awarded agencies in the world, The Martin Agency. As senior art director Mark worked on such salubrious accounts as diverse as SAAB, Target, U.S. Trust and Olympus Cameras.
Marks work has won numerous awards across three continents. And if that wasn’t enough, Mark is also an accomplished artist whose paintings have been exhibited to much acclaim in his own living room.
At the start of 2002, Mark and his partner Tanya Sim moved back to Perth to start Block.
Tanya Sim, Founder and Managing Director
Tanya Sim was born in Perth, Western Australia - the first Australian-born member of the Sim Clan, a ferocious clan of Scottish paint manufacturers. Tanya is that rare creative in the design world - not only is she a talented designer but she is a management and organizational powerhouse.
After living in Edinburgh, Scotland, she worked in New York with world-renowned designer Naomi Leff, a member of the Interior Design Hall of Fame. Naomi Leff and Associates has been consistently recognised as an Interior Design Magazine Giant in their annual list. Tanya rose to the position of senior designer there, working for clients such as Helena Rubinstein and United Airlines.
As a project manager at Rau & Associates, in Richmond, Virginia, Tanya was part of a team responsible for managing the firms largest project - part of a $100 million new village near Pinehurst, North Carolina. Other projects Tanya worked on at R&A include a new building which houses a Spa (now one of her specialties), a natural food supermarket, and the design and construction management of the offices of Rau and Associates.
Tanya Etherington, Director of Client Services
Tanya joins Block from Electronic Arts (EA) in London. At EA she was International Group Account Manager in the Creative Department. She managed a team that delivered cross-media campaigns for games such as The Sims, FIFA and Harry Potter.
She has amazing campaign management, client liaison and negotiation skills and has lots of experience in managing several high-profile projects simultaneously. Her excellent understanding of the creative process, from both a client and agency perspective, are an invaluable resource for clients.
Originally Tanya studied to be a primary school teacher. The techniques she learnt during this time have stood her in good stead to manage creative-types through her career as an Account Manager in the advertising and design industries.
A Perth native, Tanya has returned from a ten-year stretch in the UK after getting rained on one too many times.
Kylie Telfer, Director of Planning
Kylie Telfer is Perth born and bred from hardy Anglo/Celtic/Maltese stock.
Kylie’s academic experience is diverse. She started and stopped two Bachelor of Arts degrees before discovering her true calling was far more artistic. She figured that if she couldn’t paint, draw, act, sing or dance then she could always administer. So, Kylie completed a B.A. in Arts Management at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Her professional career has been as varied as her academic background – from working in sponsorship and development at Western Australian Ballet to managing corporate and business development for technology company Lateral Sands. She earned her MBA from the Graduate School of Management at the University of Western Australia where she was awarded the Director’s Letter and the Women in Management Scholarship.
Most recently Kylie was Marketing and Corporate Development Advisor at the City of Fremantle – Perth’s historic and cultural port town. Kylie was responsible for the development and implementation of the marketing and strategic plans for a city that attracts over 1.4 million tourists per year.
Kylie brings to Block her skills in strategic planning, marketing, communications, facilitation, stakeholder management, process improvement, events management and cooking.
She lives with her cat, daughter (and husband) in East Fremantle where the sun is always shining. Kylie enjoys nothing more than putting a little R&B/Motown/Funk on the stereo, slugging back cocktails while playing canasta and watching horror movies with her Grandma, Shirl.
Candice Murison, Production and Studio Manager
Candice Murison began her career within the publishing industry after leaving her hometown of Esperance, studying in Perth and returning from a two year around the world trip.
Candice spent six years learning every facet of publishing high quality publications while working for a publishing firm. Having risen to the position of General Manager/Editor, she moved on to pursue a career as an Account Director for a boutique graphic design studio. After achieving her goals there she then took on her next challenge as Studio Manager at Block.
Candice has developed a sophisticated understanding of corporate communication needs and has the requisite skills to produce high quality publications and marketing literature. She has been rewarded with several print industry awards (PICAs).
With a combination of management, administrative, planning and budget management skills she is able to deliver to an extensive range of industry marketing solutions in a timely and cost effective manner. Her effective communications skills have given her the ability to clearly articulate strategies to achieve organisational objectives. And she likes to garden.
Isabel Kruger, Senior Creative
Isabel Kruger was born and grew up in a hop-growing region near Munich, Germany.
She earned her degree in Communication Design at the typography-focused Academy of Design in Augsburg and went on to work in boutique design studios in Hamburg and Munich.
Isabel has always spent as much time as she could travelling. She has travelled extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia and after five years of professional experience, she felt her feet once again starting to itch.
Despite having seen Munich overrun each October by masses of very ‘friendly’ Australians, she decided that Australia was still somewhere she wanted to visit.
So after spending a summer working in Sydney, she decided to head West as the weather started to cool. She paid for her hostel by freelancing at Block. And after an incredible around-Australia expedition, Isabel found herself back in Perth and back at Block, where she has become the lead designer on many of Block’s most high profile projects.
When not attempting to explain her country-folks’ strange culinary traditions to her workmates, she can be found at the Irish Club drinking wine (huh?), or jogging in Kings Park, or visiting French friends on sheep farms in outback Western Australia (don’t ask).
Oscar Salinas, Senior Creative
A native of Mexico City, Oscar grew up in a designer household - both his mother and father are industrial designers.
Oscar received his undergraduate and post-graduate qualifications in graphic design in Mexico City before working for seven years at one of Mexico's most respected corporate communications agencies - Milenio3. During his time there Oscar picked up some of Latin America's top design awards.
Oscar is a type-nerd of the highest order. He has contributed to Mexican typography magazine Tiypo and has designed and sold several typefaces (his face Rotman was a judge's selection at Letras Lantinas Typographic Biennial, Brazil). He has also collaborated on projects with one of Mexico's coolest studios Hula+Hula.
When not doing designery-type things Oscar plays drums. Before moving out to Australia he played raw, fast, loud Irish music in a band for four years. He claims to have never played in a mariachi band – a claim that we are very dubious of.
In early 2008 Oscar decided a change of scenery was needed and he headed south. He now finds himself residing in a country with an entire population that is less than that of his hometown. Nowadays Oscar spends most of his spare time undergoing intensive treatment for culture shock and passionately trying to get a bunch of gringos to understand that Tex-Mex is not Mexican food.
Ben Wright, Junior Creative
Ben was born in Victoria (south-eastern Australia) a ridiculously short time ago. He grew up on Queensland's Sunshine Coast before moving to Perth.
If not for the fact that he didn't get the marks and lacks the dedication, Ben could have been a top neurosurgeon. Instead he earned his BA from Curtin University in 2006.
He spent a year 'paying his dues' freelancing at ad agencies before being discovered by Block talent scouts and getting picked up in the 2008 draft. Ben needs to work to support his record and sneaker habit. Along with his incredible creativity, Ben brings some street-cred to Block - every wannabe-cool agency needs a skater/DJ on staff.
Ben can be found spinning hip-hop on the local community radio station's (RTR-FM) Friday night graveyard shift and he holds big dreams of one day going out for a drink and not getting carded. He likes Bill Murray.
Thea Ibbs, Account Manager
Thea has packed a lot into her young life. She has worked in property development and project marketing in Perth and Sydney. She contributed to hospitality projects in Broome and Preston Beach and a mixed-use re-development at a historic site in Sydney’s Rocks area. Along the way she developed a keen interest in urban renewal and planning.
Thea worked at one of Australia’s most awarded ‘avant guarde’ landscape architecture firms where hours counting plants and trees on plans for hours on end taught her attention to detail. And years of working in fashion retail have taught her invaluable people skills and have given her the ability to deliver difficult information in a tactful way.
Thea has pretensions to geekdom with her interests listed as Star Wars, knitting and history books - and the backroom at the Hyde Park Hotel. She is engaged to an urban cowboy and will never try to colour her own hair again.
Denise Siddons, Administrator
Denise Siddons was born in Singapore and spent much of her early years alternating between her birth country, Indonesia and New Zealand. In 1995 she moved to Perth, Western Australia to pursue tertiary studies in Business Management.
Her work history includes administrative roles, retail management and sales. Following six years as Sales and Marketing Manager, Denise moved to Block in May 2007 seeking a career change and the opportunity to learn about the advertising industry from the inside.
Incredibly calm under any pressure, Denise provides a stable foundation for the studio. She is the ultimate Jill-of-all-trades managing to keep us all under control and organised no matter how crazy things get.
Denise enjoys good food (preferably when cooked for her), rock climbing and anything DIY. During her spare time she can be found trawling thrift shops for bargain vintage treasures and punishing those that try to steal our parking bays.
Lucca, Pet
Lucca has spent her entire working life at Block. She spends more time asleep than any other member of the Block team. Her duties include lying, sprawled on the floor for hours on end and badgering visitors for pats.