Chicago IL: Kudos to Elaine Tajima. The founder and ceo of the visual communications and marketing services company Tajima Creative, based in Menlo Park CA, was named one of FORTUNE Small Business Magazine’s Best Bosses of 2004 at a gala ceremony in Chicago in September. Tajima and 14 other winners were also featured as part of the cover story of the magazine’s October issue. The factors that earned her a place on the list, according to FORTUNE, include Tajima’s leadership philosophy and practice, the company’s employee retention and satisfaction, its workplace quality and benefits and her ability to steer a company during hard economic times. Finalists in the Best Bosses contest were evaluated by a panel of academics, business leaders, workplace industry executives and FORTUNE editors. “I’m thrilled to be on this list of distinguished leaders whose first priority is how they treat their employees,” says Tajima. “Since people are our most important asset in our business, I’ve always strived to make our company a place where employees’ jobs are an integral part of their overall happiness and not just a place to earn a salary.”

wayne hanson
San Francisco CA: An award-winning art director with over 18 years’ experience working for top European ad agencies, Wayne Hanson joins global creative agency ATTIK as creative director. This is not Hanson’s first contact with the firm, having contributed to ATTIK’s 2003 launch campaign for Scion. In fact, the relationship between Hanson and the design firm’s founders Simon Needham and James Sommerville, extends back to their college days. Hanson worked for eight years for Lowe People, both in Stockholm and London. A cinema spot that he wrote and produced for the Equal Opportunities Commission, entitled “Time of the Month,” landed the 2003 Eurobest Gold Award, was a finalist in the 2003 Cannes Ad Festival and was honored by the World Federation of Advertisers’ Hall of Fame as the “Best Socially Responsible Ad” of the last 50 years.

will dean
Durham NC: Advertising agency The Republik recruits Will Dean for the post of art director. Dean is a recent graduate of VCU Ad Center, where, as a student, he created television advertising for Gatorade that won a silver at The Richmond Show. Another student work — posters advertising Atlantic City — is set to be published in CMYK Magazine’s 2004 Advertising Annual. In his new post, Dean will work on Nerds On Site and other accounts. The Republik is an employee-owned advertising agency with offices in Durham and New York City. Clients include Sarasota Magazine, Great Outdoor Provision Co., Bald Head Island, Fayetteville Tourism and ReNew Construction.

phil smith
Charlotte NC: Boone/Oakley recruits Phil Smith. The veteran ad-man is now president of the creative agency. This move marks Smith’s return to advertising after a lengthy hiatus in the music industry. Smith comes to Boone/Oakley from Muzak, where he served as chief creative officer. But before Muzak, he was managing director of the design agency Duffy New York, and, before that, worldwide account director at the august firm McCann-Erickson, where he worked in both the London and the New York offices. The position of president is a new addition to the Boone/Oakley structure. The firm was previously run solely by its founding partners, John Boone and David Oakley. Boone cites a desire to further increase the rate of the company’s growth as the reason for creating the president position, and for appointing Smith to the post in particular. Boone/Oakely is a full service advertising agency. Clients include NASCAR, MTV2, Continental Tire, Paramount Parks and the SciFi Channel, among others.

jason rapport
Boston MA: Modernista! adds Jason Rapport as a junior studio designer, reports Clift Jones, president of the marketing communication’s company. Prior to joining Modernista!, Rapport graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Modernista! is a marketing communications and branding agency creating both advertising and design. Major clients include General Motor’s Hummer, Anheuser-Busch and TIAA-CREF.

carlos yudica
Miami FL: Carlos Yudica is OBM International’s new creative design manager. In this capacity, he is directing the firm’s branding and visual imaging. Yudica brings 12 years of graphic design, commercial photography and web development experience to the post, having previously worked in those areas for Pan American World Airways, The South Florida Business Journal and Barpoint.com. Yudica is a native of Chile, and graduated from the University of Santiago. He has lived in the U.S. since 1990. OBM is a 68-year-old company with nine international offices. The firm began in, and continues to serve, the Caribbean and Bermuda.

heather bolesh
Seattle WA: Acadia Creative, a full-service creative firm, promotes Heather Bolesh to senior designer. Bolesh’s past work for Acadia ranges from corporate brand identity and collateral systems to website designs and builds. The young designer received the Graphis New Talent Design Award in 2001. Bolesh holds a B.A. in graphic design from Western Washington University.

ed shikatani
San Francisco CA: Anthem Worldwide announces that Ed Shikatani has joined the firm as creative director of its Toronto office. Shikatani brings nearly a quarter century of design experience to the post. He co-founded the Toronto-based creative company Shikatani Lacroix Brand Design Inc., where he served as partner until taking a sabbatical two-and-a-half years ago. This is his first job since then. “I took time out to travel and recharge my batteries,” says Shikatani. “The time was right when Anthem contacted me. The agency felt very youthful, energetic and positive – the way things were when I first started in this business.” At Anthem, Shikatani leads the agency’s Toronto design team, and will play a leadership role in the creation of a retail environment-focused design practice to support Anthem’s strategic design services worldwide. Anthem Worldwide is a Schawk Strategic Design Company. They seek to “blend innovation and efficiency to create high performance, first-to-market packaging solutions and systems,” say company officials.

christine fiorentino
Glen Rock NJ: GlazerDesign welcomes Christine Fiorentino to the company’s design staff. Fiorentino previously worked at APS Marketing/Downtown Magazine Group, where she was responsible for ad layouts and pre-press production. She now brings her skills to the role of designer and desktop production artist. GlazerDesign is a hybrid creative communications firm specializing in graphic design and brand marketing.

john lutz
Playa Del Rey CA: Selbert Perkins Design promotes John Lutz to principal. In this position, Lutz takes charge of environmental design and branding projects at SPD’s new Playa Del Rey office, with a special focus on marketing and new business development. Lutz began his career at SPD in 1994 as an intern. He has since held the positions of designer, senior designer and design director, along the way making award-winning contributions to several of the company’s biggest accounts, including Universal Studios, Mohegan Sun, The Tournament of Roses and the Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa.

jami sharp
Lincoln NE: Swanson Russell Associates welcomes a new art director, Jami Sharp. To join SRA, Sharp, a Nebraska native, relocated from Dallas TX, where she formerly worked as director of advertising at Staton Corporate and Casual. Sharp holds a B.A. from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where she studied journalism with and emphasis on advertising. Founded in 1962, SRA claims more than $72 million in annual billings, and employs 115 workers in its Lincoln and Omaha offices.

sarah fix, scott libolt, drea solan
South Pasadena CA: PictureArts announces three important changes in the company’s creative department. Sarah Fix, previously director of imagery at Brand X, is now associate creative director at PictureArts. In this role, Fix helps creative director Lorraine Triolo to develop and execute content and visual strategies and to streamline creative workflow. She also devotes considerable time to managing artist relations. Scott Libolt joins Brand X after two years of managing his own production company, PBNJ Productions. Prior to that, he worked as studio art director for Corbis and as senior photo editor at Westlight. As the director of imagery at Brand X, Libolt will cultivate the collection’s visual strategy, overseeing edits for all incoming submissions and maintaining production schedules for financed shoots and CD products. He will also recruit new Brand X artists. As asset manager, Drea Solan oversees the continued management of all key works and future development of metadata systems for PictureArts images. The goal is to create consistency in information assets across FoodPix, Brand X Pictures, Botanica, NonStock and any other future product lines.

terry w. denbachs
Buffalo NY: p22 type foundry adds Terry W. Denbachs to its States-side type development team. Denbachs previously designed fonts for p22’s International House of Fonts division on a freelance basis. Now he will oversees font development projects from the company’s Buffalo NY office. During the late 1990s, Denbachs split his time between his native Liechtenstein, where he designed and rode snowboards for Team Liechtenstein, and New York City. His recent design work for the firm Puterschein & Chalet in Liechtenstein won Denbachs a Prince’s Medal for Typography.

michael miller
New York NY: Michael Miller, an integrated marketing communications expert, joins G2 Worldwide as partner, business development. Miller works closely with G2’s senior management team to drive the firm’s new business efforts and expand the agency’s portfolio. An eight-year veteran in integrated marketing communications and business development, Miller was most recently director of business development at Starpoint Solutions, a technology-consulting and communications firms. There he led the development and managed the delivery of sales and marketing strategies and digital solutions for clients such as Condé Nast, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and others. Says Steven Gilliatt, president of G2 Worldwide, “We are delighted to have him on board.” G2 Worldwide serves a diverse client list, including BellSouth, CIBA Vision, Diet Coke, Kmart and Network Associates.

patrick kiniry
Avon CT: Mintz & Hoke promotes Patrick Kiniry to the position of art director. In his new position, Kiniry is responsible for designing ads, collateral and graphic design programs for many M&H accounts. Before the promotion, Kiniry worked as a production artist in M&H’s studio, where he produced artwork for ads, brochures and electronic communications for CIGNA Retirement & Investment Services and Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky, among others. Kiniry holds a B.A. in graphic/information design from Central Connecticut State University.

mark shorter
Columbus OH: Delphia Consulting adds Mark Shorter as graphic designer. The Ohio State B.F.A. brings eight years of professional experience to Delphia, having executed projects for Highlights for Children, Value City Department Stores, DSW Shore Warehouse and the Kroger Co., among other corporate clients. Shorter’s skill set includes corporate identities, graphical user interfaces, typography, web usability and acting as a client-studio liaison.

tim hamill
Kansas City MO: Tim Hamill, vice president and “creative sage” of Bernstein-Rein Advertising, has been appointed Bernstein-Rein Visiting Professor at the Kansas City Art Institute. During this fall semester, Hamill is working closely with the Art Institute administration to identify courses that could lead graduates into the advertising field. He is also assisting in the development of advertising-related internships in the Kansas City region. During the spring semester, Hamill will teach at least one course. Potential topics range from brand development to copywriting. Hamill’s appointment is for the 2004-2005 academic year. Advertising Age ranks Bernstein-Rein as one of the top five independent advertising agencies in the U.S.

benjamin wilson
Burlington VT: Jager Di Paola Kemp Design appoints Benjamin Wilson to the post of senior digital production specialist. In this position, Wilson joins JDK’s digital production team, which manages file production, prepress services and quality control. Before joining JDK, Benjamin was employed by Vertis as a production artist and Mac operator. Prior to that, he worked at Cobi Productions and Comstock. Benjamin studied at Vermont’s Johnson State College and at The School of Visual Arts. JDK’s practice includes brand strategy, product design, identity, packaging, visual merchandising, advertising, websites, marketing collateral and branded environments. The firm’s clients include American Eagle Outfitters, Bauer Nike Hockey, Burton Snowboards, FMC Corporation and Intrawest’s Stratton Mountain Resort, among others.

jeffrey j. pina
Boston MA: Sappi Fine Paper North America appoints Jeffrey J. Pina as director of corporate communications. In his new role, Pina provides strategic direction and communications leadership, including reputation management counsel and corporate communications support. His responsibilities include managing media and publicity efforts, internal communications and community relations. Pina has more than 20 years of executive-level communications experience with brand name organizations, including Cabot Corporation, Fidelity Investments and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. His most recent post was at NOVA Chemicals Corporation in Pittsburgh, where he served as vice president of corporate communications. Sappi is a leading North American supplier of coated fine papers.

fatima ameen
Laurel MD: Dever Designs expands its creative team with the addition of graphic designer Fatima Ameen. Ameen, a recent graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, brings an extensive technical expertise and a strong design sense to the position. Her areas of specialization include typography, publication design and project management. According to firm officials, Ameen’s management skills and “creative design solutions” have already benefited many Dever clients, such as the American Society of Landscape Architects, the IAAPA, the Consumer Bankers Association, Liberty Magazine and the Liberty Campaign. Dever Designs is a strategic design studio that creates publications and identity systems for corporations and associations.