Who We Are

We started Derrick in 2010 to prove one thing: purpose and profit can pull in the same direction.

As SA’s first agency founded on the principles of the Triple Bottom Line, we were working where creativity, commerce and impact meet long before purpose became fashionable. Our agency is named after a derrick, a type of crane operated by a specialised team to lift far more than its own weight. We think great ideas should do the same. 

We help ambitious brands and organisations turn complexity into clarity, and clarity into ideas that people notice, understand and act on.

Our strength lies in solving the difficult problems. We help reposition businesses, build brands from inside out, and change behaviour. Our strength lies in making technical or complex subjects compelling by finding the simple human truth inside the complicated brief.

We work across brand strategy and identity, advertising, design, behaviour change, B2B and B2C communications, sustainability and content. Our work has helped reposition Petco for the EPR era; made Mpact, a listed circular-economy business, more visible to investors; given Woolworths’ sustainability communications a distinctive new voice; turned AI into an unexpected expression of taste; and helped Cape Town take its climate-smart thinking to the world stage.

We’re independent, Level 2 B-BBEE and deliberately senior-led. The people clients meet are the people who are intimately involved with the work we produce because that matters to us. As do long relationships, rigorous thinking, good taste and careful craft.

We don’t believe every brand needs to make more noise. Sometimes, it's just a sharper positioning that's needed. Perhaps, a clearer story. A better idea. Or the leverage to lift things beyond ordinary.

We grow brands that matter.

Shameema Isaacs

Creative Director

Jehan van Vuuren

Managing Director

Mark Stead

Design Director

Co-Founder

Livio Tronchin

Executive Creative Director

Co-Founder