Needle & Stack TALENT INTELLIGENCE
Prepared for
Factor · Google Cloud Brand & Creative, JAPAC

Senior Art Director, Singapore
Calibrated shortlist

Three candidates, screened against the bar your team has shaped with us this year.

3 candidatesfrom 62 profiles reviewed
Snapshot10 August 2026 · valid 30 days
Prepared byBen White-Overton
StatusConfidential — named recipients
01

The brief, as we've calibrated it together

Not the job description — the working definition of exceptional that emerged from our calibration conversations with your team.

What we screened for

  • Very recent regional integrated conceptual work — current, not history
  • Personally hands-on: improves the work themselves, at senior level
  • Leads conceptual conversations with senior stakeholders
  • Turns complex cloud / AI / B2B material into distinctive ideas
  • Regional range across India, Australia and Southeast Asia
  • Verified personal ownership of the work shown

What we screened out

  • Polished visual design without conceptual ownership
  • Film-only or production-heavy portfolios
  • Award work without real briefs or business problems
  • Senior titles without recent hands-on evidence
  • Safe pairs of hands without a creative point of view
62
Profiles reviewed
24
Deep portfolio screens
10
Factor interviews
3
Presented to you
02

The shortlist at a glance

CandidateExperienceBackgroundStandout evidenceAvailability
ShengJin Ang18 yrsMullenLowe (13 yrs, to ECD) · Grey ECD vision, still hands-onJAPAC transcreationWeb3 / emerging-tech firsts Confirmed on decision
Zi Wei Tan17 yrsTBWA · Grey · Ogilvy · LEGO APAC (embedded) Embedded in-house experienceBehavioural storytellingConcept-to-craft range Immediate
Malcolm Wee15 yrsBBDO · DDB · JWT Design-system builderGlobal-to-local expertiseThe "maker" hybrid Short notice
03

The candidates

Each profile follows our evidence format: what the brief was, what they thought, what they made, what it did — and what they personally owned.

ShengJin Ang

Executive Creative Director background · 18 years · MullenLowe (13 years), Grey · currently independent
Why he fits this brief

The rare senior creative who kept making. He ran a 30-person creative team at MullenLowe and still personally does layout, art direction and design — and when his agency merged, he responded by taking a Master's in system design thinking rather than fighting for a chair. High-level conceptual vision with a working craftsman underneath it.

  • Hybrid conceptual + execution: ECD-level vision, hands-on production — the exact shape of this embedded role
  • Regional transcreation depth across JAPAC (India, Indonesia): core idea preserved, local nuance respected
  • Behaviour-changing creativity: Lifebuoy soap-infused stickers on cold drinks to drive hand hygiene
BriefInsightIdeaOwnershipResult

Close-Up — "City Hall of Love". The brief: a disruptive Valentine's campaign for the "Free to Love" platform, in markets where real-world restrictions prevent some couples from marrying. His leap: if the physical world restricts, build a digital one — he spearheaded a virtual city hall in Decentraland where couples received blockchain-certified NFT marriage certificates.

Result: the campaign positioned Close-Up as a category trendsetter and directly generated an influx of new Web3/Metaverse briefs into the agency.

Practicals
  • LocationSingapore
  • AvailabilityConfirmed on decision
  • Right to workYes
  • ReferencesCompleted
  • Factor interviewJola Hyjek & Fernando Vasconcelos, 26 Jun
AI in the workflowGemini + Perplexity for deep research; Higgsfield for asset construction. His rule: human thinking first to find the problem, human taste last to finish the work — AI for the speed of craft in between.
Factor narrative LinkedIn Portfolio Book coffee chat
Your read

Zi Wei Tan

Senior Art Director · 17 years · TBWA, Grey, Ogilvy · recently embedded at LEGO Asia-Pacific
Why he fits this brief

He has already done the job this role actually is: nine months embedded inside LEGO Asia-Pacific, operating as the internal creative hub — building brand playbooks and guiding regional marketing teams across Japan, Korea and the Philippines. Add seventeen years of award-winning campaign work for Guinness, Tiger and Cadbury, and a personal craft practice he has never let lapse.

  • Direct embedded in-house experience — the operating model of this team, already proven at LEGO APAC
  • Behavioural storytelling with results: "Liking Isn't Helping" (awarded NGO work), Cadbury's COVID-era "White Flag" mapping tool
  • Full concept-to-craft range: major TVC campaigns down to personal illustration and vector work
BriefInsightIdeaOwnershipResult

"First Dip First". The brief: after a severe oil spill, a Singapore island park faced terrible press and collapsing visitor numbers — prove the water is clean again. His insight: a PR statement claims; a person jumping in proves. He conceptualised a social challenge rewarding the first brave visitors to swim or kayak the waters, with island vouchers for sharing the moment.

Result: significant organic social buzz built on real consumer proof, and foot traffic actively returning to the park.

Practicals
  • LocationSingapore
  • AvailabilityImmediate — no notice
  • Right to workYes
  • ReferencesCompleted
  • Factor interviewFernando Vasconcelos, 10 Jul
AI in the workflowGemini + Midjourney for rapid storyboards and pitch visuals, animated with Pixaloop. Final brand assets stay strictly manual — Photoshop and Illustrator, his own hands.
Factor narrative LinkedIn Portfolio Book coffee chat
Your read

Malcolm Wee

Senior Integrated Creative · 15 years · BBDO, DDB, JWT
Why he fits this brief

A fifteen-year "maker" who never left the tools. He describes his own preference as staying close to the craft — and the evidence backs it: he personally built the modular visual system for Project Lionheart and handled hands-on lockup design on Colgate rather than delegating. Sharp, personable, and able to rationalise and defend creative decisions to global leadership.

  • Design-system builder: modular systems generating assets seamlessly across social and print
  • Global-to-local expertise: managed the Colgate-Palmolive global system at WPP, balancing rigid guidelines with APAC and India nuance
  • Senior presence with technical rigour — the interface between JAPAC teams and US-based leadership
BriefInsightIdeaOwnershipResult

Colgate — Gen Z relevance. The brief: the brand was losing Gen Z. His insight: for this audience, the category isn't hygiene at all — it's beauty. He pivoted the creative direction accordingly, navigating rigid global brand constraints to land a regional sweet spot, from strategy down to the lockups he built himself on a two-day shoot.

What we'd probe in the coffee chatHis portfolio weight is FMCG and consumer brands (LEGO, Heineken, Colgate). We'd want to explore together how his storytelling style translates to the logic-driven narratives of Cloud and B2B tech.
Practicals
  • LocationSingapore
  • AvailabilityShort notice
  • Right to workYes
  • ReferencesCompleted
  • Factor interviewAngie Di Pietro & Taylor Lewis, 7 May
AI in the workflowEarly adopter of Weave, plus Gemini and Midjourney — used for real workflow efficiency, e.g. adapting talent and backgrounds across regional demographics within one campaign framework.
Factor narrative LinkedIn Portfolio Book coffee chat
Your read
04

What we need from you

Three decisions from you. We handle scheduling, logistics and candidate comms.

Coffee chats

Which of the three would you like to meet? We'll arrange informal conversations at your convenience — 30 minutes each — or use the scheduling link on any profile to book directly into windows we've already cleared with the candidate.

Portfolio reactions

First reads on the work keep our calibration sharp, and a sentence per candidate is plenty. Type it into the box on any profile above and it reaches our recruiters straight away.

Timing

Preferred sequencing if you'd like to meet more than one. We manage all logistics and candidate communication.