Three months after selling a majority stake to Havas, Uncommon Creative Studio is opening an office in New York—its first major outpost beyond London—with Leo Burnett Chicago veteran Sam Shepherd joining as chief creative officer.

Founded in 2017 and named Ad Age’s International Agency of the Year this year, Uncommon has worked with many American brands over the years, including Nike Jordan, Pinterest, H&M, Beats by Dre and EA Sports (for which it recently designed the new brand identity and global launch for EA Sports FC, formerly the FIFA franchise). It’s been eyeing New York for some time, particularly since the Havas deal.

Nils Leonard, Uncommon’s co-founder and creative lead, told Ad Age his vision for the agency always included a U.S. presence.

“One of the things we said when we started was, we want to be on the receiving end of the most influential [client] briefs of our time,” he said. “We knew that unless we were playing in the U.S. properly, we would never be on the receiving end of those. We want to do what we do at real scale, to drive narratives and remind people of the value of creativity.” 

In Shepherd, who was previously global executive creative director at Burnett, Leonard said he saw a likeminded creative doing bold and breakthrough work. In particular, Leonard said he admired “The Lost Class,” the Change the Ref campaign that tricked NRA executives into addressing a graduating class at a fictitious university—with rows upon rows of empty chairs representing the students killed died by guns who’ll never graduate.

“It’s a heist, it’s a magic trick, it’s got mischief in it, it’s naughty,” said Leonard. “It’s got all the things Uncommon wants to bring to market, and I thought, ‘I need to track this guy down.’”

Shepherd will report to Leonard and also work closely with Lucy Jameson and Natalie Graeme, Uncommon’s two other co-founders.

“True creativity is not for the faint of heart,” said Shepherd, who has also worked at agencies including 360i, KBS, Deutsch and DDB. “After meeting Nils, Lucy and Natalie, you immediately understand why they were able to build the best shop in the world—they lack the fear gene. We share the same audacious spirit to go out and build the brands that people in the real world wish existed.”

Leonard said he’s drawn to the U.S. not just for its scale but for the very cultural and societal tensions that made a project like “The Lost Class” so compelling—and which, he said, make creativity so critical.

Uncommon likes to stir things up in culture itself—from ITV’s “Britain Get Talking” mental health initiative, to H&M’s “One Second Suit” rental program for job interviewees, to this year’s gleefully obscene Communion finance-app campaign. Imagine, Leonard said, applying that same approach to brands looking for transformative change in a simmering, combustible culture like America. 

“We’ve always gone where the heat is, positive and negative, and I can’t think of a bigger moment of change than the U.S. as we head into next year,” Leonard said. “Next year is going to be a crazy time. There’ll be room for moments of levity, for moments of freshness and originality. Creativity is going to be super important, because it could be an age of rage for a long period of time.” 

Beyond that, he added, the sheer scale of the U.S. is undeniable, giving the agency access to more truly global projects akin to its recent EA Sports FC rebrand, which introduced the game’s new name and visual language to an estimated 150 million players worldwide.

“We had the BBC calling it the biggest entertainment rebrand in history,” Leonard said. “Driving a narrative like that, working with a brand on that scale—that’s not about British creativity at all. It’s much bigger than that.” 

The new office is already up and running, with 10-12 staffers. (This is Uncommon’s second proper office, though it does also have a small group working in the Nordics.) There is no business lead yet for New York, but the agency plans to hire one in the coming months, with Leonard, Jameson and Graeme handling that role for now.

The agency is also close to finalizing a deal for office space in SoHo.