Big River, a Richmond-based, independently-owned branding and advertising firm, has hired Noel Ritter as Associate Creative Director. As a creative thinker with over 15 years experience leading art direction at national advertising agencies, Ritter will put his great ideas to work on Big River clients including National 4-H Council, Virginia Lottery, Wellpoint, TBL Networks and others.
Most recently, Ritter was senior art director at Chicago-based Cramer-Krasselt, the second-largest independent marketing and communications agency in the U.S., from 2004-2010. Here, Ritter developed award-winning creative work for sleep-aid brand Rozerem, with a creative campaign “Your Dreams Miss You” showing a series of ads depicting Abraham Lincoln, a talking Beaver and an insomniac. In 2006, the “Honest Abe” TV spot was named among ADWEEK’s Best Spots of the Year; the campaign also garnered an Effie Award in 2007. Ritter also produced creative work for Porsche, Corona, AirTran and Key Bank. His work has appeared in the One Show, Print, CA, Adweek and the Met Museum in New York.
“Noel brings awesome talent and experience in big ideas, which fit perfectly with Big River’s mission to deliver strategic creative that gets results, no matter the client or medium,” says Terry Taylor, Creative Director at Big River. “He’s a nice guy who fits our family structure.”
Ritter started his career in Richmond where in 1992 he joined The Martin Agency as a designer and from 1997 to 2004 as an art director, working on national brands including Saab, GEICO, NASA, the JFK Library and Museum, TV Land and Ping among others. More information on Noel Ritter can be found at www.noelritter.blogspot.com.