Creative Leader
& Brand Accelerator

I’m Olçar Tosun, a London-based creative leader. I started as a designer, became a creative director, founded my own agency and moved increasingly into the space where business strategy, brand and creative direction meet.

I’ve built things I’m proud of. I co-founded Sushi Sandwich, taking an idea from concept and brand creation through to a 24-site franchise deal. I co-founded Amplify Labs, bringing commercial strategy, brand and marketing together to help businesses launch, scale and become investor-ready. And Wildhorse Design, the creative studio I founded and led, is now the company I work through.

Today I work project by project, by choice, stepping into businesses when they need senior thinking without adding another permanent layer: interim creative leadership, fractional CMO, account direction or ownership of a strategic project. I’m at my best at the messy start: finding the real problem, setting the strategy and directing the creative response through a commercial lens.

Ways to bring me in
Interim creative leadership Fractional CMO / brand leadership Account / client leadership Strategic projects
Brands I’ve worked with
HSBC Standard Chartered GSK Unilever Pernod Ricard Bull Ferguson Mitchells & Butlers ASK Italian & Zizzi Drake & Morgan
Not purely an adviser

I can move from a commercial conversation into proposition, positioning, customer experience and communications, and ultimately creative execution.

Growth

“Sometimes the answer isn’t more marketing. It could be a different audience, proposition, partnership, channel or business model.”

Brand or business?

“I’m particularly interested in diagnosing whether somebody has a brand problem, a marketing problem or a business problem.”

Cross-sector

Hospitality, financial services, FMCG, property, drinks, healthcare. I’m not bound by one industry’s conventions. Often the interesting answer has already been invented somewhere else.

Investor ready

Through Amplify I get founders investor ready. Businesses often understand their numbers, but don’t always communicate the opportunity brilliantly.

People spend an awful lot of money fixing the wrong problem.

How I work

I find the real problem. Then I design the right response.

The business problem, the brand problem, the thing getting in the way of growth. Once it’s clear, I set the strategy and attack it creatively.

I lead ideas, art direction, copy and campaigns, bringing together the right talent to drive visibility, engagement, sales and brand advocacy.

My creative instinct is visual rhetoric. Playful when it can be. Serious when it needs to be.

Creativity with a commercial lens.

Visual rhetoric, in the work

Creative direction

Campaigns, launches and identities I’ve led: ideas built to earn attention, give people a reason to act and drive sales, whatever the category.

Day of the Dead illustration with Olmeca and Kahlua bottles
Day of the Dead cup and table talker Three Day of the Dead skull posters
Olmeca & Kahlua Drinks · Day of the Dead on-trade activation

A seasonal moment turned into a reason to visit and a reason to order: a cultural platform owned in venue, with serves, cups, table talkers and posters built to lift visibility and drive the serve.

Creative director: Olçar Tosun · Design: Wildhorse (my studio) · Illustration: Lee Hodges

London Brewing Company cans: Phuchsia, Gigglemug and Rhapsody
London Brewing Company hexagonal marque
Core range cans: Skyline, Particular, 100 Oysters, Never Mind
London Brewing Company Drinks · Business relaunch: identity, positioning & range

The relaunch of the business: a new brand identity and positioning, carried through an in-house brewery range designed to earn its place on the bar and the shelf and drive rate of sale.

Absolut Warhol bottles in blue, yellow and pink paint splashes
Colour it Warhol serve grid poster
Absolut Warhol bottle with serves and point-of-sale
Absolut Warhol Drinks · Limited-edition bottle launch

A limited-edition bottle turned into an on-trade campaign platform: serves and point-of-sale that built visibility in venue, gave bars a reason to stock it and guests a reason to order it.

Creative director: Olçar Tosun · Design: Wildhorse (my studio) · Warhol artwork © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Founder. Commercial. Brand. Creative. Leader.

An unusual combination. As a creative director, I set the standard for the work and lead the studios and teams that deliver it, aligning stakeholders across multiple organisations. As a founder, I’ve lived the other side too: IP, shareholders, franchisees, investors and brand standards.

Before the brief.

I rarely take a brief at face value. A few of the questions I use to get underneath what’s really going on.

01

The Hot Seat

Give me the business, brand or brief in five minutes. I’ll tell you the three things I don’t understand.

02

Brand or Business Problem?

A live diagnosis of whether you have a proposition, positioning, customer, marketing or commercial problem.

03

The £10m Question

If your business became ten times bigger tomorrow, would your brand still look credible?

04

Outside Eyes

What does a customer, client, investor or partner actually see, versus what you think you’re communicating?

Proof

Drake & Morgan

9 → 23Sites. Investor communications supporting Drake & Morgan’s acquisition of Corney & Barrow

“Beautifully written and designed compelling investor pitches which helped us to successfully acquire Corney & Barrow bars.”

Jillian Mac Lean MBE
Founder/CEO, Drake & Morgan

Pernod Ricard

Multi-brandPernod Ricard on-trade portfolio, including Jameson, Absolut, Beefeater, Chivas Regal, Martell, Perrier-Jouët and Malibu

“A trusted and highly valued extension of our team who played a key role in step changing the scale, impact and effectiveness of our marketing programmes.”

Mark Makin
Enterprise Brands Controller, Pernod Ricard

ASK Italian & Zizzi

Lead agency145 restaurants. A decade building the ASK Italian & Zizzi brands, through to their sale to TDR Capital, owner of rival Pizza Express

“Her meticulous attention to detail and commercial tenacity ensured we were always raising the profile of our brand portfolio ready for our successful sale to Pizza Express.”

Adam Kaye
Founder, ASK Italian & Zizzi

Bull Ferguson

RebrandRebrand and repositioning for a financial services firm: positioning, brand language and identity

“Olçar challenged us in the right places and gave our brand a confidence that genuinely raised our profile. I’ve recommended her to a number of people since.”

Barnaby Gleib
Founder, Bull Ferguson
Judge Restaurant Marketer & Innovator Awards, 2022, 2025 and 2026. Asked back for 2027.

Also trusted by Mitchells & Butlers: Nicholson’s, Vintage Inns, Ember Inns, All Bar One, Miller & Carter.

The work

Full portfolio →
Papa Dubai entrance with neon arches and the Papa logo Papa DubaiInterim brand director · nine bars, one three-month turnaround →
Sushi Sandwich store counter Sushi SandwichCo-founder: brand creation to a 24-site off-plan deal → Bull Ferguson campaign: Because retirement is about flippers, not slippers, with a yellow piggy bank under an umbrella Bull FergusonRebrand & repositioning for a financial services firm → Don't Give a Shiitake poster Ping PongA happy hour campaign that became the brand’s signature strapline for ten years → Drake & Morgan SS19 lookbook spread Drake & MorganInvestor communications that grew the estate from 9 to 23 sites →
Corporate communicationsSnapshots

Strategic positioning and corporate storytelling for energy, technology and growth businesses. Confidential work. Case studies on request.

EQTEC ESG statement cover: a hand brushing through tall grass EQTEC Clean tech · Waste-to-energy Waste in. Net Zero out. Led the repositioning, ESG narrative and creative direction, turning complex carbon engineering into a clearer investor proposition.
Recycled PET bottles in water with the Revalyu logo Revalyu Clean tech · Bottles to athleisure $225m raise. Nothing wasted. Shaped the investor proposition, narrative and creative direction for pioneering technology that turns used PET bottles into fibre for athleisure.
A boxer throwing a punch in an orange-lit gym, with the Box Centric logo Box Centric Luxury fitness · Mayfair to GCC Gulf rollout. Knockout raise. Shaped the investor story for a luxury boxing brand taking its Mayfair flagship into a rollout across the Gulf.
A navy and green Eco2Loco container train at sunrise, with the Eco2Loco logo Eco2Loco Logistics · Rail freight Rail freight. Made bookable. Created the positioning and identity for an app that lets businesses book rail freight slot by slot, unit by unit, as easily as hailing a ride.
A woman in black jeans and a cream cropped jacket, with the Dewey logo Dewey Fashion · Petite denim Fashion. Properly proportioned. Led the brand repositioning and strategic direction, shaping the marketing toolkit, website content and investor deck to support the next stage of growth.
The Sparq wordmark glowing white over layered, translucent Q forms on a deep blue gradient Sparq Fintech · AI financial advice AI-powered. Still human. Positioned a new AI-powered fintech platform combining automation with human advice, making a sophisticated offer simple.
Ask me about any of these →
Amplify LabsCo-founder · growth agency · we-amplify.co ↗
Earlier career

Creative leadership across FutureBrand, Enterprise IG/WPP, One World and Carter Wong, working with brands including GSK, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Unilever.