William was given a paint brush and camera at age four; a private school kid educated and boarded by Franciscan Monks.
Today, he is West Coast Director for Melrose Public Relations, and venture leader of its startup branded content business unit: shepherdworks.com. As well as, Co-Founder+Partner | Multicultural Brand Consultancy.
His branding ideas began in the NYC trenches of major market advertising, during the early 90s on Madison Ave. As a layout artist, he helped to produce campaigns for Ogilvy and Mather, Grey and such.
However, markets do shift and William saw a special need for a creative approach to diversity branding and first partnered to create Groove photo/design. Their adv for fashion and entertainment firms were placed in: Spin, Rolling Stone, and the very first issue of Vibe. William then partnered to create Shepherd Adams Creative | Agency: the first major client in 1994 was a legacy NYC media company.
That $750K client campaign for Inner-City Broadcasting placed #1 in the CORS Gannett Tri-State Consumer Study (NY/NJ/CONN), which gained project clients such as NYNEX (NY Telephone), and Major League Baseball. Another media company client (Hawes-Sanders Broadcasting) won the National Marconi Award for the Urban Station of the Year.
William’s future goal is to advance culture with creativity. For 16 years he has created content in the form of written copy, design, photography and now pitches pop culture P/R.
As well as, writing and producing print and film: crisis + documentary photography (lightstalkers.org/william_shepherd). In March of 2009 a project William Co-produced “Songs From The Nickel” was completed: it is part of the “Stories Of A Promised Land Series” by: Essayistic Documentary Director Alina Skrzeszewska
Additionally, he has personally created social branding campaigns (print/strategy/design/video) for Dept. of Federal Youth Services/ CSU/ California National Guard/ LAUSD. And wrote social (non-profit) branding elements that were included in the purchase business plan for the Great Western Forum.
He is still seeking ways to complete his favorite personal project. Which is an oral and visual history of first generation Japanese in Los Angeles, and their faith journey of 110 years: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Stories.
Until recently, William sat on the Board of Centenary United Methodist Church in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, Ca.
SHEPHERD | WORKS/ Branded Content | Advance Culture with Creativity