Experience from both sides of the brief

The Steadfast Creative model helps organisations design, build and optimise high-performing in-house creative teams. Drawing on more than three decades of creative leadership experience, I work alongside marketing, communications and business leaders to assess current capability, identify opportunities for improvement, and create practical, achievable roadmaps for change. Whether you're establishing a new team, scaling an existing function, or looking to improve effectiveness, I can help you turn creativity into a strategic advantage.

I am Leo Rees. I started out in agencies, learning my craft the traditional way - copywriting, art direction, then creative direction, on brands like BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce, Dulux and Vodafone. I have combined agency creative work with building and directing in-house creative teams, with extensive experience as a member of organisational senior leadership teams.

This combination is the whole point of Steadfast Creative. I know what it's like to be the agency waiting on a brief that never quite lands. And I know what it's like to be the in-house lead trying to prove creativity's value to people who see it as a costly resource rather than a strategic value.

Most consultants advising on in-house creative have only ever seen it from one side. I've built it, run it, restructured it, and defended its budget in the room. That's what I bring to you.

The difference culture makes

There's no single right structure for an in-house creative team. Any consultant can hand you an org chart. What determines whether that structure actually works is the culture it's landing in - how your people are used to working, what they trust, what they've been burned by before, and what will get adopted rather than quietly ignored.

I spend as much time understanding your people and your culture as I do your process - because the right answer for one organisation is often the wrong answer for another, even with an identical brief. That's the piece most structural reviews skip, and it's usually the piece that decides whether a recommendation sticks.

Why "Steadfast"

Creative teams are often treated as reactive - service desks for other people's ideas, judged on turnaround rather than impact. A steadfast creative function is the opposite: it has a clear structure, a defined way of working, and the trust of the organisation around it. That's what I help to build.

How I work

I'm not interested in long, vague retainers or generic frameworks. I work in three fixed-scope sprints with a clear deliverable at the end. Something that actually gets acted on. I know exactly what it's like to be handed a 40-page report with no next steps. With Steadfast Creative, you'll get a plan you can implement yourself, or one I can help you deliver.