About Darcie

Darcie Graham is a Creative Director, Brownie Leader, and mum of two, whose career has zigzagged from graphic design and art direction in Belfast to Group Digital Director at McCann Dublin, to interactive transformations at Stockholm’s Hyper Island, to service design in Glasgow, to StoryDoing® in New York, and back home again.

Since winning a Creative Review Creative Futures Award at university, she’s spent 20 years leading creative and digital strategies for clients with challenges like building brand positioning and differentiation for a global top-3 food & beverage ingredients company; defining how Microsoft’s brand showed up in their flagship EMEA HQ and Dream Space – an immersive STEM experience for students and teachers; convincing people to visit Northern Ireland through innovative tourism campaigns while navigating multi-agency government committees; concepting and directing global video content for Jameson Irish Whiskey; showcasing broadband capabilities (remember dial-up?) through fly-on-the-wall docuseries and ‘human-in-a-box’ publicity stunts with British Telecom; and telling the rich and varied stories from properties entrusted to Historic Royal Palaces – including the Ravenmaster and Beefeaters at Tower of London, and Hillsborough Castle, a centre of global political history and peacemaking. Along the way, she co-founded an award-winning fitness studio, completed postgraduate qualifications in software development and business, and helped launch Google Women Techmakers in Belfast.

Now at CO—5, Darcie and her team create and execute brand strategies that connect business goals with human habits and reality. Day to day, that means deep-dive client discovery – asking, listening, and walking days in their shoes. It means concepting, creating, and managing brands and how they show up: campaigns, in-house team support, events, and yes, even PowerPoints. It means developing workshops that help non-marketing business leaders understand the power of brand.

She’s passionate about creativity and who’s coming next: a volunteer Brownie Leader for 20+ years, preschool board member, and mentor to creatives. She holds dear her ‘whatever it takes’ attitude, believing that leadership isn’t about being the most talented or ‘creative’ person in the room – it’s about showing up, putting your hand up, and creating the conditions for your team to confidently dirty the page. At BrandSmart 2026, Darcie will make the case that creativity is actually a human superpower – and more importantly, one that’s not just reserved for the ‘creative types.’ In the Age of Acceleration, it’s a responsibility we all share.