Ken Segall is an author and advertising creative director. Specializing in technology marketing, Segall was Steve Jobs' agency creative director for 12 years spanning

NeXT NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...

and

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

, and also served as worldwide creative director at agencies for

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

and

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Early life

Kenneth Michael Segall was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, in 1950, the youngest of three children. His father's position with a retail chain forced the family to move several times before he was 10, taking him to

Salina, Kansas Salina is a city in and the county seat of Saline County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,889. In the early 1800s, the Kanza tribal land reached eastward from the middle of the Kansas Territory. In 1858 ...

Ashtabula, Ohio Ashtabula ( ) is the most populous city in Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States. It lies at the mouth of the Ashtabula River, on Lake Erie, northeast of Cleveland. At the 2020 census, the city had 17,975 people. Like many other cities in the ...

, Detroit once again, and finally to

Livingston, New Jersey Livingston is a township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 31,330, its highest United States census, decennial co ...

. He graduated from Livingston High School in 1968 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

in 1972.

Advertising

Segall joined ad agency Chiat/Day Los Angeles in 1979 as a file clerk. A creative career in the industry followed, from a first copywriting job on Smirnoff Vodka to creative director roles on global brands including

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

and

. A 12-year working relationship with

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...

began in 1988 when Segall joined NY agency Ammirati & Puris as creative director for Jobs’ new company,

. When the agency resigned NeXT, Segall left to continue working with Jobs independently. In 1997, Jobs brought Apple back to its original agency (then called TBWA Chiat/Day). There, Segall was global creative director for the " Think different" campaign, co-writer of the "Crazy Ones" launch commercial, and originated the "i" strategy behind the naming of iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. In later years, Segall served as creative director for Intel at agency Euro RSCG, and chief creative officer at Enfatico (previously DaVinci), a worldwide network of 13 offices handling marketing for computer-maker Dell.

Author and speaker

Segall has written two books on the power of simplicity, both published by

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

—"Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success" (2012) and "Think Simple: How Smart Leaders Defeat Complexity" (2016).

References

External links

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Scoopertino
{{DEFAULTSORT:Segall, Ken 1950 births Living people American advertising people Creative directors American writers Livingston High School (New Jersey) alumni Pennsylvania State University alumni Writers from Detroit