Greek Canadian Steve Vranakis may be changing the world as the creative director of Google Creative Lab, but this IT whiz started from humble beginnings.
Born in 1971, in a poor Vancouver neighbourhood with many immigrants, among them Greeks, from a father from Sfakia (Crete) and mother from Kalamata. His grandfather was the first of the family members to leave Crete, heading to New York in 1906, with the ocean liner “Laura”.
In the “Canadian mosaic”, where different nations tend to preserve their tradition rather than assimilate, he grew up as “ellinaki”. And if you go to his parental house in Vancouver now, you will think you went to Plaka, he says.
As a school kid he would eat spanakopita and dolmades, while other kids had peanut butter.
“They looked at me as if I was the extra-terrestrial. I was drawing constantly, all over the classroom and on my bench as well… until I got my first computer, at the age of 20,” Steve says.
And that’s how it all started. His life changed when he got his first Mac computer. He started experimenting with the internet, and a great love was born. Since then, Vranakis focuses on the field of digital applications and interaction.
Today, Greek Canadian Steve Vranakis works for Google Creative Lab, as creative director for Europe, Middle East and Africa markets. He has joined Google recently, after working as creative director at VCCP for eight years, overseeing award-winning campaigns for O2, Coca-Cola and Comparethemarket.com, and collaborating with some of the biggest global brands – McDonald’s, BMW, Levis, PlayStation, London Olympic Games.
Acquiring a vast experience in both the on and off-line worlds of advertising, Vranakis produced some of the most successful social media campaigns to date.
“The Google opportunity is a fantastic position that will allow me to combine a lot of what I’ve learnt from both the worlds of digital and advertising to hopefully make some incredible things,” Vranakis said to UK media.
The founder of VCCP, Adrian Coleman, commented on successful Greek Canadian leaving his position.
“When one of the world’s most respected brands in Google is interested in working with your talent you can only take that as a compliment. Steve’s been integral to the success and growth of the agency and will be sorely missed, but I couldn’t think of anyone better for the job,” he said.
What Steve Vranakis loves most about his job is that the people of Google are given the opportunity to change the world. His approach is simple: to create famous work that gets talked about.