Toronto’s Zulu Alpha Kilo has lured a design virtuoso away from her New York post. Today, Stephanie Yung officially (although remotely) joins the creative agency as head of design.

Yung will take on the leading role as head of Zulu’s design department, which is being set up to go “beyond traditional branding and graphic design and deeper into how brands behave across products, experiences, and services,” according to a release announcing her hire this morning.

The former design director at Smart Design New York has a storied history in the field, with credits on projects for big-name clients like PepsiCo, Sephora, P&G, Sanofi, Amex and Under Armour. She spent the past 10 years stateside, with her focus being the translation of brands into products and experiences.

Yung and Zulu’s founder and CCO Zak Mroueh also go way back, when the two first worked together on the Mini account at Taxi in the 2000s and later on Bell, Zulu’s founding account, with Yung being one of the agency’s first employees.

“It’s a big win for us to have Stephanie back,” said Mroueh. “Steph is among the world’s best design leaders and she’s done incredible work leading international brands. We’re thrilled to bring this experience to our current clients as well as some new ones outside our borders.”

While having been awarded a Design Agency of the Year title by strategy in 2018, and with design being a part of the shop’s foundation since it launched in 2008, Zulu Alpha Kilo is expanding the mandate to create more “human-centred design products and experiences” – an area Yung has expertise in, particularly with regards to her work on a digital series for Fast Company on the Future of Fertility.

Yung also has experience in developing design departments from the ground up. She helped create the design and interaction departments for Taxi NYC, as well as Taxi 2. This experience will bode well for Yung as she looks to expand the design offering at Zulu, with the agency also searching for a design director to fill out a department of six designers. The last person to lead the department was Ryan Booth, who left the agency after five years to join the Hudson’s Bay Company in the spring.