About
SIMONE is founded and led by Nikki Ascher, a creative who discovered her true strength in recruiting and connecting exceptional talent. After nearly two decades working in-house with award-winning studios and brands including Jones Knowles Ritchie, Laird+Partners, Michael Kors, Anthropologie, and RH, Nikki understands firsthand how creative organizations operate, grow, and evolve.
We recruit across key functions within brands, agencies, and design studios, spanning Creative Direction, Design Direction, Client Management, Production, Strategy, and Operations. We understand how these roles intersect and how the right combination of leadership, craft, and structure drives meaningful creative output.
As a boutique consultancy, we meet our clients where they are. Some moments require a deeply embedded retained partner. Others call for a more flexible, contingent approach. We tailor each engagement accordingly, scaling our involvement to match your pace, priorities, and internal resources, collaborating thoughtfully to ensure each hire strengthens both the work and the people behind it.
In recent years we have had the pleasure of working with:
Further (DesignStudio), GrandArmy, JKR, KAMP, Koto, NEON, Nowadays, PORTO ROCHA, TeamLaird, 21GRAMS, and more
Services
Strategic Search & Talent Placement
We offer contingent recruitment, retained search, freelance placements, and an embedment model. Together, with our client, we will craft a recruitment strategy to fit your needs
Organizational Talent Advisory
With extensive talent & people operations work under our belt, we have a great deal of experience identifying organizational needs and offering tailored solutions for talent retention and development
Leadership & Executive Search
A highly curated search strategy, aimed at identifying, attracting, and securing top-tier candidates for senior and executive-level positions
Creative Community Support
From time to time, we provide guidance to creative professionals navigating growth or transition. It’s simply an extension of our work and our commitment to the broader creative community