Agency

My best campaign that never ran

In the summer of 2020, New York was facing a series of overlapping crises. There were the big issues that defined the whole year for the whole nation, the pandemic and BLM protests, but more locally we were facing a crisis of identity. Midtown Manhattan skyscrapers sat empty. Broadway and Museum Mile were silent. In sharp contrast, our parks were packed with people... and their garbage.

September 20, 2022

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Three very tired design takes

If you watch Mad Men, there’s a scene in the second episode where Harry Crane, one of the copywriters, is giving the new girl, Peggy Olson, a tour of the office. When he comes to describe the art department, he says they put them “downstairs… far enough away from the elevators so we can't sneak out.” Now, we’re all in the art department.

August 17, 2022

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No-code is coming for us all. And that’s a good thing.

We shouldn’t all have to be programmers, but we’re in at least the third decade of pounding on the need to teach programming in schools. I think we might chasing the wrong goal here: the skill we really need to teach isn’t how to code, it’s how to figure out what to make.

April 2, 2022

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The secret to not failing in a client-based business

We all screw up, all the time. The key, as illustrated by author and artist Neil Gaiman, is that people will put up with a lot of mistakes if you’re a good person.

April 2, 2022

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Client School: Don’t be so coy about budget

At some point in the back half of our new business introduction call, I would always trot out the most important question for determining if the project was actually feasible: what is your budget and what is your schedule? The answers weren't great.

February 8, 2022

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Ben Guttmann