Running Wild and Unchecked at Wieden + Kennedy
2008 - 2010 / Wieden + Kennedy
This is the story of Attack, an multidisciplinary creative team I was part of at Wieden + Kennedy NY. As part of Attack, I filled multiple roles including creative direction, strategy, copywriting, art direction, design, illustration, production, and account management.
When Wieden + Kennedy NY hired me, they were looking for a different type of creative. I had no ad experience, didn’t go to ad school, and they wanted me to be the pilot for an experimental program they called “822” in which creatives spent 8 months on standard client work, 2 months on non-client agency IP, and 2 months on personal IP that could remain separate from W+K.
I did that for a year, and in that time a lot of stuff happened. I did a citywide OOH campaign for Nike, W+K and I began developing a video game, and I painted the stairwell with animals representing every employee in the office.
822 was successful enough that it was deemed worth expanding.
The 822 program
4 more were brought into the 822 program: Phil Chang, a strategist and culture writer, Larry Pipitone, Eric Collins, and Joey Ellis were designers and entrepreneurs. Together, we became Attack.
The idea was to have a crack team of creative generalists to take on projects unassisted and essentially just ninja around the place. We often operated with no other support, handling account management, strategy, production, and creative amongst ourselves.
Our work would go on to represent the bulk of W+KNY’s pitch portfolio for years to come.
Attack. Attack. Attack.
We did what an agency Wieden’s size couldn’t afford to. We worked directly with small, local clients in the mos creative reaches of industry.
We worked with fashion startups, small retail businesses with deep cultural ties, skate shops, boutique skincare companies, and fine artists.
We initiated most of our projects completely independently, traveling around the city to meet independent creatives and seek out new clients.
Small, local clients
We worked like a normal creative team, but were held to faster timelines, higher creative standards and for the most part handled all of the business-side as well.
We did a lot of client work, like this project for ESPN, and we also did a ton of pro bono identity stuff for local schools, like the Ghetto Film School and the Cinema School.
For the Ghetto Film School we even created a custom typeface that randomizes itself, based on the most basic of all film tools: Gaffer’s tape.
Agency clients & pro bono
Agency IP
We started a zine, because we were young and also because we kept meeting interesting people doing interesting things. A lot of them ended up working with us on one thing or another, and whether we could work with them or not, we started throwing them all in Day Trip, named after all the day trips we took to meet these people.
We even threw a launch party at Le Bain at the Standard, which was like the nightstpot at the time.
When we weren’t doing all that, we were doodling or painting.
We painted a wall in the office with all of the lunch spots we argued about everyday, and one time late at night we turned a Maxim cover into a group illustration.
Art
Some of our work garnered awards from Communication Arts and some even went on to win Young Guns.
Attack was one of the most valuable experiences of my life, and each of us have gone on to do great things in the time since the group disbanded. Eric, Joey, and Larry founded the independent creative agency Grand Army. Phil went on to become Director of Special Projects at Wieden, and if you've read this far maybe I’m about to work with you. Who knows?
If you liked this work,
you might also like the people who worked on it.
Phil Chang, Strategy, Copywriting, and giving our work away for free so he could get backstage and shit like that.
Larry Pipitone, Design, Art Direction, Account Management, and freaking the fuck out over shit like Chinese takeout.
Eric Collins, Design, Art Direction, Copywriting, Project Management, and believing he stole all of Larry’s luck.
Joey Ellis, Design, Art Direction, Production, and breaking anything he came too close to.
Todd Waterbury, Executive Creative Direction, and being the creative we all aspired to be.
Kevin Proudfoot, Executive Creative Direction, and snickering at our shenanigans despite himself.
Jamie Carreiro, Editing, Coding, Shooting, and pretty much anything we had no idea how to do (which was a lot).
Will Esparza, Illustration on the Milla Jovovich Maxim thing.
And you might like these projects:
‘Cause it’s Racing
The biggest client project Attack did, and proof the team worked really well.
Give Them the Keys
Many years later, when I did strategy for some of the Attack guys at the agency they founded.
Shut up, We’re Blogging
Maybe not as attractive or impressive, but a peek into what it was like to work at W+K NY back then.