New York, New York, United States
Your rebrand launches in under five months. Your board wants 'bold but safe.' Your last agency delivered forgettable. And in 18 months, you'll be explaining why the expensive refresh didn't move the needle. I've spent three decades building brands that refuse to fade. Mastercard's 'Priceless' campaign—still running, still working, still teaching case studies twenty-five years later. (Together w Joyce Thomas.) Worked directly with Steve Jobs as art director on the NeXT Computer launch alongside Ken Segal. Created the Anti-Defamation League's 'Anti-Semitism is Anti-Me' campaign, now in the permanent collection at London's Victoria & Albert Museum. Built brand platforms for BP, Amex and Liberty Mutual that defined corporate positioning for years. Then in 2008, I founded darling advertising + design in New York because too many agencies had become approval factories. We're a boutique shop that pairs strategic thinking with creative execution—not in separate departments throwing briefs over walls, but integrated from the start. No bureaucracy, no twenty-person approval chains, no campaigns designed to win awards instead of work in market. Our approach: hyper-local relevance over generic reach. Strategic foundations before creative exploration. Ideas built to compound over time, not chase quarterly trends. And we only take work we can make iconic—which means saying no to brands chasing 'safe.' We work with Series B-C startups and established brands during market repositioning, rebrands, or category shifts. Specialties are: branding, naming, strategic positioning, creative direction, campaigns built for endurance. We believe in Ideas that Last. Only ideas that last give back positive growth, help create motivated employees, a following and therefore ROI.
We believe in three words: ‘Ideas That Last.’ Because clients pay for positive measurable outcomes and not short-term gains. Working with us is like working with Freud and Picasso. Clarity and chaos mixed up in stuff that sticks. That means that we have to think ideas through and ask ourselves how ideas work within companies, and out there where the customers live. This has grown into a Global/Local approach that keeps us on our toes to check messaging against cultural differences. Have look at some of that thinking at darling.nyc
A boutique agency that drives creative ideas from inception, to launch, to success.
Head creative of New York office. Responsible for the Liberty Mutual campaign - Responsibility, what's your policy?- Also won various accounts including AOL, American Red Cross, Ace Insurance.
Executive Creative Director, Executive Partner, Global CD American Express. Responsible for various national and global campaigns, including the launch of the OPEN business idea and campaign for American Express, the Blue Card for American Express, the - The Greatest Risk is Not Taking One - campaign for AIG, the - Beyond Petroleum - campaign for BP, and others.
Executive Creative Director on: Amtrak - launched the Acela Campaign; the first high-speed train in th U.S. Also launched a new corporate and national campaign for Bayer. Won the Sheraton business with the -who's taking care of you?- campaign.
Senior Creative Director, Senior Vice President. Responsible for the invention and launch of the - Priceless - campaign for MasterCard together with Joyce King Thomas. Worked also on various other launches, including the campaign that launched Lucent Technologies.