'Twas the best of times, 'twas the ARVO of times

FROM THE VAULT: December 18, 2015

Another year in the books, FutureBrand. Before the sun sets on 2015, let’s take a moment to take stock of the year that was.

History will show this as a year of mergers & acquisitions. Where many among us sobered up, tucked in their shirts and said “I do” to a life of “Yes, dear.” Welcome to the grown-up table, newlyweds Camilla Crane, Jenn Szekely, Amanda Goldwasser, Grace Chou and Pat Attenasio. Right behind them on the engagement train, Ana Gannod and her HUGE rock. 

2015 was also a year of spinoffs. Ladies and gentlemen, may we present to you the FutureBrand class of 2037: Jack Malozzi, Oliver Cockerille and Izzy (Szekely) Maxwell.

We got dangerously low on blondes this year, with Lindsey Maino, Phoebe Simmer and Millennial Megan hitting the bricks. Lindsey to LA. Phoebe to a small consumer shop. And Megan to teach the world everything she knows in a 20 second online class. Lloyd and Andy moved to San Fran. Jeffrey Stasz to the woods of Vermont. And Mona, sweet, sweet, delicate flower Mona Bhatnagar back to London. Stella Grealy flat out abandoned us. And we said so long to some truly irreplaceable OGers this year: Julie Motherfucking Peters, and of course, the all-mighty, all-powerful, we miss her more and more every day, Samantha Eliot. 

We restocked our bo-hunk supply from the ground up: starting with Michael Green’s mandal-ed toes to Kris Pelletier’s Barney Rubble ankles and culminating with Tony Musso’s Clark Kent hair. Boy Joo is back, acoustic guitar and whisper quiet ninja walk in hand. Martin Kuo…keep it down over there. You’re way too LOUD!

We fared much better with the new ladies: Tracy Curtis, Gabriele Krzywicka, Nancy Frank, Jasmine Belizario and Lisa Lee. We briefly had two Carolines: Landry and Welch, until the first went on permanent vacation. New rainmaker Clare Louise Smith and her million dollar Millipore account joined us from London. And Amanda Hasten transformed before our eyes into Amanda Goldwasser.

Speaking of London and transformations, we sent Ah-lee-she-uhh Fowler across the pond looking like this:

Six months later they returned her looking like this:

Thankfully through all this change we had our anchor, Tom Li, who on June 1st, celebrated 25 years of getting shit done.

When most of your staff arrives after 11am and leaves before 6, you need to have a rock solid freelance pool to fill in the gaps. Normally these folks are nameless and faceless. But ours kept coming back and coming back until we actually were kinda forced to get to know them as human beings. Now we want to keep them! Too bad they’re not that desperate. Give it up for the dream team: Pablo Pineda, Puja Shah, Grace Chou, Yelena Avanesova and Emily Hartnett. 

And finally, 2015 was the year we finally added a little personality to our office walls. But much to Sven’s dismay, we may have overdone it just a bit, turning this:

 Into this:

Safe travels and happy holidays, everyone. Before you head off to your loved ones, join us for one last round at Hudson Malone. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…now.