Photo by George Lange


We take the lift up to the office of Artists and Creatives: one large room wall-to-wall white with no interior walls or dividers. Deliberately, there are no interior walls between the employees, six of whom are working at Macs, all young and talented.

Music fills the room. To one side, cactus grow out of a clawfoot cast iron tub, and in the mid-room is a large table that must weigh more than my car. I mention these details only because Joe mentioned them before I ever saw the office. Joe-as-careful-narrator knows a sturdy table means they’re here for good – a rock. And the bathtub means they have their own particular sense of style; he wants us to know the A&C group has character. But his storytelling isn’t that transparent, and I give away his secrets unapologetically, only because they do have character. By the truckload. They’re doing well enough; the table will stay around for a while.

Concerning A&C, Joe says “it’s rogue and renegade and not apologetic.” He adds, “three major players closed last year, all of them long-standing companies.” He says, “when they shut down … I got papers to incorporate,” adding “now London calls us scheduling six appointments every day.”