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While in Portland today, we got to meet the crew at Ascentium. They're one of AdAge's Top 50 interactive firms. And some really cool people. And we're not just saying that because they greeted us with a ginormous box of cupcakes. (Plaid runs on cupcakes and donuts.)

After a tour of their offices, we got to chat with Mason and learn more about some of the cool stuff that they're doing. They're a unique firm that's a mix of great creative people, backed by a massive crew of back-end geniuses that could write code that would launch missiles, if they wanted to.

They also have one of the most impressive internship programs that we've ever seen. Their interns get stints at several firms, work with a real creative team and real clients. We met intern Christine Vo, who was video taping the Plaid visit. That's a hell of a lot better than the envelope stuffing crapwork that interns get at a lot of bigger agencies. If you're a student out west, you should be looking them up.

Mason not only played awesome host at Ascentium, but gave us the best rundown of what to do in town too. He helped us discover the Rogue Brew Pub. Mmmm. Beer and cupcakes all within 24 hours. Good times.

Thanks Mason, and the entire crew at Ascentium!

Labels: agencies, portland, yummy food

posted by darryl ohrt at 7:20 PM 1 Comments

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Our first greeting of the day was at agency Fitch. Cool that we're visiting a mix of small and larger firms along the tour. Fitch is big. Like sweet offices-with-killer-views-and-penthouse-patio big. Like Microsoft as a client big.

But don't let big scare you. Harmony, Annie, Shelley and Mitch were completely friendly and welcoming of the Plaid crew. We got to see some of their incredible package work, their digs, and their patio. Thanks Fitch!! (Special thanks to Julie who introduced us to Harmony!)

Labels: agencies, seattle

posted by darryl ohrt at 9:36 PM 2 Comments

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Today we met the crew at SmashLAB, and genius blogger Eric Karjaluoto of Ideas on Ideas.

They have some beautious office space in one of the cool neighborhoods in Vancouver. They immediately friended us, with shout outs from their 4th floor digs, to our van, as we were attempting to parallel park the Plaid beast.

And then they bought us donuts. Yep. The one thing Plaid likes more than big projects with big budgets. Donuts.

It's always cool to hang with other creative people, and especially another independent shop. SmashLab does some fantastic work - and they even have a pretty sweet side project, called MakeFive. You have to check this out, if you haven't already heard about it. You can make your own top five list. On anything. Or read others. And become a part of interesting conversation. These guys not only GET social media - they're producing new tools for all of the internet.

We met the entire SmashLAB crew and fell in love with their ULTRA NEAT offices. We're still convinced there's a big closet somewhere, filled with all of the junk that normally sits on desks in messier offices (like ours.) You'll see Eric, Eric and the rest of the SmashLAB crew on the wrapup video later tomorrow.

Right around the corner from SmashLAB was none other than Andy from A Million Monkeys Typing. Andy was watching the tour from the dashboard, and saw on the webcams that we were around the corner, getting ready to broadcast the 11:40 show. He popped down to say howdy to the Plaid crew. Totally awesome.

Labels: agencies, vancouver

posted by darryl ohrt at 9:49 PM 0 Comments