Trade School - Building an Agency for the Platform Era
In 2019, I co-founded Trade School to do modern brand work for enterprise clients. We launched as an independent agency spun off from 22Squared, with a small group of clients and a thesis: that platform-driven marketing required a different kind of creative organization, one built for both craft and scale.
What We Built
Trade School combined the thinking of a creative agency, the experimentation of a think tank, and the capabilities of a modern production studio.
As Co-Founder, Managing Director of Creative & Production, and later Head of Creative, I led the agency's creative work, architected our dynamic creative offering, and built a hybrid creative team spanning concept, design, content, and production.
One of our core innovations was the Dynamic Creative Studio, built to deliver personalized creative at scale while holding the standard for craft.
Over five years, we grew the agency to 120+ employees and served Fortune 100 brands including The Home Depot, FedEx, AdventHealth, and Mailchimp. The Dynamic Creative Studio delivered 200+ campaigns and 12,000+ assets annually across digital, social, and broadcast.