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 — a system designed to produce 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.