WORK Labs

WORK TIP FOR THINKERS

One of the best creative habits I've ever developed wasn't learned in a classroom. It was learned from another creative.

Years ago, legendary writer, Mark Fenske looked at the small journals I was carrying and smiled.

He said, "Small books. Small ideas."

I've carried an 11" × 14" journal ever since.

When I started WORK, those journals became part sketchbook, part diary, part scrapbook, part idea file, part travel log, part meeting notes, part inspiration board and part life.

Anything and everything goes in them.

I've always believed:
Nothing comes out of your head unless you put it in there first.

Writing, sketching, collecting, taping in photographs, articles, ticket stubs, maps, ideas, quotes—even random observations—helps me see connections I would have otherwise forgotten.

There have been countless times when I've been working on a new project, pulled an old journal off the shelf, and discovered an idea that simply needed fresh eyes instead of a fresh start.

Today, those journals fill my studio bathroom, what I jokingly call "the library".
They're probably the most valuable archive I own.

For quick notes and coffee-shop brainstorming, I still use the smaller journals I've designed over the years, including the Thnk: notebooks.

But the big journals are where the real thinking happens.
One piece of advice, Keep a journal for yourself. Not for Instagram.
Not for someone else to read. Don't worry about your handwriting.
Don't worry about spelling. Don't worry about making it beautiful.

Because the moment you start editing yourself, you stop thinking freely.
A journal isn't a performance. It's permission. Permission to notice more.
To remember more. To connect more.

And maybe, to become a little more creative than you were yesterday.

Always Thinking.

Note: your local art store or Amazon will have "illustration books" they have black covers. I suggest making your own book covers to put on them or drawing directly or dumping the fronts in the spines. In the early days, I used wood glue to attach papers labels, and all sorts of things in it. It holds well, but the book will easily swell to twice its size. Today I use a double sided tape gun, which works great. Good luck let me know how it goes?

What job would you be worst suited for?

Mine would be proofreading for The New Yorker.

Over thirty years ago, one of the first questions a prospective client would ask was:

“How many people do you have?”

My answer was always:

“How many do you need?”

That philosophy still guides WORK today.

Rather than asking an assignment to fit our organization chart, we build the right team, resources, and expertise around the specific needs of each client and project.

Staying nimble, keeping overhead low, streamlining the process, and surrounding ourselves with a best-in-class network has allowed us to work differently than traditional firms, and achieve uncommon results.

It also inspired another one of our early taglines:

“No job is ever too large, or too small.”

One day we might be helping relaunch a Fortune 500 brand.

The next, designing a matchbook cover.

Because when you get right down to it, size has never mattered to us.

The standard of the work always has.

Always evolving.
Always creating.
Always building.
Always thinking.

WORK: Past • Present • Future

Artificial Intelligence Isn't Replacing Creativity.
For me, it's expanding it.

Throughout my career, I have considered myself a conceptual artist.
When AI first appeared, I honestly wondered if it might make me less creative.
The opposite happened.

Today I can explore hundreds of visual directions that once lived only in
sketchbooks and imagination.

But AI isn't creating these ideas by itself.

Forty years of studying design, advertising, art history, storytelling, typography, photography, branding, and human behavior are still doing the heavy lifting.

AI simply gives those ideas another set of hands.
That's why I've begun describing my process as:

Artificial Intelligence + Human Intelligence = Collaborative Intelligence™
(AI²) + (HI²) = (CI²)

The artwork here isn't the point.
The collaboration behind it is.

What once took weeks can now happen in hours.
What once seemed impossible can now be explored.

I don't believe the future belongs to AI.

I believe it belongs to the people who learn how to collaborate with it. And expand their Human Intelligence

Always Thinking.

WORK Labs
Home of Collaborative Intelligence™
(AI²) + (HI²) = (CI²)

WORK: Past • Present • Future

People occasionally ask where WORK's ideas come from.

The answer is simple.

They were shaped by some remarkable people and some remarkable places.

My professional career began in Richmond, Virginia, where I had the privilege of working alongside incredibly talented writers, art directors, photographers, designers, strategists, clients, and mentors. Later, I had the opportunity to continue that journey in New York.

Looking back, I'm grateful for every stop along the way.

1981–1983 — Art Director, Stuart Ford Advertising
1983–1986 — Art Director, The Martin Agency
1986 — Associate Creative Director, Lawler Ballard
1987 — Art Director / Vice President, The Martin Agency
1988 — Art Director / Associate Creative Director, Lord, Einstein O'Neill, New York
The work shown here represents only a small chapter from those years.

Some campaigns won awards.

Some helped build businesses.

A few changed the direction of my career.

More importantly, they taught me that great ideas are rarely created alone. They're forged in environments that demand curiosity, collaboration, high standards, and the courage to make something better.

Those lessons still shape everything I'm building today at WORK Labs.

Over the coming weeks, I'll continue sharing work from the past, projects from the present, and ideas for the future.

Always Thinking.

WORK: Past • Present • Future

WORK: Past • Present • Future

Before there was WORK, there was DRINKING BUDDIES ADVERTISING

One of the biggest surprises from Drinking Buddies was realizing that great work doesn't care how much money is behind it.

This campaign for Successful Farming helped put us on the map.

Luke Sullivan writer extraordinaire.

The assignment wasn't glamorous.

The audience wasn't fashionable.

But the challenge was real.

Good advertising isn't about talking to everyone.

It's about understanding someone.

That lesson has stayed with me for more than forty years.

Always Thinking.

Luke Sullivan

There is no single way to work well.
Some people build systems.
Some build relationships.
Some solve problems.
Some create momentum.

That's why I created WORK Types™.

Inspired by the sixteen Myers-Briggs personality types, each animal represents a different way of thinking, creating, leading, collaborating, and getting things done.

The objective isn't to put people into boxes.

It's to help teams better understand one another—and work together more effectively.

Over the coming weeks I'll introduce each WORK Type individually.

You might discover something about yourself.

Or someone you've worked with for years.

Know your nature. Do your best WORK.

Always Thinking.

WORK Labs
Home of Collaborative Intelligence™
(AI²) + (HI²) = (CI²)

BEFORE WORK, THERE WAS DRINKING BUDDIES ADVERTISING.

Long before I started WORK Labs in 1993, there was another chapter that shaped how I think about creativity.

In the mid-1980s, I was fortunate to begin my career at The Martin Agency. Looking back, I couldn't have asked for a better place to learn the craft. I was surrounded by talented people, high standards, and a culture that believed the best ideas came from collaboration.

After hours, two friends and fellow Martin creatives, Luke Sullivan, Danny Boone, a few others and I started getting together to do something we simply loved, Make advertising.

Not for money.

Not to start another agency.

Just to become better creatives.

We took on pro bono projects for local organizations and small businesses that couldn't afford agency work. Every assignment became another chance to experiment, learn, and build our portfolios.

Eventually we gave ourselves a name:

Drinking Buddies Advertising.

One of our first house ads is attached.

"Drinking Buddies Advertising. Now Twenty Convenient Locations to Serve You Better."

Those twenty locations?

Our favorite Richmond bars.

It was a joke.

But it was also true.

Some of the most important creative conversations of my life happened over a beer, a stack of cocktail napkins, and a group of people who cared deeply about making the work better.

The Martin Agency supported what we were doing because we weren't competing for business, we weren't charging clients, just donating our time to projects we believed in. Eventually, as the work started earning recognition, they asked us to disband. Looking back, I took that as a compliment. It meant our little after-hours creative experiment had become something worth noticing.

I didn't know it then, but Drinking Buddies taught me a lesson that has stayed with me throughout my career:

Great ideas rarely happen alone.

This week I'll share a few of the projects that came out of Drinking Buddies and how that experience helped shape everything that followed.

Always Thinking.

WORK: Past • Present • Future Luke Sullivan John Mahoney

WORK Creative Exercise No. 2 — Faux Naming

One of my favorite creative exercises is something I call Faux Naming.

Take an ordinary category—in this case, labor unions—and invent organizations that don't exist... but somehow feel like they should.

Examples:
• Important Decision Makers Union
• Passive-Aggressive Emailers Union
• Underwear Inspectors Union
• Shopping Mall Santas Union
• Logo Size Adjusters Union
• Mission Statement Draft Writers Union

The objective isn't simply to be funny.

It's to sharpen your observation skills.

The best ideas often begin by noticing something everyone else has experienced—but nobody has named.

This is actually a collection I've already started building and hope to expand into hundreds of satirical unions. You'll find some of them, along with other WORK collections, at work-brands.com.

Now it's your turn.

What union should exist?
The more specific, the better.

The funniest ideas usually contain the most truth.

Always Thinking.

WORK: Past • Present • Future

Thirty years ago, I started building WORK.

Along the way we created a few shirts—not to sell a brand, but to celebrate people who do the work.

I found a large box of XXL WORK T-shirts (Red and a few Blue).

Rather than let them collect dust, I’d rather see them being worn.

The shirt is free.
Just cover $10 shipping.

If you’d like one, send an email to [email protected] with:

• Your name
• Shipping address
• Preferred color (Red or Blue)

I’ll send you the shipping/payment link while supplies last.

It may end up being the largest self-promotion campaign WORK has ever done.

If you are interested in other WORK apparel go to work-brands.com

Always Thinking.