23 nationalities, 1 toilet

180 LA cultivates an international point of view that comes out in their work, says creative operations director Duco Muller. At one point there were 23 nationalities under their roof sharing a single toilet. It is this commitment to diversity that has set 180 apart as an agency, and it makes it possible to use their work to good effect all around the world. Diversity in production allows for diversity in reception of creative work, and this is likely what attracted Adidas to chose 180 as their agency and stick with them making the expansion to LA viable. Some of their work was highly effective and resourceful making huge gains in earned media like the Sony Rocket Project that was shared and publicized widely for its contribution to 8 lucky students from CAMS high school in LA. The sort of hybrid experience integrated campaigns that they create are inspiring and extremely interesting. Another example of this type of work is their live drive project for Mitsubishi.

A note on their architecture: though I haven't been to any other agencies yet, their conference room has to be the coolest I've seen. There's a sort of casual likeness put forward either by the spa blue carpet or the giant surfboard table, but that relaxed decor is balanced by short white structures jetting from the ground to the ceiling connected by multi-faceted green glass. All together the room evokes the sense that you're in an ice cavern, but somehow remains cozy. Also they have about as nice of an espresso setup as it gets, or somebody brought it there, and yes I am an extreme espresso snob/coffee nerd.

One last note. It was really nice to hear tips from Duco and the M-School grads about the industry. The tip to not be above any work or to take whatever is available is hard to take, but I can see how important that will be. Another interesting point I remember was the fact that working at a smaller agency like 180LA means you will gain much more authority over your work as an entry level employee. Though maybe there are more people to learn from at a larger agency I think its much more appealing to have more responsibility and freedom earlier on as would come with a smaller agency. Duco also mentioned that the most important thing to do in your first month starting a new position is to gel with the team. He even went so far as to say that you won't make any real contributions during that time anyway so just to focus on fitting in instead. 180 LA was a great start to kick off our string of agency visits this semester.