One of the nice things about my move to the States is reconnecting with old friends. Take Anne Hardy. Anne lived in London in the nineties where she was the Decorating Editor for British House & Garden. We met at a baby group. Those babies are now 26.
In the early naughts, Anne moved back to Westport, Connecticut where she grew up. Anne doesn’t sit still (except in photo below) – her creative, ideation brain is on overdrive. She set up a company Hardylon to help other creative types, ie designers, photographers, retailers, floral designers, artists, sculptors – you name it- tell their stories on-line, in print and via social. Hardylon is a soup to nuts, across all mediums service.
As luck would have it, Hardylon needed a writer, and I needed something to do. Anne and I have been collaborating on stories for clients and non clients over the past year. It’s been both a learning experience and a joy. Not only is Anne skilled at all things on-line, especially image-related, but she’s a journalist so she knows what makes a good story, what editors want, and what they don’t.
For example, while we were collaborating on a project for the Washington Arts Association, Anne noticed that not only was George Home – in cool Washington Depot- named after our founding father but so was cosmetics queen Bobbi Brown’s new hotel in Montclair, NJ. We had George Home, The George and with a little digging we found our third George – the new GW Bar in Manhattan’s Flatiron district, designed by big talents Roman & Williams. A story, versus a star, was born. Working title Cool Things Called George became Revolutionary Ideas in this month’s CTC&G.
To read the article click one of the links below:
Link to CTC&G | PDF
I have been a freelancer for several years and it can get a tad lonely. When you work with others (the right others) everything is more fun and the work generated is better. We brainstorm, we boost each other’s confidence, we encourage good ideas and discourage the lousy ones. It’s a lot easier to laugh with another person than all alone. I should have known this. My father enjoyed going to work, largely because he loved bouncing ideas with his business partner and childhood friend John Rosekrans. They shared an office for decades and spent as much time chuckling as working. Let’s toast to teamwork.
One + One = > Two
November, 2018
