Ahead of his time…

Ahead of his time…

by | Sep 19, 2015 | Free Lunch Blog, Good Work

Remember what life was like before the Internet?

The Internet formally took hold in 1993, but really didn’t make much of a dent until 1996.  By the turn of the Millennium, every company knew it needed a website, but few design firms could build a site worthy of their own design skills… but one did — Vizid.  The brainchild of Mike Farley and Adam Emery, Vizid crafted sites that were literally, ahead of their time.

“We signed on some very good business, ” stated Vizid President Mike Farley in retrospect, “… we did Sargento,  we attracted the attention of Activision, primarily because Adam was just so brilliant in combining great design with wicked programming skills.”

But few business ventures find their true stride.  Not long after their rise to fame and fortune, the horrific events of 9-11 occurred and set the company back as companies across the globe cut their marketing budgets and delayed their advertising and web ventures.  However, the lessons learned were invaluable… and the executions delivered in the early 2000’s, looks as if the work could have been done today.

JSH&P’s Mike Farley

JSH&P’s Mike Farley

by | Sep 1, 2015 | Free Lunch Blog

A little bio —

With 30 years of experience, the founder and leader of the JSH&P team is Mike Farley, one of Wisconsin’s leading brand experts.  He cut his advertising and design teeth with Fortune 500 giant General Mills, working the flagship Cheerios brand, as well as CocoPuffs, Yoplait, Hamburger Helper and Olive Garden.

Having worked in Minneapolis during the creative awakening in the late 1980’s, Mike became the youngest Creative Director in town while at Clarke Livingston & Associates.  He was recruited to the Milwaukee area in the 90’s and ultimately started his own award winning design firm Axis Creative in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward.  However, the effects of the 9-11 disaster hit the marketing community hard, and Mike was lured to try a new venture with client Econoprint.

Then, in 2007, the itch of the entrepreneur took hold again and Farley started JacksonSpencer LLC in Cedarburg.  It’s there that JSH&P works it’s magic for clients big and small — handling the brand management and leading marketing efforts that not only look good, but add profit to any businesses bottom line.