Arnold’s Non-Metaphorical Media Lab

What’s Arnold’s Chief Creative Officer, Pete Favat, up to? Last year the agency hired cognitive scientist Dr. Lisa Haverty to run an intuition analytics department. Now, the agency has announced a research and development lab tasked with creating new media channels.

“I think…I’m creating jobs I want to live vicariously though,” Favat told Creativity.
“I wanted to put a couple of people in place who are not concerned with or thinking about the day-to-day brand messages, with what we have to do for Jack Daniels, truth, or Tag, but are coming up with software, coming up with different technologies, whatever we can to dispense new ideas out in the world,” Favat says. “I told them ‘The day you guys think about certain brands is the day you lose your job.’ Their mantra is to just play; I don’t want them to ever worry about being attached to a client.”
Ryan Habbyshaw, 25, an agency art director/designer, and Todd Vanderlin, 23, who studied at Parsons School of Design are the two explorers. They report to creative director Meg Siegal.