Wilmington-based design agency Squatch Creative may have turned two years old this past July, but their clientele is anything but infantile.
Squatch was founded by a rag-tag band of freelancers who, in 2013, made the decision to incorporate as a full-fledged creative agency: account director and managing editor Mike Gracie, lead developer Randy Neil, director of cinematography Evan Lober and creative director Marcus Price. The team has expanded over the past two years to include director of photography Michael Pfeifer and in-house legal counsel Feliks Finkel, with project-based help coming in from filmmakers Tom Harmon and Breton Carasso.
While Squatch is based in Wilmington, Gracie said the team is always on the road.
“Geographically, nobody really wants to work in Delaware if you’re a young creative,” he said. “But thankfully, we’ve been building a really interesting portfolio and attracting some talent.”
That’s the truth. In the past few months alone, Squatch has produced video of Firefly Music Festival for Red Frog Events and content for LYCRA featuring model/surfer Anastasia Ashley.
And while we previously covered some of the work they’ve done for the ever-versatile Hannibal Buress, they’ve recently produced all the marketing and web content for his 2015 Comedy Camisado Tour. They’re getting ready to launch a new site for comedian and writer Joe Mande.
Oh, and they just finished up some behind-the-scenes photography for stand-up comedian and Trainwreck star Amy Schumer’s upcoming HBO special at the Apollo, directed by Chris Rock.
Holy Hollywood, Batman! Gracie credits creative director Price with reeling in clients like Buress and Schumer.
“Marcus does a lot of networking in the entertainment industry,” Gracie said. “A lot of it is being in the right place at the right time.”
It started when Price met Buress at a comedy show in Brooklyn last year, which led to Squatch revamping the comedian’s website and Price doing some work with Parks and Recreation star Aziz Ansari.
“We met a lot of people on the road,” Gracie said. “Some of that stuff definitely stemmed from [Buress’] tour. It got us some great exposure.”
Great exposure nationally can lead to greater exposure locally, and though Squatch is seemingly always on the road, they retain a foundational client base in Delaware. This fall, they’ll be launching new websites for the Buccini/Pollin Group and Food Bank of Delaware and producing video commercials for a new Lighthouse Cove project in Dewey Beach.
But they’re making sure they haven’t pigeon-holed themselves with web and video content. No, they’ve still got some love for old-school media. According to Gracie, the team helped publish a 200-page biography on legendary Delaware Democrat Henry Topel.
That gig led to Squatch moving from their Lower Market headquarters to some office space in Topel’s old Trolley Square-adjacent building.
“The opportunity came up for us to move into the second floor of his office, which was just used for hotel records for the past 20 years,” Gracie said. “We fixed it up a little bit. We don’t have too many clients come to our office so it’s a clubhouse kind of vibe.”
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