Category Archives: Copywriters

Kevin Steele

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Kevin is a copywriter at WONGDOODY in Los Angeles, been there since May 2010 after graduating from Circus. What a great shop to land at right out of school. Such an awesome time in the career. Getting killer work produced, swapping out student campaigns for real stuff in the book, staying at Shutters when you’re like 25 years old and two nights’ hotel bill is equal to one month’s paycheck. But who cares? You thought up a giant skeleton outdoor board while you were peeing in the shower one morning and someone paid $200k to build the thing. (Just made that up. Not Kevin’s actual story.) Love it.

Portfolio: cargocollective.com/kevinsteele

Ryan Hartsfield

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Ryan is a senior copywriter in San Francisco, previously at McCann and GSP (as an account guy). His site is based on a stack of paper. In his words, “One day I started cleaning out my files because they were moving us. So I started to stack up all my old briefs, dead ads, scripts, etc. into a neat little 8.5×11 pile. By the time I cleared out two years of shit, the stack was about three feet high. It looked too interesting to throw it away, so I taped it up. It became an art piece as a joke. I found a stand and put a $3000 price tag on it. I held a contest for names: “Dead Weight,” “Tower of Futility,” and the overly pretentious “Work”  are some of my favorites. I settled on “The Other 96%” because it represents all the bullshit we have to go through to make something that shouldn’t be as hard as it really is. Later I realized some of the better things I’ve done aren’t (theoretically) in the stack, so I turned the it into a site idea. And I suppose, in some way, made use of all the good n’ bad things in the pile that never came to be.” Love it.

Portfolio: ryanhartsfield.com

Gerard Seifert

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Gerard is a senior copywriter at WONGDOODY in Los Angeles. People sometimes ask MC, “What’s the right amount of set-up for projects in a portfolio?” Such a hard question to answer because every project is different, right? Right. But, if you had to point to an example of a portfolio with just the right set-up, content and tone, Gerard’s would be an excellent choice.

Portfolio: gerardseifert.com

Matthew Bottkol

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Matthew is a copywriter/ACD at Dentsu in NYC. His mother, Joan, describes him as follows: “Matthew grew up in a wood clapboard house near downtown Minneapolis. But, these humble beginnings belie his enormous talents. He sang in the Metropolitan Boys Choir and taught himself to play Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” on piano. He started wrestling at age seven and was city champion by age twelve. He endured thirteen years of public schooling and got along with just about everyone he ever met. Needless to say, his talents have only multiplied with age. He’d be an invaluable addition to any agency. And I’m not just saying that because I’m his mother. Did I mention he’s also handsome? Feel free to call me if you’d like to talk about Matthew some more. You can get my number from my wonderful son who, by the way, never forgets to call me.”

Portfolio: web.me.com/mbottkol

Shannon O’Malley

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Shannon is a copywriter in San Francisco. In addition to her portfolio, you’ll find quite a bit about her awesome blog and soon-to-be book, Apocalypse Cakes, on her site. In fact, it’s front and center. Which, for those of us who write on the side, makes you think about at what point you’d make copywriting your writing-on-the-side if your writing-on-the-side blew up. Hmm.

Portfolio: shannonomalley.com

Andy Thieman

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Andy is a copywriter/creative manager at Target in Minneapolis, a cyclist, and a good friend of MC. (That’s him above left, with designer Jason Miller on the right.) Andy discovered he had testicular cancer on Christmas Eve. He started treatment on Monday. His blog BLOOD SWEAT CHEMO “exists to expose the daily grind behind four cycles of chemo.” Check it out. Get inspired. Give a little if you feel like it.

Blog: bloodsweatchemo.tumblr.com

Christine Call

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Christine is a copywriter at Deutsch. She shares a site with art director Clemente Bornacelli. They’ve done some cool work for VISA, including pieces of the Go World campaign for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Their site is hosted on Cargo and presented as verbs (above), except “???” which are their answers to James Lipton’s 10 questions. Christine’s favorite curse word: “Douchebag.”

Portfolio: christineclemente.com

Niels West

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Niels is a senior copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather NY. (He’s also a fellow Oregon Duck. Go Ducks!) Lots of cool stuff on his site, including work for IBM, UN Climate Change Conference, US Open, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. By the way – how great does Vimeo HD video look? Now that you can watch Vimeo on iPhone, it may be time to officially crown it as the best option for portfolios.

Portfolio: nielswest.com