The lobby of Mad Men’s Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency

Earlier this summer bfw moved to swanky new digs in Boca Raton, Fla. Less mid-century, more modern, the new bfw Advertising office channels the golden era of advertising while embracing the best in new technology and high-end design.

We packed up our awards, our computers and our toys and took off for our new penthouse location just a few miles south of the old office. 

Pete, our Senior Art Director, apparently didn’t trust the movers with his 20-year-old fake plants so he drove them down himself.

President Christian Boswell took the DIY route as well, using an office chair as a dolly.

The new office is nice. Really, really nice. Hardwood floors, stone walls, an amazing art collection, comfortable chairs and glass everywhere. There’s a bullpen area for the creative types that allows for the exchange of ideas, opinions – and popcorn.

We even got new bfw umbrellas!

Even our resident bouncer Chad gives it a big thumbs up.

So if you’re in the area, stop by and check us out. We’re more bottled water and chewing gum than Scotch and cigarettes, but we can put out campaigns worthy of Don Draper with our eyes shut.

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Kat Davis is Senior Copywriter at bfw Advertising+Interactive in Boca Raton, Florida. bfw is a tight knit collection of writers, artists, designers, technologists and thinkers who share a common passion for doing great work that makes things happen.  For more information call (561) 962-3300 or visit www.gobfw.com.

Coverall Health-Based Cleaning System, a leading franchisor of commercial cleaning businesses and bfw Advertising client, won a Bronze Stevie® Award in the “Website of the Year” category from the ninth annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

Coverall launched its new, interactive website in September as part of its continued commitment to educate and support Franchise Owners and their customers, prospects and industry advocates. bfw Advertising worked closely with Coverall’s Marketing team to design and develop the website which is intended to enhance customer relationships and foster lead generation. The website design includes a blog which highlights small-business tips, commercial cleaning updates and interesting facts about creating a healthy work environment.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are the world’s top honors for female entrepreneurs, executives, and the organizations they run. All individuals and organizations worldwide are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. More than 1,200 nominations were received across a range of industries in 17 nations and territories. Nicknamed the “Stevies” for the Greek word for “crowned,” the awards recently were presented to winners in New York City.

“We’re thrilled that Coverall’s website received one of the top honors in this year’s Stevie awards,” said Christian Boswell, President of bfw Advertising. “At bfw, our focus is on building brands, and we’re always excited when we work with a client as passionate as we are about doing good work that produces great results for everyone involved.”

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Kat Davis is Senior Copywriter at bfw Advertising+Interactive in Boca Raton, Florida. bfw is a tight knit collection of writers, artists, designers, technologists and thinkers who share a common passion for doing great work that makes things happen.  For more information call (561) 962-3300 or visit www.gobfw.com.

To keep our creative team energized and inspired, we get together every other Tuesday morning to do something fun. Usually it’s related to advertising. Other times it’s about creativity in general. Sometimes we just color.

A few weeks ago, we were talking about rules. I had come across a really cool design book with an interesting take on the subject.  (And, for the life of me right now, I can not remember the title, so if you’re reading this and you wrote it, please Tweet me and I will gladly credit you. @paulamelchenko)

Basically, it was this: We live in a world full of rules. As advertising and creative professionals, we spend hours learning them. Layout rules. Grammar rules. Color rules. Then we spend the rest of our lives learning how to break those rules. But along the way, we tend to make up a few rules of our own.

So the author proposed this: create your own rules based on your personal experience. And that’s what we did. We each wrote five. Many of the rules shared a common theme, so we combined them into one. Ultimately, we penned 20 Rules of Creativity. Pete Carrara, our director of design, made them into a poster. We still need to hang them somewhere. They serve as a vibrant reminder that sometimes the rules can set you free.

bfw Advertising “Rules of Creativity” poster

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Paul Amelchenko is Creative Director at bfw Advertising + Interactive in Boca Raton, Florida. Follow him on Twitter @PaulAmelchenko. bfw is a full service advertising agency with strong competencies in new media. We’re a tight knit collection of writers, artists, designers, technologists and thinkers who share a common passion for doing great work that makes things happen. For more information call (561) 962-3300 or visit gobfw.com.

Hundreds of years ago a wall was constructed on Manhattan Island to keep Native Americans out. That wall eventually became the namesake for Wall Street at the heart of the New York Stock Exchange, and arguably the greatest financial district in the world. Ironically, many of the descendants of those same Native Americans are now in a position to take advantage of those financial services, but as recently as last year were grossly underrepresented both on the stock room floor and on Wall Street in general.

Well, last month bfw client NativeOne Institutional Trading not only made history, they rewrote it. In recognition of being the first Native American-owned member of the NYSE, NativeOne Institutional Trading stepped right over that wall and rang the closing bell of the NYSE on August 25. (Click here to see the video.) The company was structured to level the financial playing field for all Native Tribes and First Nations while giving back to the Native Community.

NativeOne Institutional Trading rang the NYSE closing bell on August 25, 2011

Not only does NativeOne provide outstanding financial services, the future of Indian Country is of utmost concern to them. They convert a portion of existing portfolio expenses and donate this money to educational funding, scholarships and charities. Their NativeOne Student Outreach Division is designed to educate and inspire the next generation of Native Financial Professionals through internships.

NativeOne outside the NYSE.

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Kat Davis is Senior Copywriter at bfw Advertising+Interactive in Boca Raton, Florida. bfw is a tight knit collection of writers, artists, designers, technologists and thinkers who share a common passion for doing great work that makes things happen.  For more information call (561) 962-3300 or visit www.gobfw.com.

Pete created a sign to illustrate the dangers of leaving the burner on in the bfw kitchen.

Stop, drop and roll! Oh wait...it's just paper.