3 Aug 2009 8 am eastern

Happy Cog and Airbag merge

Now the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. Happy Cog™ and Airbag Industries announce the merger of our firms, effective today, August 3, 2009. The resulting super-agency will be called Happy Cog, and will maintain studios in three cities:

  1. Happy Cog East, in Philadelphia, directed by President Greg Hoy;
  2. Happy Cog West, in San Francisco (the newest branch), directed by President Greg Storey; and
  3. Happy Cog Studios, the original, in New York City, directed by little old me.

The connection between our agencies goes back years. Greg Storey tells that tale.

From an internal perspective, this merger of people and resources, freely shared across all three agencies, means we can now bring boutique-style craftsmanship to any size job. If you’re a client, you no longer have to choose between “big enough” and “good enough” when selecting a vendor. You can hire a big agency that designs and cares like a small one.

With the mix of people now at our disposal, you can expect exciting product development as well.

Staffed up and pumped up, Happy Cog East and Happy Cog West will specialize in client services, web design, and development. Happy Cog Studios in New York, while also designing selected websites, will focus on business strategy and content development via A List Apart Magazine, An Event Apart design conference, and other ventures.

None of us knows exactly where all this is going. But we like who we’re going with—and we trust them with our lives. More than that, we trust them with our reputation.

Onward!

Read more

[tags]airbag, happycog, merger, webdesign, greghoy, gregstorey[/tags]

Filed under: Announcements, business, Design, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Web Design

58 Responses to “Happy Cog and Airbag merge”

  1. Spike said on 3 August 2009 at 8:40 am:

    This is really exciting news. Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with.

  2. Mau said on 3 August 2009 at 8:58 am:

    Congratulations!

  3. Jeff Mackey said on 3 August 2009 at 9:04 am:

    Congratulations, Jeffrey! This is great news.

  4. Jeff Siarto said on 3 August 2009 at 9:12 am:

    Congratulations! I think you guys should rebrand to HappyBag–or better yet Air Cog. Excited to see what comes next.

  5. Simon Ljungberg said on 3 August 2009 at 9:12 am:

    That’s awesome! =)
    Congratulations on the merger!

  6. J Cornelius said on 3 August 2009 at 9:14 am:

    Congratulations to all involved. Big news indeed.

  7. Nitin Sharma said on 3 August 2009 at 9:15 am:

    Congratulations, Jeffrey

    Good luck for all your future adventures

  8. Dan Mall said on 3 August 2009 at 9:17 am:

    Congrats, Z! Can’t wait to see the amazing work that comes out of this new powerhouse.

  9. Antoine E Butler Sr said on 3 August 2009 at 9:21 am:

    Congrats to all involved. I wish the new Happy Cog even more success in the future. Although I do think a rebrand would have been cool ;)

  10. Kai said on 3 August 2009 at 9:26 am:

    Yeah congrats from Melbourne too! Very exciting!

  11. Carole Guevin said on 3 August 2009 at 9:26 am:

    Likemindness beget likemindness! Long Live Happy Cog West!

  12. Jesse said on 3 August 2009 at 9:36 am:

    Unsurprising yet still exciting news. +1 vote to “Happy Bag” but I bet there would be branding issues.

  13. Sam Howat said on 3 August 2009 at 9:37 am:

    Congrats! You guys are amazing and I love seeing you succeed over the years!

  14. Andrew M said on 3 August 2009 at 9:37 am:

    Wow! Congrats! Expecting more great work from this merging of talent.

  15. Barbara Gavin said on 3 August 2009 at 9:38 am:

    Congratulations, Jeff.
    I imagine this merger will eable everyone to do a bit more of what they most love to do.

  16. amber simmons said on 3 August 2009 at 9:38 am:

    Very exciting! congratulations, y’all.

  17. Jemaleddin said on 3 August 2009 at 9:38 am:

    Why not HappyBag? Or AirCog? Or Hairclog?

  18. Dan Cederholm said on 3 August 2009 at 9:41 am:

    Congratulations! High fives all around :)

  19. Ben Cohen said on 3 August 2009 at 9:42 am:

    I was thinking Happy CogBag would be a great name for a design firm…

  20. Chad M said on 3 August 2009 at 9:46 am:

    Congrats! Very exciting news indeed.

  21. Dale Cruse said on 3 August 2009 at 9:52 am:

    Wow, the best just gets better. This might be the most significant supergroup since Cream!

  22. Mark Wunsch said on 3 August 2009 at 9:54 am:

    So wh0′s who in this Metropolis analogy?

    Congratulations all around!

  23. Divya said on 3 August 2009 at 10:03 am:

    Wow! Exciting times ahead! Would love to see what the collaboration brings forth!

  24. Aaron said on 3 August 2009 at 10:04 am:

    Very cool. Congrats to you all.

  25. Dave Vogler said on 3 August 2009 at 10:06 am:

    Congratulations! Eager to see what wonders await..

  26. Fozzy said on 3 August 2009 at 10:11 am:

    So… will Zeldman be changing his name to Greg as well? =)

    Good luck on the new business strategy! It sounds like the start of a good nation wide web group.

  27. Matthew Smith said on 3 August 2009 at 10:31 am:

    Looking forward to what your teams produce. Seems like great things are coming. Next thing you know you’ll be making a move on Sterling Cooper ;)

  28. Camilo Oliveira said on 3 August 2009 at 10:55 am:

    “You can hire a big agency that designs and cares like a small one.”
    It sounds good :)

    Congratulations, Jeffrey!

  29. Chris McMahon said on 3 August 2009 at 11:11 am:

    Good on you, sir!

    Someone beet me to the Happy Bag comment…

  30. Nathan Borror said on 3 August 2009 at 11:17 am:

    Congratulations!

  31. J David Eisenberg said on 3 August 2009 at 11:30 am:

    Congratulations!

  32. Aarron Walter said on 3 August 2009 at 11:47 am:

    That’s truly a lot of firepower in one gun. Congratulations on your nuptials.

  33. Dan Rubin said on 3 August 2009 at 12:25 pm:

    I’m impressed, yet not surprised in the least — and after reading Greg’s brief review of recent history, it seems to have been inevitable.

    Congratulations to all, I’m happy to know you guys and can’t wait to see what gets dreamed up by this dream team.

  34. David | WebModia said on 3 August 2009 at 12:47 pm:

    A true POWERHOUSE – congrats all around!

  35. Joe Clark said on 3 August 2009 at 1:09 pm:

    An avuncular Jew could only benefit from adding a manly ginger to his roster. I’m not talking about the guy with the beard.

  36. zincink said on 3 August 2009 at 1:26 pm:

    Congrats on the mind meld! I can’t wait to see what you will be working on

  37. Gordon Brander said on 3 August 2009 at 1:55 pm:

    Congratulations. What an all-star team.

  38. Daring Fireball Linked List: Happy Cog Merges With Airbag Industries said on 3 August 2009 at 2:14 pm:

    [...] What a team. See also: commentary from Greg Storey and Jeffrey Zeldman. [...]

  39. Matt Lincoln Russell said on 3 August 2009 at 2:21 pm:

    Outstanding! What a team.

  40. Tantek said on 3 August 2009 at 5:05 pm:

    Superb. Looking forward to seeing more great things from the now bi-coastal Happy Cog.

  41. MischMasch 2009-08-03 – portenkirchner.net said on 3 August 2009 at 6:02 pm:

    [...] Happy Cog and Airbag Industries, two important web design firms, announced the merger of the two companies. The resulting company Happy Cog will continue to work on client services, web design and development. Moreover Happy Cog will continue publishing A List Apart and organising design conference An Event Apart. (Via Happy Cog News and Jeffrey Zeldman) [...]

  42. Luke Dorny said on 3 August 2009 at 8:03 pm:

    Amazing. Fantastic stuff for everyone involved. What massive things lay ahead?

  43. Don Ulrich said on 4 August 2009 at 12:34 am:

    Congrats, the flavors of east and west together. We can talk all day of HTML5, CSS3, and such but the web is really about communication.
    Thanks for helping to take the web to the next step. Looking forward to product. Amanda is delightful.

  44. Happy Cog Merges With Airbag Industries | reabilita.me said on 4 August 2009 at 1:41 am:

    [...] a team. See also: commentary from Greg Storey and Jeffrey Zeldman. [...]

  45. Steven Clark said on 4 August 2009 at 2:35 am:

    Sounds like interesting times Jeffrey, good luck with it. I have to admit, thick as I am, I never saw that one coming. But great stuff…

    Also, just as an aside, one thing I notice in the web design business, particularly from a small business perspective, in the A List Apart articles – business related content. The no 1 reason I failed to succeed was I failed to plan, I failed to understand financial subtleties essential to small business and I failed to realise the importance of how to do business effectively (as opposed to just taking on business). It would be nice to see something on ALA at some point in the future about succeeding (or essential knowledge) for freelancers.

    Cheers and best wishes with the new Happy Cog Triad.

  46. Stephen Hay said on 4 August 2009 at 4:24 am:

    Congratulations, Jeffrey and team!

  47. George Katsanos said on 4 August 2009 at 6:58 am:

    I saw the post yesterday on happycog.com. Nice graph and moto btw!
    Let’s hope this new merger will bring more job positions for us.

  48. Noel Jackson said on 4 August 2009 at 7:40 am:

    :) Congrats!

  49. RayMcK said on 4 August 2009 at 3:58 pm:

    It’s about time. Good on ya both.

    Does this mean Greg will be writing more for airbag?

  50. Stuart Bowness said on 5 August 2009 at 2:06 pm:

    Surprising news. Will be interesting to see how such a big firm can still remain boutique in it’s approach. Looking forward to hearing more and seeing the fruits of this union.

  51. Jason Gohlke said on 6 August 2009 at 1:06 pm:

    Congrats to Happy Cog!

    Steven Clark, it would be interesting to see a post-mortem article — a cautionary tale about the main reasons you (as you said) “failed.” That in itself could be instructive.

  52. Mark Holtman said on 6 August 2009 at 5:19 pm:

    Great news! I’ve followed you individually for years. Can’t wait to see some of the stuff you put out.

  53. Kris Kendrick said on 12 August 2009 at 9:01 am:

    I’m catching up on current events, it appears.

    Wishing you every success in the world, as always, Jeffrey!

  54. A little post-holiday reading | For A Beautiful Web said on 15 August 2009 at 5:13 pm:

    [...] Happy Cog and Airbag merge [...]

  55. A little post-holiday reading | Transcending CSS said on 26 August 2009 at 10:30 am:

    [...] Happy Cog and Airbag merge [...]

  56. A little post-holiday reading | Stuff and Nonsense said on 27 August 2009 at 8:27 am:

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