Leadership
The Barbarian Group is led by , co-founder and CEO. He is aided in his quest by five partners: , , , and . They tackle Operations, "Presidentialness," Creative, R&D and Finance respectively.
Our History
The Barbarian Group has been at this a long time. Things have happened. Lots of things. YouTube. AJAX. New York. John Sullivan Hamilton. Use this nifty-looking thing to learn when things happened and, in some cases, where. Check out the
Barbarian History section for the long-form narrative version of events.
The first meeting to discuss The Barbarian Group is held by the founders: Keith Butters, Brian Costello, Robert Hodgin, Benjamin Palmer, Jay Sun and Rick Webb. The name "The Barbarian Group" wins out, narrowly beating "Pixel, Vector and Jones."
The Barbarian Group is registered as an LLC in the State of Massachusetts, because we receive our first check for our first job, from Weiden + Kennedy, and we had no bank account. We work out of Ben's loft in Roxbury.
Eva McCloskey joins us as our first employee, a producer, and our PR Director.
Nike ACG Go, our first project, goes live.
The Barbarians move to Rick's apartment in Allston, in an attempt to give Ben's girlfriend some peace of mind.
TBG launches the VW W8 Minisite with Arnold Worldwide.
The Barbarians make their first company trip. All 7 of us go to Nike's world headquarters. We check out Motorhead the night before. People ask if we're a rock band. We see the premiere of Star Wars, Attack of the Clones.
Nat Wales joins TBG as employee number 3. He's in the Boston office. He's a Flash genius. Seriously. And his van? Super sketchy.
The Barbarians move into their first real office, at 332 Newbury St. in Boston. The entire company is suddenly distracted by record stores and people watching.
TBG launches the Saturn ION minisite for Saturn & Goodby, AND the Nike ACG brand site, v2.
TBG turns 1 and celebrates with the first of our legendary birthday/holiday bashes.
Aubrey Anderson joins us first as a developer on our first project, then eventually as a Partner and CTO. He departs in 2005 and is still a close friend and associate.
TBG, with VW and Arnold Worldwide, launches the New Beetle Convertible minisite. This marks the beginning of an incredible creative collaboration, also yielding sites for the Passat, the Jetta, the GTI, GLI and Certified Preowned.
TBG launches release1.net, which became, for a time, our most award-winning site, and marked our first direct-to-client, and first non-profit job.
Mike Rubenstein joins The Barbarian Group and eventually becomes our studio manager, and then on to being an art director.
We remove the cubicles our office came with and free our bodies and minds with one big studio room. People immediately begin complaining about the noise.
Discussions begin around the company regarding opening a New York office. Over a year will pass before this comes to fruition.
Kevin Chan joins us as a New Media Designer. He once was in Boston, now he's in New York. He is amazing. And has really good hair.
The second TBG birthday/holiday party outstrips the first. Our bartenders leave in disgust. The realization is had that next year we probably shouldn't have the party at the office.
Alex Chen, aka Boy in Static, having been unemployed for exactly 12 minutes, joins us as a Flash Designer and developer. He would leave to pursue his recording career 3 years later, and we miss him still.
Kenji Ross joins us as a developer and internet lolz creative genius.
TBG, in conjunction with BK and Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, launches the Subservient Chicken. Rick announces the site in his blog. The next morning, before the broadcast had even ran, it was linked up by several prominent bloggers, including Boing Boing. In the first 48 hours, 25 million hits were registered. It remains one of the most successful websites ever.
TBG Expands into 334 Newbury Street, a vacant adjoining office. Much fun is had with the new checkered floor.
Erica Kung joins us as a producer.
Brian Costello, a co-founder and entrepreneur, leaves The Barbarian Group to continue his entrepreneurial endeavors. We take this as sign that little Barbarian is all grown up. It turns out we were wrong.
The first New York Barbarian office opens in Soho.
TBG's 3rd Birthday/Holiday bash takes place in a Boston nightclub. It's absurdly large. It is also, coincidentally, the opening night for Blade Trinity, if you like that sort of thing.
Benjamin is appointed to the Art Director's Club jury.
Kristen Hengst, Philip Stockton and Ivan Hollander join us as interactive designers in the studio. Rick quits smoking for the first time.
The Barbarian's Boston office and Top Secret HQ moves 2 doors down Newbury Street to its current home.
Toby Boudreaux joins us as a Senior Developer, and later takes the reins as our CTO.
Andrew Berg joins us as a New Media Designer in the New York Office.
Ian Westcott joins us as a tech guru, IT specialist, and bearded gentleman in the Boston Office. He later moves to New York, heading up IT for the NY office.
Doug McDermott becomes a Barbarian, continues to be a copywriter and elder statesman. He resides in Boston.
Alex Chen, Kenji and Mike Rubenstein form the core of the touring version of Alex's band, Boy in Static. The first European and US tours commence on this day. From here on out, they're always disappearing to rock.
TBG wins the Cyber Lions Grand Prix at Cannes with Crispin, Porter Bogusky for Method Soap's Comeclean.com.
TBG Launches Milbestlight.com with Mother New York for Miller and Milwaukee's Best Light. Beer fans and time wasters rejoice. Creativity Magazine eventually calls it one of the top 5 sites of 2005.
TBG and Arnold launch a site for the new VW Jetta, a lovely swansong to a legendary partnership.
Liz Whittaker hired as Senior Producer and later our current Director of Production.
TBG undergoes a four week long argument about how to sort its MP3s - first name, last name, or last name, first name. The discussion occasionally flares up anew when new Barbarians start. No one's been the same since.
TBG launches Comcastic.com with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for Comcast. It goes on to rule the universe.
TBG Holiday party achieves epic proportions with 500 people at Boston's Saint nightclub.
TBG launches Samsung's Anyfilms.net, with MFP. It's a groundbreaking work of interactive work. Awards, etc., ensue.
TBG launches "Escape the Paparazzi," an astonishingly funny (still even!) game for VH1.
Rachel Bell joins us as a Producer in the New York office.
TBG is selected along with Tomato and three other prestigious design houses to participate in Getty Images' Interact Ten Ways site and exhibit.
Ben and Rick participate in the World Economic Forum's Digital Ecosystem conferences in Tokyo and New York.
TBG launches a really awesome series of sites for LEGO and Bionicle. Like... wow, man. We still think those were awesome.
TBG unveils a fun, subversive viral marketing campaign for Red Stripe with BBDO that still lingers to this day.
Acting as one of the first paid advertisers on some newfangled site called YouTube, the Barbarians launch the Beer Cannon for Milwaukee's Best Light. Four million views, and a massive amount of press coverage later, a new ad medium is born.
Kim Miller and Matt Raoul join us this summer. They are awesome. One in New York, one in Boston. Lovely. They are New Media Designers. Artists, really. Future prophets. And two of the nicest Barbarians you'll ever meet. Nicest anyones. It's amazing. They're so nice. Seriously. Wow.
Ashley Holtgraver joins us as a Developer, first in New York and later in Boston.
More Cannes Lions for the Barbarians - for Comcastic and Volkswagen.
Our old pal Mike Gatti joins the Boston office as an Art Director, and later Creative Director. We had worked with Mike extensively while at Arnold on the VW account.
TBG launches tul.com, featuring Dr. Gerard Ackerman, with DDB and Office Max.
Ryan McManus joins us as an Art Director and general bon vivant in the New York office.
TBG launches Virgin America's "Name our Planes" site, in conjunction with Anomaly, in support of the new airline's launch. Stephen Colbert, Boing Boing, and others, name planes, along with the public.
Rick and Benjamin inducted into the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
We do an exhibit with Goodby and Obscura Digital for Saturn at Wired's Next Fest. Our app was built in processing, and the exhibit receives extraordinary attention for its interactive video wall.
Ann Zagaroli comes on as our head of new business. She's almost as nice as Matt and Kim, and has a better accent.
The Barbarians UK - Rick, Philip, Kenji, and Ruby - perform for one night only at Boston musician Ad Frank's 40th birthday extravaganza at the Middle East in Cambridge, MA.
Dawn Hayes joins us as the office manager of the Boston Office, ending a five year recruitment effort on the parts of Benjamin and Rick.
Shelby MacLeod joins us as our first Client Service Executive, moving east to Boston, and leaving our friends at Goodby behind, where she had worked on the Saturn account.
TBG opens its San Francisco Office, at Bush and Grant. It has a giant red passageway. It's sunny.
Creativity Magazine names The Barbarian Group interactive agency of the year for 2006. We are humbled and amazed.
TBG celebrates its fifth anniversary and the holidays with a 600 person bash at the Paradise Rock Club, in Boston, MA.
TBG assists Turner in the online marketing in support of the launch of Super Deluxe, their new online comedy community. Lots of people laugh.
Old friend Michael Paolo joins us in Boston as a senior developer, and Bill Lindenmeier joins us in San Francisco as a Rails developer.
Communication Arts does a cover profile on The Barbarian Group - the first interactive agency profile in five years. We are honored.
Keith is selected for the jury of the 86s ADC awards.
TBG, BBDO and G2 launch Become an M&M for masterfoods - one of the more popular avatar building/marketing mini-sites of late.
Chandler McWilliams joins us as a Sr. Developer in "The LA Office," which is "across the street from his house." Chandler is a professor at UCLA so he won't move north. But we love him anayway.
Andrew Bell joins TBG as a visual developer, after having been the most well-spoken interviewee ever. He works magic in the New York office.
John Sullivan Hamilton (aka "Hams") joins The Barbarian Group as a designer in the Boston office. Ballz.
The Barbarian Group launches Gouleted, a minisite for Emerald Nuts, with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in time for the Super Bowl.
The Barbarian Group launches the Tap Project website, in partnership with Droga5, for UNICEF and World Water Day. It goes on to win a Cannes Titanium Lion.
TBG launches the Axe Vice and Axe Lab sites with BBH worldwide. Or starts to, anyway. They roll out over time. You know.
TBG produces a video for synth pop band Freezepop that involves a lot of mice wrangling.
Benjmain is appointed jury chair for the prestigious Asia AdFest's Lotus Awards.
Rick appointed to the interactive jury of the Clio Awards.
The Tongue Scan 2000 is launched for Milwuakee's Best Light. No one can figure it out. Still.
The Barbarian Group signs on as a vendor and sponsor of The Webby Awards, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. All three sites - the Webby Awards, People's Voice, and IADAS - are redesigned, along with a new brand identity.
Benjamin and Keith appointed to Effie Award Juries for 2007.
TBG moves into its new New York digs, and everything suddenly looks like a real company. You'd think someone gave us funding or something. Ha. As if.
Stephanie Smeriglio, a former ace client of ours, joins as a Client Service Executive in the New York office.
The Barbarian Group welcomes Bruce Winterton as its first ever President, and new Partner. Bruce heads up Client Services, Strategy and New Business.
The Barbarian Group finalizes a partnership and equity stake in the Mcleod Residence, an art gallery and interactive experimentation hub (and excellent bar) in Seattle, WA.
Adam Miller joins The Barbarian Group as a Ruby on Rails (and other stuff) developer in the Boston office.
Toby, Chandler and Keith present a talk at Apple's WWDC on using Web development techniques in the development of Cocoa Apps. Crazy. You should see Chandler lecture. He's so good.
The Barbarian Group wins a Titanium Lion at Cannes for the Tap Project website.
Katie Crosswhite joins the company to whip the New Yorkers into shape and straighten up and fly right like a real office.
Bruce speaks at Cannes at the Independent Agency Showcase. That's right. Independent. Still.
Rick quits smoking for good.
Bruce speaks at Cannes at the Independent Agency Showcase. That's right. Independent. Still.
TBG assists Publicis West in the development of 3 different sites for T-Mobile's Sidekick, along with special, limited-edition versions.
Andy Massouh joins The Barbarian Group as a producer in the Boston office.
The Barbarian Group launches the Barbarian Software division with its first product, Magnetosphere, an iTunes Visualizer. Several hundred thousand downloads follow.
The Barbarian Group launches Kashi.com.
TBG launches "Palm Thing" for Palm, with Y&R. 3D and Illustration goodness!
TBG assists A52 with a little bit of visual love - just seconds, really - in the opening titles for HBO's John From Cincinnati. We thought the show was pretty good! You know... maybe it'll be a cult hit or something.
Rick appointed to the interactive jury of the LIAAs.
The Barbarian Group participates in "interactivity," an exhibition at the McLeod Residence, and shows the McLeod Mirrors, Biomemetic Butterflies and Magnetic Structure Prints.
Bruce is inducted into the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
Nick Bonadies joins us as the new bearded guy/IT guru in the Boston Office.
Rick participates in the inaugural Webby Connect conference as a speaker, along with Vint Cerf, Arrianna Huffington, Biz Stone, Michael Eisner and Lou Wallach.
Carrie Sasser joins TBG as a Client Service Executive, and Renee Zellweger (not that one) joins us as a Producer in the SF office.
The Barbarian Group appear on the cover of Advertising Age, in the form of Benjamin Palmer. "Martin, John, get out your wallets. These are the hottest digital shops around..."
TBG partners with the Junior High Men for a new kind of reality and entertainment property, in the 2 Husbands.
The Barbarian Group deploys a new website for The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, in tandem with the opening of its amazing new building in the Bowery.
The Barbarian Group celebrates its 6th anniversary with a party that, basically, defies description, sealing the party's place as Boston's social event of the season.
Doug Pfeffer joins us as a Developer, after nine months of "associating" with us, and Erin Snyder joins us as a designer, both in the Boston office.
Stephanie Zand and Cheryl Greenhill come on board, finalizing a yearl-long effort to get our HR and internal processes in shape. Stephanie joins as our Creative Manager, and Cheryl as our HR manager, in Boston and New York respectively.
Benjamin appointed foreman of the websites jury at D&AD.
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, co-founder and CEO. He is aided in his quest by five partners: Rick Webb
, Bruce Winterton
, Keith Butters
, Robert Hodgin
and Jay Sun
. They tackle Operations, "Presidentialness," Creative, R&D and Finance respectively.