Why? Because you’re an accomplished pro, with serious design chops.

You have a ridiculous understanding of creative, both digital and print, which shows in your stunning portfolio.

Beyond the work, though, you’re a student of design. You dig museums and galleries and portfolio reviews and sites that seem esoteric to everyone else. You don’t dream in just color, you dream in textures, finishes, and materials.

In addition to being great at the things you do, you’re great at who you are. We find your personality endearing, and your confidence inspiring.

Of course, we do have some requirements. You should…

• have accounts on the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, and post to them regularly
• play video games with some frequency — or at least watch them for the graphics alone
• carry a sketch pad and camera phone everywhere
• refer to at least 5 sites that provide artistic inspiration
• be able to speak convincingly about the one piece in your portfolio that best represents you as a person

(A passion for food—or lunch, at the very least—is strongly preferred, but not required.)

If you’re interested, let’s talk. Send us a note at jointhegab@gabardine.com, Tweet us @TheGabTweets, or hit us up on FB at TheGabUpdates.

But take your mind out of the gutter for a minute, and you’ll see it’s true for lots of things; like the way you feel after a tough workout, or when you eat one of those ridiculously tart candy-thingies your kids bring home on Halloween and absolutely must be sampled to ensure the li’l uns’ safety.

I know, it's uncanny right?

Lately, we’re finding out first-hand that the same is true for growing businesses. Or for ours, at least.

As word gets around about Gabardine and our list of happy clients grows, so do the complexities of running the agency itself. From program management to payroll and everything in between, stuff gets exponentially tougher with each new piece of business. And here’s the thing: We’re loving every excruciating minute of it.

Why? Because it’s what we’ve always wanted to do. What we were meant to do.  And, for that matter, what we should have done a long time ago. (But that’s a different story altogether.)

The point is, we recognize our growing pains for what they are, i.e. tangible, honest-to-goodness indicators that we’re doing something right, and that Gabardine is fulfilling its promise—not just for us, but for our clients. And that’s an awesome feeling. But how are we dealing with the discomfort? Glad you asked…

For one thing, we’ve added a bunch of  people in positions that are incredibly important to delivering on our service model, including a senior project manager, a marketing coordinator, a director of digital experience and a writer/IA, to name a few. And we’re on the hunt for mid-level graphic designer who can help us conceive and execute more good works. If you know somebody who fits the bill, let us know.

We’re also looking for larger space. (Though that may have more to do with my volume control problems and Keith’s penchant for speed metal than actual physical limitations.)

Finally, we continue to expand our universe of amazing contract creative talent. Truth be told, in this regard the economic downturn has worked in our favor. As big, bloated agencies and once-profitable brands shed great people, we’re able pick them up to work on terrific projects for our burgeoning client roster. Funny how things work out.

Finally, we’re putting our financial house in order; using the information and insights of the past 10 months of growth to inform future planning—for materials, resources, space…everything. As you might imagine, this is tough stuff for a couple of creative guys. But here, too, we’ve got some incredibly talented folks with tremendous experience helping small agencies become big ones. So we’re following their guidance, even as we continue to lead with our guts.

After all, guts (and chutzpah; and maybe a little luck) is what got us here—a place where we have the pleasure of feeling that little bit of pain that goes along with growing something you believe in.

Like the man says

Okay, so I’m no Adam Lambert. (Though it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been likened to a ‘flamboyant’ personality.)

I am, however, extremely excited to announce that Keith Hensel, founder of Designhensels, is joining Gabardine as Principal, Design Director.

Keith’s as comfortable and accomplished in print design as he is in the interactive space. Check out his bio to learn more, or view some of the amazing work he’s done for the likes of GE, Reuters (Thomson Reuters), Walden Media and Maidenform.

In his new role, Keith will oversee all aspects of design for Gabardine, leveraging over 15 years of experience in concept development, art direction, user-centered design, illustration, photography and production. He’s already brought his considerable skills to bear for Gabardine—have you checked out our updated identity?—and will no doubt do the same for our clients.

Equally important, however, is the fact that Keith’s a pretty incredible person. He’s volunteered in Ecuador, South Africa and post-Katrina New Orleans, building homes and shelter for people in need. He chisels stone sculpture in his spare time. He can eat 5 plates of Indian buffet faster than you can say ‘mulligatawny.’ And for more than 10 years now, I’ve been proud to be his friend.

It really is a new start for Gabardine, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Please join me in welcoming Keith, an integral part of how Gabardine will create Continuous Threads that strengthen and expand the fabric of our clients’ brands.

Our own story of adventure began innocently enough, by naming the company Gabardine. It was, we agreed, pitch-perfect and rich with meaning, i.e. We come up with big ideas and weave them through a company’s marketing communications, like a continuous thread that strengthens and extends the brand fabric.

But, alas, it seemed that gabardine.com was already spoken for. A ‘domainer‘ had parked a nasty contextual ad-serving page there, and according to Internic, there was a legit owner. What was a young company to do?

Being the creative geniuses we are, it only took a couple of weeks to come up with the novel idea of using gabardinestudios.com, instead. ‘Phew,’ we thought, the prospect of coming up with another doozy of a company name weighing heavy on our minds.

And then, well, we just went about growing our business. You know: Taking meetings. Designing stuff. Breaking in the corporate card. Writing stuff. Snorting NoDoze. Killing it.

Still, something seemed…off. Like we weren’t completely legit because our domain didn’t match our company name. Of course, we knew this was completely irrational and that lots of businesses go the Plan B route because it’s either too costly or too much of a hassle to get the domain they really want. (Group favorite: Open.) But that knowledge wasn’t enough to stamp out the burning flame of domain desire.

So we set about investigating what it would take to make gabardine.com our own. We expected the worst. A king’s ransom, perhaps. A first-born male child. The head of Alfredo Garcia. We were way off.

Our first attempts to contact the domain owner directly were less than successful. Actually, that’s the nice way of saying it. In truth we were given the run-around between what seemed for all intents and circumstances like two different shell companies posing as registrars of gabardine.com and, we’re sure, countless other domains. Fed up and, frankly, a little queasy, we decided to bite the bullet and try a more conventional route of paying the folks at sedo.com to track down the real owner and sort the whole mess out.

…we were engaged in a steel-cage deathmatch with an unnamed, unseen dark force that wanted to suck us dry for the privilege of owning a domain…

Here’s how Sedo works: You pay $69 for them to track down the real domain owner and extend an offer that you pretty much pick out of thin air. Ours was $850. That’s right, 850 smackeroos. The thinking was that if a textile magnate with an interest in finely woven fabrics was out there, s/he’d probably be using the domain productively. This certainly didn’t appear to be the case, judging from the cheesy, squatter-like page that was posted, so we figured $850 was a good place to start the bidding.

According to Bill, a ‘domain broker’ at Sedo, we figured wrong. He said they had contacted the owner, who promptly countered with an offer of $7000. The penny, as they say, dropped. We understood instantly that we were engaged in a steel-cage deathmatch with an unnamed, unseen dark force that wanted to suck us dry for the privilege of owning a domain that s/he most likely obtained by going through the dictionary in the hopes of a nice, fat payday. We reluctantly countered by nearly doubling our offer to $1600, and pointed out that negotiations were officially over.

Bill said he was ‘working closely with a colleague on the deal,’ as the owner was in Korea, and translation was an issue. (Great.) We held our collective breath for a few days and then, lo and behold, the textile magnate agreed to our price! But the fun wasn’t over yet. It took almost two weeks, another Sedo representative (Colin, my Transfer Consultant) and—surprise!—a 10% commision for Sedo before we were able to navigate our way out of the rat hole of wire transfers and domain permissions.

In the end, though, we got the domain we wanted without sacrificing an arm or a leg.

And the experience of being exposed to the seedier side of the Web? Priceless.