Allen Richardson
I remember the ad that made me want to work for Roy Grace and Diane Rothschild. It was “Can you spot the Range Rover in this picture?” I saw it in the brand new One Show Annual and knew this was the place for me. I wanted to do work like this—smart, witty and classic.
Suddenly there was an opening—G&R was hiring. I sent my book and got a call that Roy wanted to meet. He went through my book and pointed out the weak point of each ad. Then he offered me the job. Maybe it was a negotiating tactic.
He sent me to Chip to negotiate my salary saying, “I don’t know what a pack of gum costs.” Next, I was taken into Diane’s office where I met her, confirmed with Roy that this was in fact a done deal, and got out of there before anything broke the spell. I then went directly to the One Club Christmas party where I bragged to all my friends. Roy and Diane showed up; she was on the Board at that time. I nodded to them and they nodded back. See? I had proof.
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I knew a lot about Roy before I worked there—DDB, VW, Spicy Meatball—but learned much more while I was there.
During the time Roy was at Doyle Dane Bernbach, it was the advertising equivalent of the 1927 Yankees with possibly the most talented bench of all time: Helmut Krone, Bob Gage, Phyliss Robinson, Bill Taubin, and on and on. And of all the legendary talent in that department, Bill Bernbach made Roy the head creative overseeing the entire department.
I’m going to say that again so it sinks in. Bill Bernbach made Roy the head creative of the DDB creative department.
The problem was Roy got too far away from the work–and he was happiest when he was doodling in his sketchbook and thinking up big ideas. I heard Roy would sneak off and work on things like IBM and get in trouble with Bill for doing so.
At some point, both Roy and Diane had enough and started their own shop, Grace & Rothschild, along with a talented young account guy, and expert negotiator, Chip Sleeper. And Roy started doing the work again in earnest—on new accounts like Range Rover, Whittle Communications, and Solomon Brothers, and old favorites who returned to the fold like Mobil Oil.
Into his late 50’s, he was still getting work into the One Show on a consistent basis, which at the time was almost unheard of.
And that’s what I walked into. G&R was a small shop—never more than 50 people total. The beauty for me was I could walk right into his office. There was no wait to see him, no executive assistants standing guard outside his door. Just Roy and Diane doing their thing and making yours better.
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There are two moments that sum up my time with Roy.
The first was when I was new to the agency. As part of the Range Rover account, besides the colorful magazine ads, we always had to do a lot of quick turnaround B&W newspaper ads for the dealers to run. For one project, my partner and I came up with a bunch of ideas that were clever headlines above a stock picture of the Range Rover, just sitting there on white.
Roy wasn’t thrilled. He believed in the power of the visual idea. As an art director himself, he also believed that visual ideas reflected strongly on the Art Director’s contribution. So for me in particular, this work was a fail. He made this clear during our meeting. Abundantly clear. Exceedingly clear. And as he was walking back down the hall, he turned around and said “You know Allen, our clients pay us to be creative.”
Ouch. I worked hard to up my visual thinking and slowly redeem myself in Roy’s eyes.
A few years later, I was working on another batch of those Range Rover dealer ads. There was a new person on the client side who didn’t love us and was always looking for a reason to criticize and sandbag us. I wasn’t too stressed because I had developed a knack for doing clever, interesting stuff quickly.
It was a Friday and Alice the receptionist said Roy was on the phone for me. I picked up and we discussed the increased pressure for the agency to really deliver. Roy finally said, “I need a bunch of those Allen Richardson ads.”
What’s the opposite of ouch? It was such a high compliment to me that he would reference a certain level of work as an “Allen Richardson ad” that I’ll never forget it.
After my first two jobs in advertising, where I stayed for around 12 months each, I stayed at G&R for 9½ years. In talking to Gary Goldsmith for this site, he said he had different relationships with Roy. First, Roy the Boss. Later, Roy the Friend he would occasionally meet for lunch.
Sadly, I never got to that Friend phase. One, I was young enough that I was always a little intimidated. Two, I took a job out of town. Three, Roy got sick and was gone too soon. I never made my way back before it was too late.
Cut to me a year later taking Diane Rothschild to lunch at the Union Square Café. (I guess the theme of this last section is I learn from my mistakes.)
Decades later, I’m still a huge fan of “Can you spot the Range Rover in this picture?” And VW. And Spicy Meatball. Hopefully, this site will keep the incredible work Roy and his talented partners created alive for people to discover for years to come.
Allen Richardson
ACD/Art Director
Grace & Rothschild 1991-2000