We sit by an absolute legend who goes by the name of Nick Darke. Nick was employee number 6 when Saatchi & Saatchi started up in 1970. And he's still here now. Almost literally part of the Charlotte Street furniture. He's a Buddah-like figure in the world of design and branding having created countless everyday logos that we all recognise, including the iconic Saatchi & Saatchi logo (Goudy Old Style, with both S's at 110% in case ya wonderin').
Nick on Charles, or 'Charlie' Saatchi:
A fantastic writer.
Pretty damn fearsome, ripping up all work not to his liking.
Account Managers were shit scared of him.
Played backgammon and chess every lunchtime with a bottle of red.
Clad the agency walls with art and basically used the agency as storage space for his collection.
Along with Maurice, he used some sneaky tactics to get the inside track on winning new business. For example, a common occurrence was to get agency staff to pose as private hire taxis and drive clients back to their office after a pitch. That way Charles and Maurice would get the honest views of how each presentation went.
When pitching for British Rail they made the clients sit an hour in a messy, fag-butt riden reception whilst the receptionists talked on the phone and ignored the waiting big-wigs. Just as the clients were about to leave in a huff Charlie came down the lift and declared: "Now you know how your customers feel, we're going to show you how to change all that." Brilliant.
Big up Nick Darke (A.K.A. The Darke horse / The Darke side / The Darke Knight / The Darke meister-general / BBC political correspondent Nick Robinson). He's got loads of Paul Arden stories too. More soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment