by Dakota Wright
September ’13

A cowboy cracks a whip. A coworker slaps a designer silly for choosing the wrong typeface.  

It’s just another day at the office at Addison, a Wall Street design firm celebrating its 50th anniversary with 50 lighthearted video shorts that poke fun at their firm and the industry in general.

“We’re making funny videos about workplace shenanigans, humor, stuff like that,” says Addison art director Leila Taylor, DAAP '95. “They're fun. It's a strange work environment.”

She and her coworkers brainstorm new ideas to feature in each week’s video, drawing from the experiences that have shaped them and the company into what they are today. Addison employees write and act in the videos, several of which feature Taylor.

Taylor and a coworker have trouble simply hanging up the phone after a conference call in one video, ending with the declaration “50 years of learning from our mistakes.” 

Another shows an intense, multilingual conference meeting for the simple act of ordering a lunchtime pizza, exaggerating the realities of working just down the street from the New York Stock Exchange in one of the city’s most chaotic districts.