From tennis lessons and foreign language classes to pottery workshops and yoga training in Costa Rica, our annual Growth and Well-being stipend continues to make a lasting impact across our teams.

From a cobbled together render farm to a 100+ person agency, here’s a look at our journey to pushing creative boundaries for some of the world’s most influential brands.

From local arts initiatives to global humanitarian aid, our 2024 giving efforts reflect our commitment to supporting a diverse range of causes and communities.

Our website for Google’s Language Inclusion initiative won Gold and Silver Anthem Awards in the Digital and Innovative Experiences category.

Our culture is incredibly important in making Hook the company it is and the people are the foundation of that, which is why we put so much time into finding voices from a variety of diverse backgrounds to round out our teams.

We recently wrapped the Fall 2024 cohort of our Sandbox U program for early-career creatives. Here’s a look at some of the highlights featuring work from our mentees.

Our ECD outlines our approach to agency retainers and shares ten tips for building retained teams that keep long-term clients and creatives happy.

Congrats to our EDD who was named a 2024 Responsible Designer to watch — a testament to the many ways he uses his creative talents to advocate for the public good.

Insights from our ACD on embracing identity and avoiding tokenism.

As our ECD writes in Advertising Week, it’s time to rethink the approach to cross-channel marketing, starting with repetition. He shares how creative fragmentation creates better connections with modern consumers.

A conversation with Hook's leadership team.

Every creative project begins with a spark — a flash of insight that ignites the imagination and sets the wheels in motion. Here’s how to fuel your creative fire with exploration, introspection, and a connection with your identity.

Portfolio schools are a great way to get your foot in the door, but they aren’t the only answer for developing the creative skills that matter. Take it from our co-founder and CEO whose non-traditional path made him a stronger creative and leader.

The Collision Awards are a celebration of excellence in animation and motion design.

In front of the camera and behind the scenes, our Design Director shares where to find the LGBTQ+ artists, strategists, and producers that should be on your brief from before day one.

Go behind the scenes with Hook Designer Huitzilli Oronia to learn how amplifying her heritage helped her craft Google's Indigenous-owned icon.

Hook's virtual mentorship program is designed to make creative careers more accessible for everyone, regardless of background.

Here’s how you can do your part to create more inclusive, authentic campaigns.

We’re chatting with Creative Bloq about the era’s most unforgettable ads.

Our Design Director's crash course on great design starts at the cinema.

From photography to fine art, these trailblazers are pushing boundaries and inspiring change.

Our longstanding partnership with the Neutral Zone organization allows us to nurture the next generation of creative talent through projects that are driven by the youth in their community.

Our website for Project Relate won big in the Digital & Innovative Experiences category, securing our third, fourth, and fifth Anthem Awards for purpose-driven work.

With our sights set on donating $500,000 to underserved communities by 2027, we're committed to using our expertise and resources to uplift those in need.

We recently tapped into our creative expertise with Creative Bloq to talk about some of the most noteworthy designs from the early 1900s.

Our design director shares his creative origins in this delightful Q&A.

A great workplace comes from great people, and our teams, culture, and benefits are reasons why Built In named us one of its 2024 Best Places to Work.

Filled with art ranging from poems and sketches to photos of googly-eyed sandwiches, Buried Treasure is Hook’s bi-annual internal zine that’s all about creating simply to create.

Creating a welcoming and inclusive environment is essential for nurturing the best talent and producing the best work.

We’ve made the #7 spot on Digiday’s WorkLife 50 list celebrating the most outstanding employers of the year.

Our team has over 15 opportunities a month to level up their creative skills with Hook’s internal learning initiatives.

How can agencies create more inclusive workplaces for Deaf creatives? Hook’s designer Alex Kauffman shares his tips for removing barriers, establishing guidelines, and matching resources with individuals.

Our flexible time off policies and dedication to craft growth are only a few reasons we’re named one of Crain’s Detroit Business’s Top 15 Best Workplaces in Michigan!

How can brands be better allies to the LGBTQ+ community? Together, we’re finding ways to rewrite the rulebook and change how brands come to the table in support of an audience that is deeper than most realize.

Hook’s virtual mentorship program is now accepting applications from entry-level creatives.

Hook’s peer-led Education Sprints are integral to how our teams continue learning and nurturing their creative growth.

We recently completed the third year of Sandbox, our external mentorship program for students at LA’s Hamilton High School to learn about creative careers. Here’s why we love what we do.

Hook’s Managing Director Stephany Sperberg joins The Drum’s Marketing Negotiations podcast to talk about crafting and nurturing successful client relationships.

Trying new things keeps our agency moving forward. Here’s how we’re continuing to evolve.

We find collective time off to be the most effective way to recharge, so Hook will be closed for Summer Break from July 3 - July 7.

Read our latest on inclusive marketing for Ad Age and Muse by Clio.

College degrees can be useful hiring tools, but to say that talent is strongest when it walks off a college campus, degree in hand, is as limiting as it is untrue.

What makes a workplace great? For us, it’s without a doubt, our people. It's thanks to them that we've been chosen as one of Ad Age's Best Places to Work in 2023.

Hook’s scrappy origins continue catapulting the agency’s creativity over a decade later.

Our “Asian-owned” campaign with Google won our second Anthem Award, a Webby Awards initiative that celebrates purpose-driven work.

Our people are our greatest asset, which means doing our job to keep them happy.

With the first images from the James Webb Telescope making waves at the same time as our monthly dev brainstorm, it felt like the ideal subject matter for an exploratory exercise with WebGL.

Experimenting with flexible holidays? Here’s why we think taking time off together is best.

Last year, we learned a valuable lesson about the collective need to recharge. So this year, we’ll be spending the holidays free from work-related stress with a company-wide two-week break.

Looking for a way into the industry? Learn more about Hook's mentorship program via Adweek's Rising Marketer's Guide for entry-level creatives.

As a former freelancer who is now full time, Creative Director Parker Sims has a lot to say about the evolving work environment and what agencies need to do to attract (and retain) young talent.

There’s a pressing need for more diverse voices in our industry, so we focused our external mentorship on creating more industry access. Through our partnership with a local LA High School we’re creating more opportunities for underrepresented youth to learn about our industry and gain hands-on experience.

We recently published our salary band data, making the case for more pay transparency in our industry and hoping to inspire other organizations to follow suit.

Hook won top honors in this year’s 2022 Digiday WorkLife Awards in the Most Committed to Work/Life Balance category, highlighting our priority of being an agency where people can do their best work without having to sacrifice other aspects of their life.

Here at Hook we love the challenge of doing something we’ve never done before. So when Google’s ARCore team approached us with a project that required an unconventional animation technique, we jumped at the opportunity.

The 2022 Communication Arts Design Competition winners were announced and our Cut the Quarantine campaign for Locks of Love earned top honors in the Motion category.

Crain’s Detroit Business has published its 2022 list of the top 100 cool places to work in Michigan; Hook ranked 15th overall and 3rd among mid-sized companies.

Get to know more about the career journey and aspirations of one of our talented SF-based creative directors in a recent interview with Creativepool.

Hook ACD Hieu Luong on how making Google's “Asian-owned” campaign empowered him to help his community.

Our very own CEO and co-founder Michael Watts is part of this year’s Campaign US 40 Over 40 list of inspiring and innovative leaders defining the future of the advertising industry.

Our Executive Design Director, Mikell Fine Iles, shares his thoughts on breaking down barriers in the creative industry and designing the path forward in this column for Communication Arts.

Sandbox is an internal program to open the window to our industry for young people, and create more opportunities for them to make magic.

Our Design Director, Paul LaFleur, shares his story and his advice for supporting employees and cultivating compassion for LGBTQIA+ employees every month of the year.

Our work with Google and the New York Times wins silver at the Anthem Awards, an initiative from the Webby Awards to champion purpose and mission-driven work.

Moved by Greta Thunberg's words, our design and motion teams animated her speech from the World Economic Forum.

Art Directors Club honors the design and craft of our Google Lens-enabled ad campaign at the 101st annual awards show in NYC.

Our designers and developers partnered with Locks of Love, a revered group who have long been ubiquitous with helping children who are experiencing medical hair loss.

Our Executive Design Director, Mikell Fine Iles, shares his advice for young designers looking to make their mark in this podcast about the journeys of Black people in marketing communications.

We're thrilled that our work for Rocket Community Fund's Small Business Murals Project won top honors in the Mobile category, and silver in the Detroit Love category at the Adcraft Club of Detroit's annual D Show.

In the summer of 2020, we confronted a series of events that would profoundly reshape the way we look at the world. Seeking historical context to help guide us, we gathered examples of protest art to contribute to the movement.

When we took a month-long break, the ad industry had questions. So we gave Adweek, Campaign and other publications the run-down on why it happened, how we managed it, and how other agencies can do the same.

While we are in the business of solving creative problems for our clients, enriching our communities is also an important part of who we are. We see it as our responsibility to show support for our communities by problem solving for those with whom we have common threads and shared beliefs.

The Tips & Tricks video series we created for YouTube TV was honored among the best work in social media and digital by the Shorty Awards.

Our LA Team gets rolling with Safe Place for Youth—a Venice-based non-profit that provides housing, clothing, food, arts programs, health and wellness, and job training to young people experiencing homelessness.

The Webby Awards recognized Hook over three categories for both websites and AR advertising.

Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, the 2021 Webby Awards named five of our projects as the best of the best.

How we embrace the benefits of being small to create an ideal working community for creatives, artists, and engineers.