The Evolution
of Chairs

“We don’t work with companies. We work with people. And we want you to work on our business.” That’s how Arthur Elliott was born. Our owner decided the name should honor Elliott, his father, + “Arthur” his grandfather, both of whom owned a sporting goods store in Buffalo, NY from the 50s to the 90s.

The name took on a deeper meaning, as the entire company would be built on the same ethics of that small-town era; relationships + craftsmanship would be a part of our brand. And it wasn’t ironic that the first client we had were a group of NAPA Auto Parts stores – who pride themselves on doing business over handshake agreements.

The first few years, Arthur Elliott was simply an LLC made up of an account executive (the current owner) and an assistant that did contract work for larger agencies working on NAPA Auto Parts. It was then that the vision was created for being a larger agency…but time, work, and luck were needed.

It should be mentioned that throughout the years the office was filled with a vibrant black lab (Fran) that was taught to drink out of a water fountain. She was also known to steal your lunch when you weren’t looking.

The hardest part of growing an agency is the struggle of obtaining new clients when you don’t have a lot of clients. Around these same years the digital age of advertising was born. Adapting and learning, Arthur Elliott began to adopt new vendor relationships, hired two employees, and dove deep into digital advertising to serve its clients.

After years of hard work and a little luck we caught a break. A larger agency folded that contracted most of our team. Our owner decided to be brave and drove to Atlanta and asked for the rest of their NAPA business. We were given 6 months to prove ourselves. We needed to hire, we needed a larger office, and we needed to prove we could do this…in 6 months.

The Agency quickly went from 9 clients to 32 (in 6 months) + more importantly, NAPA was happy.

One hit does not make you a star. We still needed to prove ourselves, and still take this approach today. We decided to begin building. We began to invest in the business. More talent was added with each step and more clients began to come aboard. A partner was added, a creative director was brought in, and our digital offerings took a giant step up.

The name, the values, the humility and our core values we will always hold on to. But today we are proud of the road we’ve taken to get here, the talent we have, and the relationships we’ve built along the way. And we are excited for the next chapter of this story!