Today we speak to creative and influencer, Harry Bee.
I’m from Queens, New York originally, but currently live in Downtown Manhattan. I started out studying graphic design at the School of Visual Arts, and got my first job in advertising at Ogilvy and Mather where I worked on brands like IBM, Sprite, Kodak, and AmEx. After a few years there, I joined Berlin Cameron as Creative Director to work on influencer and celebrity-driven campaigns for Vitamin Water, Coca-cola, Lincoln, Ford, Belvedere, Boost Mobile, Heineken and Heineken Light, with everyone from 50 Cent to Vincent Gallo to Terry Richardson to Lebron James.
In 2010 I saw an opportunity in the digital space, and founded The 88, a digital agency initially focused on launching brands, in a bare-bones office in SoHo (named after our street address). We launched our first client, Kanon Organic Vodka (a Swedish brand), exclusively online, collaborating with bloggers and amplifying with events. At that time this wasn’t really being done, which set the stage for us to do innovative digital and social media-driven campaigns for clients. Over the past six years, The 88 has grown from a three person experiment to a 50 person agency, servicing the needs of clients like adidas Originals, Bloomingdale’s, Coca-cola, Men’s Wearhouse, ZICO Coconut Water, SUNO, CFDA, amfAR, Roc Nation, and Bacardi. We create well-crafted, strategically-driven content for brands’ social channels, and then drive conversation through campaigns that leverage offline and influencer-driven content. We’re agile, smart and visually-driven – everything we do has to look beautiful. We have a cultural contemporary lens that guide all our work.
Throughout my career, I’ve focused a lot on building relationships with people, and incorporating them into my client work. At The 88, we’ve collaborated with a wide variety of influential people – The Man Repeller, Jessica Alba, Pharrell, Alexander Wang, Facehunter, 13th Witness, Mark the Cobrasnake, The Glamourai, ASAP Rocky, Jeremy Scott, We Wore What, Aimee Song, Casey Neistat, Daniel Arsham, Phillip Lim, ASAP Ferg, and Casey Neistat.
When I’m in NYC I’m hanging out with my two month old son Lorenzo, meditating, snap chatting and taking photos. I have the luxury of traveling a lot for work and exploring so check Instagram and Snapchat out to see what I’m up to. (My handles on both Instagram and Snapchat are @harrybeeenyc).
Jeans: Black Acne jeans
Shirts: For button downs, Shades of Grey by Micah Cohen button downs. For my comfy boy style, Quality Peoples t-shirts from Hawaii.
Pants: Black Acne pants
Suits: Joseph Abboud custom suit
Shoes: Adidas by Raf Simons and Blue Stan Smith Adidas
Accessories: Apple Watch with a leather band I got from Etsy
Outerwear: Fingers Crossed bomber is my every day, but for the cold a grey Canadian Goose
Favorite Cologne: Doesn’t exist
Your favorite App: Foursquare is what I use to find coffee and food when I travel, and Snapchat is what I use to broadcast my every move.
Favorite piece of technology: My Leica MP is always with me. Obsessed with the new Sonos Play1 speakers – they have pretty epic bass for the size.
Next tech purchase: I’m considering the iPad Pro / iPencil.
Photograph courtesy of Venus Tong.
