Charles Day and Chris Tardio–the husband-and-wife team who formed editorial house The Lookinglass Company, Chicago, in 1995 and then created a groundbreaking international editorial company via a merger in ’01 with The Whitehouse, London, branching out with offices on both coasts–have returned to the industry, launching The Lookinglass Consultancy.
Day and Tardio stepped down from their CEO and COO roles, respectively, at The Whitehouse in ’05, and went on to pursue several personal and professional goals. Day, for example, finished his first novel and the duo became heavily involved in the development of PAWS/Chicago, a not-for-profit animal rescue organization.
But the industry beckoned to them, first as they casually helped friends with business plans, providing counsel in such areas as prospective expansion and how to best adapt to a changing marketplace with the emergence of new platforms and opportunities.
“Doing that on an informal basis made us realize how much we had learned over the years and the depth and breadth of knowledge we could bring to bear,” related Day.
This led, said Tardio, to their decision to make the consultancy a formal enterprise with an announced rollout back in February. During a relatively brief stretch since then, Lookinglass has already served clients ranging from production houses to visual effects studios, to graphic design and digital media companies. Central to Lookinglass’ company policy is a commitment to preserve confidentiality for their clients and thus Day and Tardio declined to publicly identify those firms to which they’ve thus far provided consultancy services.
In broad strokes, said Day, the nature of their consulting work to date has entailed long-range planning for company owners who are often focused on day-to-day business demands, offering counsel to established businesses regarding the formation of new divisions and/or ventures, and building upon and complementing existing company operations to best capitalize on an evolving industry landscape.
On the latter score, opportunities to diversify beyond conventional work-for-hire propositions to holding equity stakes in new content and product have been explored.
“We cannot predict what the shakeout will be and exactly how business models will develop as the marketplace changes, but we can help companies be flexible enough to adjust their operations and ways of doing business so that they can properly adjust to new opportunities as they present themselves,” affirmed Day.
Lookinglass has also been frequently called upon to help companies expand to additional locations, very much akin to the growth in geographic reach Day and Tardio helped orchestrate for The Whitehouse.
Day’s and Tardio’s business plan from the outset for The Whitehouse also called for building value in the company so that they could realize the fruits of their labor through the selling of their share in the global editorial house.
“Too often people think only in terms of getting into business and staying in business,” said Tardio. “We had an exit strategy from day one. And it was a strategy whereby after we left, we were confident that the company would still continue to flourish, which The Whitehouse clearly has.”
Day takes it as a compliment that thus far in its infancy the consultancy has had no film editing company client, meaning that people in the industry see the value and relevance of Day’s and Tardio’s experience across different sectors.
Indeed both have track records that extend beyond The Whitehouse. Tardio was a producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show and then the VP of publicity and promotion for Winfrey’s Harpo Productions. Tardio then became manager of broadcast production at DDB Chicago.
Day began his career in film production with the venerable James Garrett studio in London, before joining Ogilvy & Mather, New York.
From there he moved to Ogilvy & Mather, Chicago, where, after a brief stint writing copy for noted creative director Curvin O’Reilly, Day joined the agency’s broadcast production department. He the came aboard DDB Chicago to run the line production side of the McDonald’s business.
It was at DDB Chicago that Day met Tardio. A year later they left the ad agency and founded editorial house The Lookinglass Company.
Day and Tardio are now both based in New York.
Visionary Filmmaker David Lynch Dies At 78
David Lynch, the filmmaker celebrated for his uniquely dark and dreamlike vision in such movies as "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive" and the TV series "Twin Peaks," has died just days before his 79th birthday. His family announced the death in a Facebook post on Thursday. The cause of death and location was not immediately available, but Lynch had been public about his emphysema. "We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There's a big hole in the world now that he's no longer with us. But, as he would say, 'Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole,'" the post read. "It's a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way." Last summer, Lynch had revealed to Sight and Sound that he was diagnosed with emphysema and would not be leaving his home because of fears of contracting the coronavirus or "even a cold." "I've gotten emphysema from smoking for so long and so I'm homebound whether I like it or not," Lynch said, adding he didn't expect to make another film. "I would try to do it remotely, if it comes to it," Lynch said. "I wouldn't like that so much." Lynch was a onetime painter who broke through in the 1970s with the surreal "Eraserhead" and rarely failed to startle and inspire audiences, peers and critics in the following decades. His notable releases ranged from the neo-noir "Mulholland Drive" to the skewed Gothic of "Blue Velvet" to the eclectic and eccentric "Twin Peaks," which won three Golden Globes, two Emmys and even a Grammy for its theme music. "'Blue Velvet,' 'Mulholland Drive' and 'Elephant Man' defined him as a singular, visionary dreamer who directed films that felt handmade," Steven Spielberg said in a statement. Spielberg noted that he had cast Lynch as director John Ford in the 2022 film "The... Read More