Red Car has extended its geographical reach, opening an editorial house in San Francisco to complement its existing shops in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Dallas. Company founder Larry Bridges has named Jan Frei as managing director of Red Car/ San Francisco. A couple of months ago, Frei had departed her roost of the past three-and-a-half years, San Francisco editorial shop Pomegranit. She originally served as a staff producer at Pomegranit before being upped to executive producer.
At press time, Red Car/San Francisco was operating out of an interim space, with Frei seeking a permanent site. Plans call for Red Car/New York editor Peter Sorcher to relocate to San Francisco. He will continue to serve his East Coast clients while developing a new base of Northern California business. Sorcher’s recent credits include spots for Jello via Young & Rubicam; Lockheed Martin for DDB; Canon Optura out of DCA Advertising; and New Balance for Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, all based in New York.
Bridges and Frei noted that Red Car/San Francisco will be adding a couple of resident editors in the coming months. Plus, the full ensemble of editors from Red Car/Los Angeles (located in Santa Monica) will also be available via Red Car/San Francisco. That Southern California-based roster includes Bridges, Rob Watzke, Jonathan Del Gatto, Hal Honigsberg, Susan Munro, Justin Stolo and editor/Flame artist Adam Lobel.
Bridges noted that he’s long wanted to address the San Francisco agency lament over the limited availability of Los Angeles editors to the Bay Area market. "There’s a definite need there but I had been waiting to find the right person to run the office. When Jan recently became available, we moved ahead quickly." Bridges added that the Red Car community of editors nationwide can tap into the company’s various offices to best accommodate agency clients.
Prior to Pomegranit, Frei served for a year as a producer at Good Pictures, the now defunct creative post division of San Francisco-based Western Images. She brought over to Good Pictures some 13 years of experience on the agency side of the business. In ’82, she broke in as a production coordinator at Chiat/Day, San Francisco. Within a year and a half, she was producing for the agency and continued in that capacity when the shop became Goldberg Moser O’Neill. (TBWA/Chiat/Day later re-entered the San Francisco market.)
Bridges said that in the past, Red Car expanded into cities by first linking with an editor or via an acquisition. For example, the company acquired Yellow Rose Editorial in Dallas (SHOOT, 1/8/99, p. 7), turning it into Red Car/Dallas. Bridges said he departed from this company expansion norm with the addition of Frei, whose background makes her "the ideal person" to build Red Car/San Francisco from the ground up.
Frei assessed that the post market in San Francisco "is strong and getting stronger." She said that Red Car hopes to support growth in that community, and that the shop plans to be an active member of the Association of Independent Commercial Editors’ San Francisco chapter.
