In Memoriam

Jason Blevins at The Denver Post writes the obituary for Factory Design Labs:

Factory Design Labs is dead.

Denver’s iconic, independent ad agency with posh offices in Cherry Creek and big-name clients like Audi, The North Face and Oakley, has shut down only two months after celebrating its 20th year in business.

At its peak, Factory Design Labs employed more than 100 workers spread across offices in Colorado, Switzerland, Shanghai and California. The company climbed to international prominence crafting ad campaigns for Aspen Skiing Co., Sports Authority, Callaway Golf, Head Tennis, Jim Beam and MapQuest. Factory’s fall began last year, when it lost its account with The North Face, which named Factory as its agency of record in 2007. Oakley and Callaway Golf were gone by then. Sports Authority was collapsing. Factory’s latest clients included Eddie Bauer, MapQuest, Head Tennis and local restaurant chain Punch Bowl Social.

Last year, several magazine publishers blasted Factory for not paying for ads. Many high-profile magazines said Factory offered pennies on the dollar when it was unable to pay for ads, citing the sudden loss of The North Face account. Publishers reported losing tens of thousands of dollars.