Standard Time and Blackrose Merge to Launch Standard Black

Standard Time, a full-service strategic creative agency, recently joined forces with Blackrose, a New York-based creative agency.

The new combined bicoastal agency serves general market consumer brands and will be known as Standard Black.  

The first creative output of the new company features a new luxury fashion campaign - James Harden x Y3 that launched during the 2018 NBA All-Star Weekend. As longtime Y-3 collaborators, Standard Black drew on its extensive experience in the realms of avant-garde fashion and athletic branding to imagine a unique identity for the project.  

In addition Standard Black’s recent collaboration with CVS Health will be revealed shortly; the extraordinarily high profile forthcoming campaign has already been alluded to in the press.

“The new entity with centers of excellence on both coasts will leverage Blackrose’s design capability with Standard Time’ content and strategic prowess,” said Michael Sharp, Standard Time president and chief executive.

Blackrose founders, Eric Lobb and Jared Tomlinson said, “Our customers will now have access to an elevated creative design and art direction capability and a broader range of production and content services on both coasts.”

Both Blackrose and Standard Time were advertising industry standouts in their own right. Blackrose, known for its highly refined visual sensibility for brands including Amazon Fashion, Nike, Theory, Todd Snyder, Y-3, and Mack Weldon, was “considered by fashion and lifestyle insiders as one of the few, bespoke New York visual communications agencies truly valuing design above all else."  

Standard Time -- which has twice been named an Ad Age Small Agency of the Year -- was founded in 2008 by Sharp, a Peterson Milla Hooks and TBWA Chiat day alum. Originally launched to create a lifestyle and fashion focused agency on the West Coast, in recent years the agency excelled in building out large-scale content programs for a wide range of brands including ongoing work with CVS, such as this campaign featuring Joan Rivers, Nick Cannon and George Hamilton.

Sharp serves as Co-Founder and CEO, while Tomlinson and Lobb are serve as Executive Creative Directors.