NEW YORK More than two decades after co-founding his own advertising agency, Goldsmith/Jeffrey, former Young & Rubicam CCO Gary Goldsmith is returning to his entrepreneurial roots. Last month, the 53-year-old art director launched yourchitect.com, a Web site that "brings everything you need to imagine, plan, build and decorate your home together in one place."
The former architecture student said that the inspiration for the site came from personal experience he has had with his own homes and those of his friends. "I've always been the go-to-guy for all my friends," said Goldsmith. While he found that there are many online resources consumers can tap for help with their home projects, "Nobody is pulling it all together and helping you navigate your project," he added.
The site showcases a Goldsmith-curated collection of everything needed to design, build and decorate a home -- from local architects to tools to help consumers define their decorating style, shop and track projects. The mission of the site, he said, is to "change the way the world builds."
Goldsmith began his advertising career in the early 1980s as a junior art director at famed New York agency Doyle Dane Bernbach. In designing the logo and the preliminary site before turning to New York Web firm CoDe to bring it to life, he said he aimed for an inviting, aesthetic quality to yourchitect.com that combines functionality and beauty.
"I always knew I would do something with architecture at some point in my career, and I always knew I would do something independent and entrepreneurial again," explained Goldsmith, who left Y&R last spring. "This is the perfect combination. It is at a cross-section of all the things that I love."
The site includes a section highlighting talent. Goldsmith said that a monthly profile of an up-and-coming architect in a section called "Future Giants" might later grow to include a yearly event.
For now, Goldsmith's sights are on building the digital business, an endeavor that is flexing his creativity in new ways. "In advertising, I was thought of as a perfectionist. The work is finished and it goes out the door," he said. "With the Web, it's constantly evolving. It's been fun being part of that."
Goldsmith said the site design, whose Web pages feature a right-hand column that mimics various materials and textures, also provides a platform for "advertising that doesn't compete with the content."
Furniture manufacturer Knoll is one of the site's first advertisers.
