After 6 Years, Barton F. Graf Still Keeps It Weird

The agency formerly known as BFG 9000 is growing up. Now simply Barton F. Graf, or Barton for short—after founder and CCO Gerry Graf's father—the agency still delivers cheeky campaigns for clients like Supercell, Scotts Miracle-Gro and Little Caesars. But two years ago, the shop found it was outgrowing its New York office.

"The lines outside the bathrooms in the old office were getting uncomfortably long," said CEO Barney Robinson. "We created a temporary fix, hooking up a Raspberry Pi to the bathroom doors, so you could check on your computer and phone whether any were free.­­. We called it Bathroom F. Graf. But we really needed to find somewhere with more stalls, fast."

When the agency found a larger spot across town, its Madison Avenue address was "purely coincidental," assured Robinson. Once the size issue was solved, the team moved in and made the space home, outfitting the open workspace with quirky mementos, souvenirs from past client work and, of course, shiny accolades.