Brendan Ciecko, a website designer to the stars, has high hopes for turning his hometown of Holyoke into a hub of digital technology.
(jeff byrnes)
G FORCE | BRENDAN CIECKO
He sets his sites on Holyoke
Brendan Ciecko, a website designer to the stars, has high hopes for turning his hometown of Holyoke into a hub of digital technology.
(jeff byrnes)
Brendan Ciecko had just finished his freshman year at Hampshire College when the call came from Mick Jagger's manager. Would Ciecko come to New York to meet with Mick about designing his website? Why, yes he would, and while he was at it Ciecko would drop out of college and devote himself full-time to Ten Minute Media, the digital design, marketing, and branding company he started in his Holyoke bedroom when he was 15. Now 21, Ciecko has a roster of clients that includes most of the major record labels (he's produced sites for a host of pop stars including Katy Perry, Lily Allen, Lenny Kravitz, and Van Morrison) as well as corporate giants Clear Channel and MassMutual. We caught up with Ciecko at home in Holyoke, where in his spare time he's spearheading the revitalization of his city's historic downtown.
Q. When did you start producing websites?
A. I was 11 when I first had access to the Internet at school, and rather than use it for academic purposes I used it for my infatuation: music. I was blown away, I stayed up till all hours of the night teaching myself the technology, and then made the website for my middle school band, Disaster 116.
Q. Disaster 116?
A. That's one of the routes in Western Mass. We evolved into Mr. Blonde, named after the badass from "Reservoir Dogs."
Q. How did you cultivate your high-wattage client roster?
A. When I was 13 I entered a contest to create an interactive promotional marketing piece for Slick Shoes, this punk band from California, and I ended up winning. I convinced them to let me do their website for free, and people started calling me from all over the world. If you're fast, reliable, and cutting-edge, you gain a reputation.
Q. Jagger is notorious for micro-managing every aspect of his career. How did that meeting go?
A. We talked about the aesthetic, how the site should function, how much of his film career should be represented. His career has spanned decades, so I wanted to do something a little more sophisticated and elegant. It went really smoothly.
Q. Governor Patrick recently invited you to participate in a meeting at MIT about the state of technology in the Commonwealth. What was your contribution?
A. I was like, guys, this is right under your nose. Holyoke has the most hydroelectric sources in the region, we have this infrastructure that's not being utilized. Google has been investing heavily, hundreds of millions, in a data center in a small town in Oregon. Holyoke would be a perfect place for that, and it's what Massachusetts needs to stay competitive.
Q. What's your long-range plan? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
A. First and foremost I'm going to be married to my girlfriend and probably have kids and live in a nice Victorian or Second Empire house. I've already purchased a couple pieces of real estate - totally about 35,000 square feet of commercial space - and I'm trying to get new businesses started up, give the city the young blood it needs. In the 1920s, Holyoke was thriving, and mind-blowingly beautiful, and now it's so dreary in comparison. Let's re-urbanize.
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