In The Thick of It

In this episode of In the Thick of It, Scott sits down with his old friend Steve Durman, founder and creative director of Four Man Furnace. Steve shares his journey from growing up as an artistic kid in New Jersey to starting his career as an in-house designer for a casino marketing department and making his way to the big advertising agency Rap Collins Worldwide.

Eventually, Steve left to start his own creative shop, Four Man Furnace (named after a Biblical story). Operating first as a one-man band working with contractors, Steve built the agency up to 8 full-time employees at its peak. He shares the lessons learned from weathering client losses during the pandemic and his vision for the future, including being more selective about client relationships. Throughout the conversation, Steve stresses the importance of having a mentor or partner when starting a business.

Steve Durman is the Founder and Creative Director of Four Man Furnace - a Dallas-based creative agency founded in 2008. Prior to starting 4MF, he was directing teams of creatives to execute interactive marketing initiatives on brands such as Sony Playstation, DirecTV, Toyota, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Best Buy and Hyatt Hotels. His strategic thinking and creative design muscles were flexed on projects ranging from w online banner ad campaigns and loyalty program overhauls to full-scale website rebuilds such as Best Buy’s myrewardzone.com.

Do amazing work and be amazing to work with; those are the two core values that drive the daily activities for Steve and our creative team. It defines the client relationships he strives to cultivate.

Steve is supported by a full roster of talented and passionate creatives who have decades of experience across many industry verticals.

About Four Man Furnace:
We are an agency of designers and storytellers whose purpose is to create work that works.

We are independent and nimble, and passionate about creating solutions for clients who value high quality strategic thinking and creative execution. Our operation is structured around a tight-knit team of lead creatives who collaborate with our larger, diverse network of award-winning writers, cinematographers, animators, editors, and visual communicators.

To learn more, visit 4mf.co.