WHO
On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, Greg Smith, creative director at Building Online in Dana Point, Calif., found himself working— again. Frustrated by the assignment and mad that he was spending his day off at the office, he blew off some steam by creating a parody of the promises many creative agencies make on their sites. His fictional company, huhcorp, was born.

Smith has worked as a copywriter, illustrator, and designer in agencies and as a freelancer for the past six years, so he’s quite familiar with the topic he’s making fun of. “Having worked in the industry during the internet gold rush days, one of the things that always struck me as both funny and ridiculous was the plethora of high-gloss, no-substance, e-something companies out there. They were full of show but didn’t really have much in the way of substance. They looked good, but just didn’t seem to do anything. So many times I’d look through these sites, professionally designed with all the bells and whistles, and simply be left saying ‘huh?’

“So huhcorp came out of my head as a parody of the idea that presentation is more important than substance—which has not disappeared from our industry by any means. It’s just a mockery of that kind of narcissistic hubris in general,” Smith explains.

WHAT
“I’ve been a cartoonist since I was a little kid. It’s my nature to make fun of things I consider stupid or arrogant. When I get stuck or frustrated, I make fun of stuff around me to blow off steam, and to regain some perspective. That’s basically where this came from,” he explains. “There was that spark of the idea, then I designed the site, programmed it, and wrote all the copy in about eight hours. And it really hasn’t changed. I’ve updated the design slightly, but what you see is really what came out that Saturday afternoon.” Huhcorp.com has been live since September 2002.

The biting commentary on the site is what makes it so compelling. For instance, on the “Solutions” page it states: “Our creative team will come up with design and marketing ideas you never even thought of. How could you? You don’t have the talent we do. Don’t take it personally. That’s our job. That’s what we do. We do stuff.” In fact, “We do stuff,” is the tagline for huhcorp.

“I looked for photos that portray that new-age, self-important, celebrity, no-brains, all-show kind of feeling, like that tendency in advertising to draw someone in by showing people who appear better or prettier or smarter. And the draw is that you’re supposed to want to emulate them and be them. Sort of like a Gap commercial,” Smith notes.