Why College Station?

I’ve been asked quite a few times why Drift calls College Station home.

“Why not move to a larger market? You guys have the talent to compete.”

“College Station doesn’t have a design driven culture. You’d be better off in Houston or Austin.”

My response to those statements is always the same.

I love this town.

My mother and me at my graduation.

Gavin and I (Martin) graduated from Texas A&M and loved every minute of it. When we first started Drift, we talked about where we could set up shop for weeks. Dallas, Houston, and even Henderson, Texas were all discussed, but in the end, we couldn’t imagine starting our company anywhere but College Station.

I was an Aggie from birth.

I’m a 3rd generation Aggie and spent countless weekends at Texas A&M as a kid. It was a magical place, and the only place I was allowed to say hell. Everyone was friendly, the atmosphere was amazing, and it felt safe and familiar. Some of my favorite memories from my childhood took place in College Station, and from a young age, I knew I’d end up at Texas A&M. I eventually would turn down two scholarships, one athletic and one for art, to attend Texas A&M. When I graduated from high school I knew I wanted to major in graphic design, and as fate would have it, the TAMU School of Architecture was starting a graphic design track within their ENDS program my freshman year.

College Station was the only place I
was allowed to say “hell”.

I learned all the Yells at a young age and loved sitting in the student section with my older cousins.

My first week of class John Fairey gave us the assignment to visit Historic Downtown Bryan. I’ll be forever grateful for that assignment, in my first week it got me off campus and showed me a part of town I didn’t know existed. From that point forward I made it a point to visit Downtown Bryan as frequently as I could. I met artists, entrepreneurs, and musicians that I still call friends to this day. It became evident to me that while BCS may not have creative professionals in the same numbers, we have talent on par with any major market. That is as true today as it was 12 years ago.

We’ve been lucky enough to work with a number of businesses in College Station and Bryan, including the Proudest Monkey in Downtown Bryan.

As we grow as a company, we’ve been honored to work with a number of landmark businesses in town.  Working in such a tight-knit community allows us to directly see the impact of our work, and that is an amazing feeling. Helping our clients build companies that succeed in the BCS and expand into the rest of the state and country instills a great sense of pride in our work, our clients, and growing our community. We’ve received so much love and support from this community, and I hope we can continue to repay that love and support for years to come.

Aggieland is a special place. “From the outside looking in, you can’t understand it. And from the inside looking out, you can’t explain it”

We love this town. Here is to another 8 years. 

Author
Martin

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