Note from Kevin Nabipour

Ben’s critical eye was trained on others and everything all the time. It may have been why he intimidated some he worked with. But it didn’t shake me. I loved it.

I knew my ideas were good if HE liked them. And I knew they weren’t good enough if he wasn’t convinced. And that was it. I wanted the work I produced to be convincing to Ben, maybe more than anyone else.

When Natasha and I brought him and Sandra the Sesame Street idea I knew he was intrigued. About 10 minutes in, I knew he was convinced. I know because I saw that look in his eye; an impish, childlike version of him roused and ready to play. I saw that look again yesterday, when his team put a video together and released it, with its first scene being an exuberant ten year-old Ben behind a makeshift 80s science lab.

If I want to get sad I’ll replay that moment in that conference room on Clarkson street when an Oscar the Grouch Squarespace idea was born, not knowing yet that that campaign would soon be toasted as our favorite ever, in both of our careers. Because it represented Ben at his absolute best: unbridled creativity, sensitive to meaning, searching. I hope that’s what you feel wherever you are and roam to next. At least, that’s what I try to convince myself now.

— Kevin Nabipour