The company was founded in part by John Carlin, its current President and CEO. Carlin’s background in the arts reaches back to the 1980’s when he taught courses at several colleges and universities such as Yale and Williams College. These courses ranged from art and film history to popular culture. He was a publisher of several articles regarding the arts and literature, and also served as curator of numerous Pop Art exhibits, such as the Whitney Museum of American Art.
He also had an extensive academic background in business law, which served well when he went on to establish The Red Hot Organization in 1990, which describes itself as “the leading international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.” The company does so by garnering support from extensive list today’s top celebrities and musicians, including Madonna, U2, John Malkovitch, David Bowie, even the Wu-Tang Clan.
A few years later, Carlin would found a second company with Peter Girardi, a fellow designer with almost an equally extensive set of credentials. A former graffiti writer, Girardi took his abilities to the digital realm and became a prolific graphic designer. He was awarded the Daimler-Chrysler Award for Design Excellence in 1999, the youngest recipient of the award in the organization’s history. Girardi’s style was unique, for having a much more hand-made and personal touch despite his work being in digital media.
Together Carlin and Girardi founded Funny Garbage, a multimedia company with particular specialization in what they list as "web design, interactive entertainment and broadcast production." Although it was founded in 1996, it wasn't until Kristin Ellington joined the team and lended her management skills into motorizing the company into a production powerhouse. From this, Funny Garbage began to gain a reputation as being a truly innovative and almost-prophetic design company, its work being based in the roots of what is considered Web 2.0 today.
The company, like much of its work, presented itself with a quirky yet captivating personality, with a sense of simplicity that caters to its audience. In an almost prophetic model, the company did work for previously popular computer companies such as America Online and Compaq that seemed to be the predecessor to the standard stylings of multimedia projects that are standard on the present-day internet.
Other notable work includes Cartoon Network's website in 1997, which designated itself as a successful online network, complete with a chat room and communication board, rather than play the typical role of other channels; simply promoting what the channel was broadcasting. FG kept the visitors' attention, mostly targeted to children, with weekly online games and flash animations. The company dipped its hands into television production, with shows such as Comedy Central's "Crank Yankers" as well as Cartoon Network's "Teen Titans" and "Minoriteam."
It still remained faithful to its web design work, however, garnering clients such as VH1, NationalJournal.com, Mariah Carey, and ComedyCentral.com. Today, FG has been able to maintain its reputiation of innovation in media work. It has been commissioned by Disney, MTV, and other major corporations to provide the same sort of personable and visually appealing work they have become known for over the past 15 years.
