Their newest venture, a hefty, gorgeous book entitled Dialog, celebrates their 35-year professional partnership. The book is dense with luscious photos of thirty-five select projects, but the true weight is in Carbone and Smolanʼs lively banter about work and working together.

“Without Leslie I would have been out of this business a long time ago,” says Carbone as he, Smolan and I sit down to chat in Carboneʼs cozy Palisades living room. He credits Smolan for her business acumen and attention to detail, saying sheʼs responsible for 99 percent of the agencyʼs financial success.

Smolan acknowledges the compliment, but follows with her belief that Carbone is one of the best visual thinkers she knows. “Heʼs very embedded in the art world. Thatʼs his passion,” she says.

But appreciation for each otherʼs strengths took time.

“We fought for the first seven years,” says Smolan, remembering the agencyʼs early days after Carbone hired her as a senior designer in 1977 for what was then a small satellite office for the Canadian firm, Gottschalk + Ash. They were both just twenty-six, working long days and arguments were part of the job.

Now they work by one simple maxim. “Whoever cares the most wins,” says Smolan with a laugh.

On top of working together for over three decades, Carbone and Smolan have been neighbors since 2000. Smolan is married to photographer Rodney Smith and takes credit for orchestrating dates between Carbone and his future wife, former ad executive Janet Coombs. Smolan and Smith moved to Palisades in the late eighties while Carbone and Coombs rented in Palisades for weekends. But just as Carbone and Coombs became par- ents of twins, the house next door to Smith and Smolan went on the market. Now the two couples tread easily in and out of each otherʼs lives.

“Weʼre like The Honeymooners,” says Smolan.

Carbone and Smolan agree that putting together Dialoghas been immensely satisfying. Four sections entitled Fame, Fortune, Fun, and Freedom are rich with stories summing up what Carbone describes as the teamʼs ability to ask clients the right questions so that he and Smolan can create the visual persona critical to the clientʼs success. Itʼs given them the chance to look back and get a sense of what theyʼve accomplished and where theyʼd like to go next.

“The book is a launching pad for what this business can become,” says Carbone. Theyʼve recently added a new partner and say that, after training many of the most
influential designers in the business, theyʼre intrigued to sit back and see where new technologies will take the design business.

“Itʼs an exit strategy,” says Carbone who wistfully describes the perfect day as one spent writing in the morning, reading in the afternoon, and painting at night. Smolan agrees that cherry-picking projects would be a luxury she could enjoy.

But Carboneʼs restless energy and Smolanʼs ability to turn an idea into a goldmine make it hard to believe theyʼll be drifting into retirement anytime soon.

An exchange in the bookʼs Fame section sums it up nicely:

Leslie: Would you want to be profiled in The New Yorker?
Ken: That would be great, but Iʼd rather get to design the cover of The New Yorker.
Leslie: Youʼd rather do the cover than have a profile in the magazine?
Ken: Absolutely.
Leslie: Why not both?

Indeed.