Nick Felder and his friend (and former college roommate) Kyle Bergman operate the New York company, which publishes architectural product sourcebooks. Felder left Cliff Freeman in April to launch Alt Spec.

"It's something I've been wanting to do and thinking about doing for a long time," says Felder. He describes the books Alt Spec publishes: "Very high-end, premium quality sourcebooks, a lot like a workbook or black book for the architecture and design community."

The news may confuse some who understood Felder to have left Cliff Freeman in order to pursue freelance opportunities.

"The unfortunate thing is when I left Cliff we didn't have all the funding secured and in place and I didn't want to say anything prematurely," he explains. "I told people I was going freelance and about a month after that the funding was secured. So a lot of people thought I fell off the face of the earth. However I am here on 26th Street, right around the corner from Villains and the New York Office."

As for regrets on leaving the ad biz, Felder says he has zero.

"It was the best decade of my life thus far, and I miss it sometimes. I stillÉfollow what's going on," he says without a trace of wistfulness. "In some ways I do miss advertising. The main thing is there is a lot of camaraderie and community in advertising that I think in publishing is a little lacking. That community has brought me a lot of great friends I still have and will continue to have. Hopefully publishing will be as good to me but I still feel very connected to the production world: friends, acquaintances, former lovers, everything."