Just the facts: Age - 27; Hometown - Stanford, CT; Education - studied sound engineering at Emerson College in Boston; Employ - sound designer/composer at Endless Noise.

Musical history: Friedman's father was in a rock band and passed his affinity for music on to his son, who played in a variety of punk bands. He was hired at Endless Noise as a production assistant "at the bottom of the barrel" in 2004.

Favorite spots: "The best ads have been Nike ads, across the board," he says. "Lately, they have been much more artistic than product-driven."

Best work: One of his first gigs was an all-night affair for adidas. Endless had less than 24 hours to come up with several quirky orchestral concepts loosely based on the soundtrack for Rushmore. The spot shows a non-descript jogger passing several inflated objects (tires, waterbeds), which promptly burst, apparently discouraged by the impressive cushioning power of adidas' sneakers. The result is a bouncy, pizzicato string-based melody that carries the wordless-spot.

Branching out from punk: "I took a couple of guitar lessons when I was growing up, but I didn't start playing piano until I was at Endless. In the commercial world, you get much less of an opportunity to play harder stuff. So I listened to as much orchestral and electronic music as possible."

Endless Noise http://www.endlessnoise.com