Goodside is two!

That’s a wrap on Year 2! 

It’s April 5th, Goodside’s birthday! Two years in a row doesn’t quite make a trend, but we’re continuing our tradition of looking back on the highs, lows, and lols of our second year in biz—this time with a twist.

Sophomore year, terrible twos—whatever metaphor you choose, the world seems to agree that being two involves a lot more questions and tantrums than answers and wisdom. In that spirit, we thought it’d be fun to recap our year not with learnings, but with questions. 

If Year One was virtual champagne and a giant candle, we’re toasting Year Two with something a bit more curious. Fernet? Kombucha? To explore all the sweet, sour, and just plain funky bits, we’re sharing 10 questions that defined our second year in business. 

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1. How do we take on bigger work while staying small?  

To borrow a phrase from one of our favorite people, Grace Walker, Goodside is small on purpose. We like being little for a million reasons—mostly, it means we’re nimble enough to collaborate deeply and meaningfully with our clients. But the world tells us to scale at all costs, bigger is better, grow, grow, grow. So this year, we did some reflecting about how we define bigger: work that is more impactful, for our clients, for the world, and creatively. As we look ahead to next year, this means we’ll be prioritizing work for companies that can reach more people and touch their lives more deeply, changing behavior in the direction of health and happiness for all living things. It also means we’ll be prioritizing projects where we can create “big work” in a creative sense. That is, truly unexpected work that puts an emphasis on quality over quantity, with rich and experimental mediums, and creative specialists (illustrators, photographers, animators) who can push the work even further.   

2. How can we set our clients up for success after building their brand? 

This question has nagged us all year and it’s still something we’re talking about almost daily. We are brand builders at heart. But delivering brand guidelines with a royal wave goodbye just doesn’t feel right, no matter how much elbow and wrist we put into it. Typically our approach is to add on a flexible third phase (after strategy and identity) where we’ll create core brand touchpoints, templated assets and, often, a small website. In the age of AI, though, this question is definitely one we’re coming back to. We’ve experimented with creating prompts for clients who need to generate lots of copy in a consistent brand voice, and that felt pretty good. But we’re certain there’s more to come this year in that domain.       

3. How can we collaborate with as many creative people as possible? 

As much as we like us, we get endlessly excited and inspired when we get to work with creative people who are not us. Last year, we got to collab with and pass the baton to some tip top people and nothing brings us more joy: 

• We worked with Baggy Studio to bring a natural wine and beverage brand to life on the web, and wow is it delicious, we cannot wait to share.
• We worked with the incredible Upstatement team (shout out Scott Dasse) on building the Agog brand ahead of their launch at SXSW.
• We collaborated with Kinetic Studio on a beautiful website for an architecture firm. 
• We brought on Stina Wahlén as much as we could to make our brands move. 
• And we worked with Tyson Stryg to imagine early animations for a soon-to-launch company celebrating the human mind.   

As we look ahead to this year, we have a wishlist of dream collaborators that we'll be reaching out to as the right projects come along, and we’re thinking deeply about ways to set up collaborations to create the best work. If you’re up for a collab, give us a shout.  

4. What is our perfect client?  

Is there a perfect client? Is it fair to answer a question with a question? In the interest of giving you a window into our minds, here’s a brain dump of the kinds of clients that generally get us fired up. 

• Purpose-driven people who are absolutely obsessed with the problem they’re solving and the values they live by.
• Small in stature, but big in ambition—mom and pops, seed and series A, small businesses, Davids taking on Goliaths, etc.    
• Brave, creative, and looking for something wonderfully unexpected.     
• Focused on brand. This one might be obvious, but we’re focused on folks who are focused on brand.* 
• Understands the value of brand and is willing to invest the time (and money) to get it right.  
• Bonus points for folks working in our personal interest areas: healthcare, running, pets, families, food, travel, and the great outdoors. 

_{*For us, brand is both visual and verbal}

5. Should we start a thing? Like, another thing?  

The founder mentality is addictive. One of our favorite things about running Goodside is getting to rub shoulders with some of the most passionate people on the planet: founders. These are people who put everything on the line to build their thing, oftentimes risking their jobs, their livelihoods, their mental and physical health—okay we’re not selling it well, but that level of passion and creative force of bringing something from nothing is entirely electric. And it seems to be leading us to wonder if, perhaps, it’s time to try building something new... Stay tuned :)   

6. Is AI going to take our jobs? 

Not if we learn to use it well, with clear eyes on our end goal. At least, that’s our working theory. We see AI as a means to the same end we’ve always had: meaningful, brave, and deeply human brands. If AI helps us get there, that’s great. For us, it’s a way to free ourselves up from some boring stuff, sure, but it’s also a way to dream bigger, think wider, and imagine possibilities well beyond our two hands.  

7. What’s the right way (for us) to cut through the noise in this environment?  

To survive as a small studio, being loud comes with the territory. But as two extroverted introverts, it doesn’t always come naturally. This year we did a little less press and saved up our social energy chips for smaller scale hangs with studios we admire. We caught up with all kinds of interesting folks, and we loved it. But ever the pendulum, it’s time for us to swing back. This year, we’ll be doubling down on those one-on-one hangs, as well as written press, and a very special few podcasts and speaking events.         

8. Is it time for a Goodside rebrand? 

Resist the urge. Resist the urge. Resist the urge.  

9. Danielle has a one year old and Jess is a legit runner now??? 

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention that a huge part of our year last year was time away from work. Danielle had a baby (Will) and Jess took a sabbatical, both of which really changed our lives and mindsets for the better. Work-life balance is something we’re still getting the hang of, but taking 5 months off last year pretty much forced the life part to take priority and we have to say: it was nice! We’re really pleased with how life outside of work is going, and we just thought it was important to say so.  

10. Can someone please hire us for a pet brand? 

Jess is begging you. Truly. Desperation is unbecoming, but that’s where we are. Pet people, call us. 

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We may never have answers to all of these questions, but questions are what makes this work so interesting. And in an age where answers seem to be increasingly commoditized, it’s a nice reminder that curiosity is really what makes us human, anyway. So, we’ll leave it at that and a big, big thank you. 

We’re thrilled to be two. It’s a milestone that still feels decidedly small when you consider that our plan is to build the work of our lives, but two years is two years, and we’re really, very proud of that. Thanks for being along for this ride with us.