“We take complicated projects and find beautiful and elegant solutions,” says Josh Linden, Project Manager and Marketing Associate at GoodFolk. GoodFolk is a full-service digital agency that focuses on the strategy, design, development, and marketing of websites and applications.
Since its launch in 2002 as a custom backend development shop, their team has seen exciting changes. Realizing they were providing more value to their clients than just executing projects, they became a full service digital agency called 10 Speed Labs and hired a creative director. Then, this January, a hand-picked team split off to form GoodFolk, which still does high-end design, development, and digital marketing work for world-class clients, but with a charitable focus and a Chicago headquarters.
GoodFolk now provides the full agency experience, including strategy, design, development, and management. They pride themselves on giving every client full attention from their “A” team. Linden emphasizes, “We don’t have a ‘B’ team. We have extremely high standards for our employees and emphasize producing the best work.”
As their company grows, so does their impact on society. The rebranding was inspired by a desire to give back. Linden explains, “After brainstorming our company’s values, we wanted to begin doing more of what feeds our souls. We now spend ten percent of our time in the office supporting companies that are doing good and giving back.” Many nonprofits and humanitarian organizations may not have the time or resources for the creative digital work needed to advance their cause. GoodFolk is changing that with GoodFolk Fridays.
Linden says, “GoodFolk Fridays are how we do our pro bono projects. We shut down our office to our clients every other Friday to do so. It’s a fun day that gives us a chance to give back and to have everyone in the company work together on a project.”
One nonprofit that is benefiting from GoodFolk’s work is Intare Tech. The organization strives to educate a new generation of developers in Rwanda in order to create sustainable employment opportunities for Rwandans in their country. GoodFolk is helping them design a logo and business cards.
GoodFolk has a satellite office in New York and is excited to be growing their Chicago team. With this growth, be sure to watch out for all of their creative and philanthropic work.