In this issue:

1. We meet some new faces
2. We meet some new llamas
3. We look back at 2020
4. We look forward at 2021
5. We make some recommendations
6. Who are we again?

We meet some new faces

We've got some new faces on board!

Isaac joined us full time at the end of 2020. He's been around for a bit, but we've now got a longer intro up on the blog.

Jace has been in the Intrepid Intern position this spring. Jace powered through our apprenticeship course (which culminated in building a pretty impressive cookbook generator) and now he's flexing those developer muscles on real projects.

We meet some new llamas

Not all of our projects have big launch milestones to celebrate. And that's good, because after we first launch, we continue to work with our clients as partners, growing and adapating these digital produucts as the business needs and user needs evolve. So, we try to take some time to step back and celebrate what's been achieved, a practice we call Final Fridays.

Sometimes Final Friday is just a hangout, a time to kick back and celebrate what we've built. But other times we go pretty far afield, like throwing pots or putting together a live drawing day... at a llama ranch. We wrote a recap of those activities here.

Looking back

2020, that most famous of bad years, was a challenge for everybody. But BNB took on that challenge, and I'm proud of how we weathered it. What I'm proudest of is how we helped our clients pivot, adapt, and thrive. Like:

• the record label that couldn't record, and instead created the most hyped Gregorian chant app

• the merch platform that became a lifeline for recording artists who couldn't do in-person shows

• the institute that helped home visitors who couldn't visit tackle asynchronous professional development.

We wrote more about those stories here.

Looking forward

It's May, the weather is beautiful, the world is turning green again, and the BNB team is vaccinated with that Fauci ouchie. We're excited. 2021, long may it reign, looks to be a year of opportunity.

Some recommendations

It's always exciting to see independent businesses get some attention. Our mid-coast location is in Lawrence, where we've got a few local business that keep getting national press. Just in our thriving downtown:

• The Raven was featured in the New Yorker, for their creative approaches to running a small indie bookstore during a pandemic (the answer involves zines, a novel written by a cat, and picking a fight with amazon).

• Caramelo is a tortilla startup that's getting rave reviews from Bon Appetit and IG celebrities. Order yourself those some of those duck fat tortillas now, before their waitlist gets any longer.

Who are we again?

We're Brand New Box, a digital product studio that builds new tech superpowers for teams. When companies can't find an off-the-shelf tool that solves their problem, they call us. Odds are good we can help you, too.