Year of Creativity: A Reflection

Ryan Freng

January 12, 2024

As we take a trip down memory lane reflecting on 2023 here at Backflip, we’re ready to relive the fun times, conveniently misplace the more stress-inducing memories, and celebrate the wins we managed to snag along the way! So, what’s the buzz in our team about 2023, and what sorts of things are we excited about for 2024? Let’s find out…

Ryan

Last year we created two videos, Dare to Believe Episode 1, and Homegrown Holidays, which have gained momentum all their own. With the first skyrocketing to 140k views and the second hitting 40k after only two weeks! They were definitely passion projects, and while the first was client work it’s awesome to see both of them have organic success on YouTube. In addition, our Ho-Chunk Madison commercials are making a big splash. Everyone is seeing them and I’ve even been recognized by a stranger at the grocery store for my acting in the latest commercial.

This was my answer last year, but I’m super excited about AI in 2024. 2023 saw the rise of AI in everything and now I feel like we’re actually seeing useful implementations of it. I’ve used it to help with script ideas, generate images and visuals for projects, and even write rough drafts of blog posts and other content (spoiler). AI is shaping up to be the assistant that I never knew I wanted.

John

Trying to choose the highlight of the previous year is kind of like being asked “Which is your favorite child?” I mean… you might have one but you don’t feel like you should say it out loud.One project that sticks out to me from 2023 is the branding project we did for Northlife Church (formerly St. Germain’s Evangelical Free Church). The weight of responsibility on a project like that is not something we take lightly. Hannah and I traveled up to the north woods to conduct a branding workshop with the team and also to get to know the community and try to understand their identity intimately. The name and brand that emerged from our work together was the result of hard work, incredible creativity, and of course, prayer. Anytime we can unite with a client on this kind of deep level, the end result becomes even more rewarding.

In the year ahead, I am excited to pursue some of the creative internal projects that have been rolling around in the minds of Backflip. We’ve had more experience producing self-initiated projects recently and I’d love to see what opportunities we’ll be able to create outside the client-driven model we usually work within.

Scott

Some highlights were seeing Hannah win 2 major awards for her design work at the Madison ADDY Awards – Judge’s Choice for Karben4 Happy Silly Time series of beer labels and Judge’s Choice for Karben4 Priest, Prophet, & King beer label/can design. And, of course, watching the entire team continuing to do cutting-edge creative collaborations with our congenial clients!

In 2024 I’m looking forward to seeing what the creatives do next! FYI, the team liked my recent idea of editing some Backflip Christmas video bloopers, so I look forward to sharing much laughter in 2024. (Especially if it’s at my own expense.)

Luke

One of the highlights of 2023 for me was the work we did for CUNA. We had three on-location shoots which took us to three places I had never been. We met some really cool people with great stories.

As for the year ahead, I don’t have anything specific but it’s always exciting to see what kind of crazy projects we end up doing and doing our best to make them awesome!

Hannah

As I enjoyed my final days in the office (no, not forever, just geographically as I prepared for a wedding and a move out of state to work remotely) I really loved seeing some projects from the previous year come to fruition, the mascot I helped design finally came to life, and I completed a purposeful brand redesign for Northlife Church. A great way to wrap up the year was having my husband experience firsthand some of the fun we have here as we filmed our Christmas video, Homegrown Holidays! He always gets to hear the stories and is a huge supporter but for him to experience it firsthand and play a big part in the video this year was so much fun for us 🙂

This next year I’m really excited about a few new projects we have on the horizon that will certainly challenge the way I approach projects and push my limits on creating something new and beautiful!

Max

It’s hard to pick just one highlight from all the projects we’ve done over the past year but here are a couple:

‘Homegrown Holidays’
- Our Christmas video this year was a Hallmark trailer parody and has turned out to be our most-watched Christmas video of all time. On top of being the most-watched, it has quickly become one of my favorites.
‘WIEDC Vignettes’
- This was a series of videos we did for the Wisconsin Indigenous Economic Development Corporation in association with our frequent collaborator, Perodigm. Each vignette highlights a different indigenous-owned business with the goal of expanding indigenous economic development in Wisconsin.

I’m looking forward to a lot this upcoming year. One of my favorite things about my job is that every day is different. Every project presents a new set of unique challenges and coming up with creative solutions is part of the fun.

Alexis

My highlight was definitely starting at Backflip in May! It’s been a joy to be a part of such an awesome crew and learn all the ins and outs of Backflip. Also, my favorite project to work on was our Hallmark Christmas video. It fulfilled all the hopes and dreams of my inner romantic teenager who cherishes cheesy romcoms and has seen wayyyyy too many…

This year, I’m looking forward to graduating from UW-Madison in May and starting full-time at Backflip! I know there’s going to be a lot of cool projects, great opportunities, and lots of fun shenanigans!