We were lucky to catch up with Ashton Hauff recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ashton, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

In our local community, we have two types of design business; the traditional marketing/ad agency and the freelancer. One tries to do everything while the other niches but stays too small to solve big problems. We wanted to be right in the middle, a niched business with a top-notch team. This approach accelerates our expertise, ensuring our clients receive a world-class branding experience, while also affording talented creatives the opportunity to pursue their passion without the burdens of business ownership.

One of the things we do best is discovering a company’s unique differentiator. What does your business do better than anyone else? We encourage you to own that boldly and proudly. Most people want to jump right into logo design, but we urge businesses to first take a step back to establish the fundamental pillars of (1) brand narrative (2) target audience, and (3) differentiation within the market. Once those are established, the logo we create will be tailor fitted to those goals and produce a higher ROI.

Once a company chooses a lane, now they can drive a lot faster. They also gain a deeper understanding of their offering and because of that, they can make better decisions quickly and confidently.

Ashton, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Ben and I both come from graphic design backgrounds. Before venturing into freelancing, we gained valuable experience with various design groups, ranging from startups to printing shops. These diverse experiences not only informed our skills but also steered us toward entrepreneurship. We freelanced independently for about a year sharing an office space, and found we had complimentary talents that could really help businesses grow. We joined forces and began learning everything we could about branding.

Today, The Good Kids is a design studio that builds brands for connection, disruption, and good. Our small but mighty team helps clients create daring brands that connect them to their ideal audience in a meaningful way. We offer a comprehensive range of branding services, from conducting thorough brand audits to orchestrating complete rebrands that equip businesses with the visual and messaging assets necessary to stand out authentically.

Our secret ingredient is our strategy process, which means we learn a LOT about the companies we work with BEFORE we tell the world who they are. We are good at listening so we can best communicate who they are and why others should care.

We’re most proud of how the brands we create achieve more than simply “looking good.” They also bring people together. Brands that create shared experiences get recognized and build loyal followings, all resulting in greater business success. It’s how we change the world one brand at a time.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Yes, most definitely! Some of our favorite include: Herding Tigers: Be The Leader That Creative People Need by Todd Henry
Win Without Pitching Manifesto by Blair Enns
Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier
Atomic Habits by James Clear
The Futur’s resources led by Chris Do
The Strategy Finishing School by Julian Cole
Leadmore’s resources led by John T. Meyer

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

In addition to being design freelancers, both Ben and I had passion projects and side hustles along the way that have greatly influenced the work we specialize in today. From the very beginning of our working relationship in 2016, we founded and created the brand for Makewell, an organization to connect and equip makers in the Midwest. This taught us the power of community building, gave insight into the event space and ultimately gave us the community support we needed to leave full-time employment and venture into freelancing in the following years. Then in 2018 and 2019, Ben started leading branding workshops alongside designing for his first coffee company. This project showed Ben firsthand how branding and packaging synergize to drive business success.
Then in early 2020, just prior to the onset of the pandemic, I launched Evertide, a quarterly planner tailored for busy women seeking to lead intentional lives. This venture granted us intimate insights into the needs of product owners and highlighted the pivotal role packaging plays in achieving success.
Collectively, these experiences have given us the expertise and passion necessary to cater to the branding needs of the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and Tourism industries. Having walked in their shoes, we are deeply committed to supporting both product owners and community builders in their endeavors, recognizing their profound ability to foster connections—a mission we believe holds immense significance in today’s world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thegoodkids.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegoodkids
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegoodkidsco
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-good-kids/