About us

Hi. We’re Brains on Fire.

Who we are

We are a quirky group of practical dreamers and realist idealists. We like to solve big, creative, human challenges, realize solutions into the world and design them to actually work for real people.

Our business is about two things: People and Process. You want an agency that is obsessed with both. That’s us. When people ask us what we do, we like to say that we are in the trade of “creativity for human beings.”

Services

We are a full-service agency.

We make stuff, design stuff, tell stories, use technology, create experiences, manage communities, and more.


Clients typically come to us for branding, identity, and community-centered marketing.


Basically, we help dream up brands and communities, then design the products, services, programs, and experiences to bring them to life.


Our strength is in our people-first creative process and commitment to big thinking, which allows us to help solve all sorts of creative problems for our clients and partners. But we also believe we are only as good as what we can make, so we pride ourselves on being world-class implementors of meaningful strategic and creative solutions.

Community-centered

We believe being community-centered is the most sustainable way to do marketing, communications and design. It happens when you use those things to connect humans around shared values, passions, or purpose. It happens when your North Star is centered on your internal and external communities.


Community-centered marketing gives instead of just broadcasting. It sparks meaningful conversation rather than just creating noise. It’s values versus promotion. It’s authentically uncovered versus artificially generated.


‍And it NEVER seeks to bamboozle, beguile or deceive.


‍When your marketing creates authentic and meaningful experiences and impacts the lives of your customers through shared values and passions, that’s when people start to love you, open their wallets for you, tell their friends about you and become living ambassadors for your brand. It’s as much about your internal culture as it is about your external communications.


‍We believe this is what separates the good brands from the great brands.

Clients

We partner with bold, collaborative, community-driven brands and organizations that live their mission, put people at the heart of their purpose and aspire to be a story others recognize themselves in and feel compelled to talk about.

When we say 'Bold'

We encourage our clients and partners to be courageous, push beyond their comfort zones and believe in the power of big ideas. If your objective is comfortable, status-quo marketing and more of the same, we are not the agency for you.

When we say 'Collaborative'

We have unusually close relationships with our clients and partners, and we don’t believe in a traditional vendor-client dynamic. We immerse ourselves in your culture, your challenges, your community and your customers because understanding your brand is the first step to figuring out how we can best help you.

When we say 'Community-Driven'

Brands that have a meaningful impact on the world have two things in common: they stand for something and they bring people together around that shared mission or purpose. They don’t just talk about what they want to see in the world, they inspire others to join them in taking action to make it happen.

Our Values

Our values are what drives us as a company. They are our north star for both our internal culture and our external work.

We do together.

We believe our best ideas and solutions are born from a collaborative process where a diversity of thought, talents, experience and world views are at the table. When we sit down at the table, our expectation is that the person next to us will make our ideas better. We seek out collaboration and diversity, which isn’t just about how we look, but also how we think.

We take care of each other.

We take care of each other.We lift each other up for success. Always. We belong to a shared story that is called Brains on Fire and we are committed to making that story one worth choosing every day.

We lead with empathy.

We are “Team Human” all the way. We embrace curiosity and empathy. We put people first when designing solutions.

We believe
in magic.

We believe in the big idea and the seemingly inexplicable force of social movements. We push all of our ideas and solutions to be bigger and full of the best and most mysterious parts of humanity.

We find
the flag.

We believe every problem we are solving should plant a flag in the ground. A why. A reason for doing it. A reason to believe. If we can’t find it, we have failed. (Or we shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.)

We give a damn.

We believe in a culture that takes personal and collective ownership over our work. We care deeply about the work we are doing and people we are partnering with. This care is reflected in how we approach our work and communicate with our clients and partners.

We design everything.


We believe in the power of design. And we believe everything can (and often should) be designed. This is especially true when it comes to culture and community. We are committed to thoughtful design (and design process) of everything, top-to-bottom, be it pixel, product, service, culture, community or brand.

Offices

We partner with bold, collaborative, community-driven brands and organizations that live their mission, put people at the heart of their purpose and aspire to be a story others recognize themselves in and feel compelled to talk about.