Being at the beginning of a movement, a new development phase, demonstrating a new process, or a new way of thinking is equal parts exhilarating and exhausting.

2021 marks LimeRed’s 17th year in existence. 17 is my lucky number. It’s my birthdate that I share with Michelle Obama, Betty White, and Muhammad Ali. I take this stuff seriously.

When I was 26 years old, I had this feeling that I could use my talents for design and writing for a bigger purpose and create large-scale social good. Sure, most of my job can be boiled down to combining a bunch of different elements into something pretty, but design is so much more than that. So I quit my job, jumped feet first into design for social good when almost no one talked about mission-driven business, equity, and fairness in my industry. 

And here we are, seventeen years later. We began during a war, survived two recessions, several years without a state budget, four years of He Who Shall Not Be Mentioned, a few government shutdowns, some serious personal changes, lots of amazing staff. 

I jokingly call us the punk rock little sister of design agencies. I half-laugh when I call us the most hardcore of the agencies that I know. 

Friends, this is not a joke. We have been tried and tested. We’ve been at the beginning of movements. We haven’t sold out. We have assumed the best of people and have been heartbroken a few times, but most of the time we have witnessed radical transformations in thinking, communication, and brand. 

During the last four years, we’ve talked a lot about shaking things up, about helping people break through noirs or disrupt an industry or turn a convention on its head. Before we build back better, we have to break it apart, right? Find the cracks? I think we’ve been doing that well for many years. We’ve never been afraid to say what needed to be said, take a stand, or even say no to a client. 

It’s time for a slightly different approach. 

It’s time to make some big, bold moves. It’s time to be brave. It’s time to move beyond our egos, our pasts, our nostalgia, “what has been done,” and take a risk. 

For me, that means believing that love is real, that asking for help makes you stronger, and that control is an illusion. 

For our clients, we are by your side in every way. LimeRed has always been more than “nice” or “good” design: We are brave design. We build brave brands. We have done and continue to do the work. We are the change we want to see in the world. 

We will continue to do this work together and be the sounding board and voice of courage when you aren’t sure what to do. We hope you will continue to do the same for us.

And just so we all remember what is at stake, I made a list of 17 reasons why it’s critical that you take a bold, brave move right now.

17 reasons to be brave:

1. Our planet belongs to the generations before and after us. It is our responsibility to save it.
2. Our children will remember how we treated them.
3. Most of us are visual learners, and the images we see stay with us.
4. We do not know most of what there is to know.
5. Nature connects us to each other and to our past and future. Without it, we die.
6. Bravery takes vulnerability, honesty, and kindness. 
7. When you’re a little scared of what you’ve decided to do, you’re moving in the right direction. It gets easier with practice.
8. Be careful with your time, and when you commit, commit fully.
9. You have the power within you to create a movement. Even that’s a movement of one.
10. If you have any privilege at all, it’s your responsibility to use that privilege to help others and find out what people genuinely need. No judging.
11. Uncovering a need and being able to help is one of the most gratifying feelings ever.
12. Every human being deserves to have their needs met.
13. No one person is better than any other.
14. You will have to give something up to make real change.
15. If you think you would regret not taking the next step, take it now.
16. “No” is a perfectly acceptable response. It is a complete sentence. So is “Yes.”
17. You can change your mind. 

When you’re ready, we’re right here. 

You can do this. 

Love,
Emily