2017 Year in Review

2017 marked the tenth year anniversary of Elf as a company and our fifth year as an agency. We're thankful for our wonderful clients, our growing team, our community and the fulfilling work we do!

Thank you also for your interest in Elf. We appreciate all the enthusiasm and warm support we receive from our fans, friends, colleagues and greater community. Here's highlights from our 2017 Year in Review.

Year in Review

• Elf is featured in Creativity Online for our work on Stardust, our upcoming Hayden's podcast with Sony,  our Seeker App with NASA, our responsive website design for Connor & Gaskins Unlimited Marine and our design for the University of Vermont's health and wellness app.

•Hayden's magazine Courage issue launched. Hayden's community also surpasses 10 Million+. 

• Elf launches new game division, Atom Games. Our first game in development is Skye, an aviation simulation game that will be available in the App Store and on Xbox. We are also happy to share that we are developing a version compatible with the Nimbus Minecraft Controller so that you can play live using Apple TV.

• Elf is also developing a series of emergency response apps for use during natural disasters.

• Content we've created has been shared widely and featured in Yahoo! Finance, Nasdaq, Investopedia, Morningstar and more.

• Elf opens two new studios in San Francisco, CA and Oslo, Norway.

We're thankful for the opportunities available today, our wonderful team, our amazing, excellent clients and all that we can create and achieve today. Here's to 2018 - the best year yet! 

Three Questions to Ask to Create a Business of Value

As we work with our clients on any endeavor, large or small, we always aim to help our clients grow. Growth goals vary by company.  For some, the goal is to grow their existing customer base and audience. For others, it is to hone in on the most effective part of their current offering and amplify it, while removing distractions and other aspects that are less useful or relevant.

Sometimes it also involves drilling down to remember why that company exists in the first place so that the people involved can do satisfying work that they excel at and to keep their companies growing for the future. This applies to everyone within the company and thus offers a better fit between employees and work; greater job and employee satisfaction; higher productivity; and higher returns. It also helps in removing unnecessary expenditures and identifying areas that are not the best utilization of resources, whether it is time, capital, human labor or a combination of all of the above.

This approach builds upon the clear strategy and advice offered by Jim Collins in the book, Good To Great. In this book, Jim lays out 3 essentials to help build a business of true value. These 3 essentials are:

- what you can do
- what you love to do
- what customers pay you well to do.

Building a business of value lies at the intersection of these three areas.  We've taken this further and adapted it for our clients. Learn more about Our Approach.

In addition to this, we also have three questions or organizing principles that we think can help in creating and updating a business.

1. Where do you think the world is moving?

2. What are problems that you can solve?

3. What are some ideas you have that can be designed for a better future?

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