Left to right: Josh Williams, senior designer; Brian Barto, senior art director; Terry Montimore, creative director; Tim Alford, director new media; Lael Hesley, senior production specialist; Paul Dolan, director production services; Steve Fala, director group services.

Founded by president and CEO Bill Goodwin, Philadelphia-based Goodwin has utilized its vast expertise in branding, packaging, licensing, and brand revitalization for youth-oriented products and services to partner with and counsel some of the world's leading brands, including the Campbell Soup Company, Disney, Hasbro, Johnson & Johnson, Mattel, Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart.

"From our humble beginnings in the toy industry nearly a decade ago, our work (some call it work, we call it fun) now includes candy, food and beverage, games, personal care, electronics, entertainment, education, pharmaceutical, publishing, licensing, sports, and other products," says Goodwin. "In fact, many of our client relationships span the length of our existence."

Goodwin's primary focus has always been to help their client companies who care about today's youth, and to connect with kids, tweens, and teens by developing brand experiences that enhance their lives. The slogan "Designing valued relationships with kids" permeates everything the staff does. Goodwin combines expertise with innovative marketing strategies, smart design solutions, and a complete understanding of their clients' businesses and markets. Their ultimate goal is to help their clients leverage their brand power to reach kids, and build enduring relationships with them.

Goodwin's expertise lies in the fact that their unique culture combines people from multiple disciplines to partner with their clients throughout the design process. Goodwin has worked closely with clients as they have explored an array of strategic cost-cutting, best practice implementation, return-on-investment projection, market research, competitive benchmarking, innovation engagement, speed-to-market maximization, results analyses, and more. "We've got to constantly be reinventing what we do," says Goodwin.

With many projects allowing the Goodwin staff to pursue "blue sky" projects (ideas and designs without limits), Goodwin himself sometimes gets frustrated because so many great designs they fully develop never leave the four walls of their office. With kids in the mix, "What if...?" experiments can yield some fantastical results. At every stage of developing designs for the youth market, the firm test markets ideas with kids online or in focus groups, or both.

Goodwin's services have grown to include consulting, ideation, naming, identity, positioning, research, product design, promotion, illustration, photography, copywriting, new media, and interactive (websites, games, advergames, presentations, animation, music, and sound design) for campaigns ranging from new product line launches, designing POP, promotional, and advertising materials, creating collateral systems to trend tracking and forecasting.