The new creative agency 100 Acre Wood held its launch party on Monday night at the aptly-named Toronto restaurant Woodlot.
Founded by Top 30 Under 30 recipient Steve Tam and business partner Amy Wood, the agency is styled as a collective of carefully selected freelancers, each with a well-honed specialty.
Speaking to Marketing as she prepared for the launch event, Wood explained she and Tam started collaborating on projects as freelancers in early 2013 and then decided to band together a group of like-minded freelancers to work as a cohesive unit.
“We had both accumulated vast circles of really talented freelancers that we wanted to collaborate with, but it’s hard to initiative those types of scenarios as an individual contractor,” Wood said. “When you’re bringing a friend into the mix clients always expect a discount or personal favour. We wanted to bring professionalism back into working with talented people we trust.”
100 Acre Wood’s network includes illustrators, graphic designers, web designer, photographers and videographers. Wood said the agency is prepared to take on everything from branding work to custom content, package design and digital/web design. It recently designed an iPad app for the real estate company Oxford Properties (a collaboration with the development shop Functional Imperative) and is now working on a re-brand for an international medical company.
Prior to founding 100 Acre Wood, Tam acted as a marketing consultant for the startup accelerators Jolt and Extreme Startups. He also created the Beacon Bike Light, a Kickstarter-funded light that zip-ties to a bike’s handlebars to prevent theft.
Wood worked as a copywriter at Espresso and a freelance strategist and writer for The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Profis Communications and St. Joseph Media.
