St. Johns County Business Spotlight: Future Friends

Future Friends, established in 2012, is a branding and design studio based in St. Augustine, led by owners Danielle and Luke Brodersen. St. Johns County recently launched a new brand designed by the team at Future Friends and thought the community would enjoy knowing more about this creative group of local Flagler College graduates and why St. Johns County is such a great fit for their company.

Danielle and Luke, Flagler College grads (both ’09), share their thoughts on being business owners in St. Johns County.

Q: What inspired you to select St. Johns County as the home of your business?
A: Danielle was born in Jacksonville and raised in St. Augustine, so St. Johns County has been a home for her for almost as long as she can remember. Luke moved here to go to Flagler College, after tiring of moving around the world growing up. We both were invested in finding a place to start a business and raise a family and St. Augustine checked a lot of those boxes for us.

We started Future Friends in 2012 and we have four employees who are also all Flagler College grads (Catherine Provenza ’08, Mackenzie Rockwood ’18, Ben Becker ’21, and Crystal Jones ’08) who round out our team.

Q: What is the best part about being a business owner in St. Johns County?
A: One of the best things is being able to have personal relationships with our clients, such to where we can speak into their projects and be able to give advice about anything that has to do with graphic design or even running a business.

Q: What is your biggest business success to date?
A: Our biggest success as a business is being able to work on projects that we love and can wholeheartedly stand behind. We are proud of all the brands that we work with and we take pride in putting the Future Friends “quality seal” on every job we do.

Q: What is your vision for the future of your business?
A: Besides global domination, we tend to think quite “small.” We really enjoy the tight creative bond that our team has and we want to show how a small agency can do the big things as well as the smaller ones. We also want to keep spreading the word of how good graphic design can make all the difference.

Q: Outside of work, what activities do you enjoy here in St. Johns County?
A: At Future Friends, we all share a love for good music and good food. We are also pretty diverse in our other recreational ventures. Whether reading, antiquing/thrifting, climbing, exploring new places, our team enjoys a good adventure.

Q: Do you have any parting thoughts you’d like to share?
A: Whether you own a business or are starting a new one, remember that the visual “front” that you present is important to how your customers see you and how they first interact with you.

For more information about Future Friends, visit www.futurefriends.co. For more information about the St. Johns County Department of Economic Development, visit www.sjcfl.us/departments/economic-development.