Parklife X Diecast: Nurturing Our Creative Spirit
By Brian Castle
You may have seen the announcement of our collaborative studio, Parklife x Diecast. It might be logical for you to think this is some statement of intent. Yet, it’s more a statement of “been there, done that, want more.”
Those of you who know my personal journey of entrepreneurship know that Parklife was a side hustle for a long time—the first decade or so. Since 2019, I’ve been trying to grow and scale this thing into something special. With the help of a lot of amazing people along the way, we’ve had some success, been resilient in adversity, and are well on our way to our goals.
I was reluctant to even call myself an entrepreneur, mainly because I don’t like labels and titles. I was always the alternative kid in school, so if something is standard or orthodox or traditional, I often reject it out of hand.
Yet, I realized that I was behind in eating the dog food I’d been hired to prepare for others. We started investing in our brand creation and building around here, and we thankfully made up for lost time. I can point to a larger, more diverse client roster, more engaged partners, and bigger revenue as ROI on finally having a brand strategy for Parklife.
I backed into our brand much like I did when I finally knew who we were, what we were about, and who we wanted to work with and for. Recently, I had an epiphany.
Our mission at Parklife is to create a haven for creatives and a haven for entrepreneurs. We do a lot of work on the latter, and this new old idea puts some weight on the former. This week, we are proud to announce our arrival in the world of “creative that’s not marketing” (catchy, I know).
Over the last three years, our team has been blessed with working on some amazing non-marketing projects in the service of some even more amazing people. We’ve done some legacy-defining work in the historic preservation space, finally getting the share of voice deserved by the underserved Black and Indigenous communities of North Carolina.
In addition, we’ve done some high-impact educational curriculum work in child abuse prevention. We’ve also produced collateral materials for several nonprofit education initiatives in various social impact areas across the country.
We’ve helped two authors get their works published and created the visual brand identity for a North Carolina nonprofit’s new publishing imprint.
The launch of Parklife x Diecast is our team saying, “Yeah, we’ll have some more of that. ALL OF THAT!” Those of you who’ve worked with our team of creatives–Carly Martinelli, Annie Vann, Jess Ledrowski, Rachel Cameron, and Lisa Smith–know that they seamlessly skip from pure marketing to the purely “not-marketing.” They might give you some different answers, but I think we, as creatives, get our joy from creating art, creating impact, and creating legacy in ways that fuel and refuel the work that amplifies others.
Joining our party are a pair of my favorite people in the universe. Marshall Hanbury, founder of Diecast Media Group, is a true artist, living his ninth and best life now as a storyteller through video, photography, and more. Whether it’s brand films, a horror short, curriculum work, documentaries, or on-location podcasting, Marshall brings a flair for the dramatic and a steady technical hand to the proceedings.
Saving the best for last, Annie Newton–beloved to all of us at Parklife and to anyone who’s shared oxygen with her–brings deep expertise in creative project strategy, planning, and funding. Like the rest of us, Annie is driven by a great commitment to inclusion and telling stories that have been lost or buried (often intentionally) of those powerless to press their case on their own.
We are Parklife x Diecast. We are all together now, with hopefully many more to join our good ship Lollipop. Reach out to me personally at brian@parklifecomm.com to learn more.