Goodbye, 2025: A Year in Review at Studio Simpatico January 05, 2026 | From the Studio

Write my annual “Year in Review” post. Below are links of the past year in review posts, match the tone and personality and structure. Uploading exports of our case studies, use them to include mention of all our projects we launched. Uploading full Slack history, include funny anecdotes/big life events from the year. DO. NOT. USE. EM. DASHES.

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Juuust kidding. I make no guarantees about the transactional emails I may have sent you over the last year, but this year-end review (like the others pre-AI-pocalypse) was written by Tamara the Human.

So, Reader. 2025 … amirite?

The year our knowledge workers mutated into “prompt engineers,” reassured that AI won’t take their jobs (but people who know how to use AI will). The year Wall Street and its oligarchs continued flying high on dollar signs and projected efficiencies. Closer to home, the year our bots tagged along (and often outnumbered us) in virtual meetings.

Tamara the Technology Tinkerer and Optimization Junkie loves how new tools bring value to her team’s workflows and clients’ projects. Tamara the Media Studies Major (who sits adjacent to Tamara the Dystopian Novel Addict and Tamara the Neurotic, Catastrophizing New Yorker) is convinced that nothing is headed in the right direction for humanity. Tamara the Manager and Former Adjunct Professor chimes in, “Awesome tools and tech … but what problem are we solving?”

The LLMs are picking up speed. The list of “human-only” skills is changing in real time.

Let’s zoom out, back to conundrums within the sphere of my control. (My therapist would be proud.) What does this mean for Simpatico, a studio whose unique marketing value proposition for the last 10 years has been how “undeniably, irresistibly human” we are?

Tempting though it is, we’re not burying our heads in the sand. We’re experimenting and iterating on where and how we can best add value. We’re not betting on a static definition of human work. We’re betting on judgment and responsibility, on people who can sit with complexity, make decisions, and stand behind them. The tools will keep evolving; the work is in deciding how to use them and why. Our seven-person team will focus on supporting humans and building systems that support humans—at least, for now.

(My mother was an English teacher. That was ME using the em dash, goddammit.)

Happy 2026, everyone. With no further ado, our year in review …

Winter

On social media, we’re celebrating two seamless launches.

The first: C.A. Goldberg, the high-profile New York law firm led by Carrie Goldberg. Known for holding sexual predators and tech companies accountable, the firm had outgrown its previous site. We partnered with their team to create a more mature, confident digital presence, refining the visual identity, reworking the site architecture, and building custom templates that reflect the firm’s expanded practice areas and growing impact. The result is bold, polished, and unmistakably C.A. Goldberg.

The second: a refreshed site for Oshi Health, a pioneer in virtual gastrointestinal care. The challenge was creating a digital experience that clearly serves both patients and enterprise partners while supporting a rapidly evolving organization. We updated the visual system, streamlined the UX, and built a flexible WordPress foundation that makes it easy for the team to scale content and resources over time. The new site feels modern, clear, and built for growth.

But off social media, winter is quiet. Too quiet. The market tightens, intake slows, and projects take too long to close. I conduct two layoffs that hit my heart. It’s a sobering moment that underscores how exposed small, independent businesses are to broader swings, no matter how strong the work or relationships are. It also exposes how when it involves people, it’s never “just business.”

The rest of the team takes a deep breath and buckles down, focusing on producing great work and also creative marketing strategies to communicate the value of our studio. (We’re particularly proud of our Valentine’s Day post, featuring Angela’s inimitable illustration skills.)

Spring

As the temperatures start to rise, thankfully so does our intake. By the time April rolls around, everything is feeling more stable. Spring in New York welcomes many things, including an adorable addition to both the #simpatico-pets channel and Angela’s household … Haru Huang!

It also welcomes the launch of our new web presence for CitizensNYC. Their work is the real deal: deeply embedded in the fabric of our great city, fostering change from the ground up through more than $1M a year in microgrants supporting neighborhood groups, nonprofits, small businesses, and public schools across all five boroughs. The new site balances civic professionalism with bold, outside-the-box thinking. The result feels grounded, optimistic, and reflective of a mission rooted in community, resilience, and local impact.

 

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The list of things we loved about working with Isi and Nick from CitizensNYC is long, and includes their appreciation for the Simpatico brand and its nuances.

Throughout the spring, we proudly support our beloved client Grasshopper Bank through its landmark acquisition of Auto Club Trust, a milestone that significantly expands the bank’s national footprint and consumer banking capabilities. As part of this next chapter, we partner closely with Grasshopper’s team to launch the new AAA Banking experience at acg.grasshopper.bank, bringing a trusted, member-first financial offering to millions of AAA members across a multi-state region.

As the world feels increasingly global, abstract, and impersonal, being able to make tangible impact close to home matters more than ever. Simpatico’s de facto home is New York City, which has always been a city of immigrants, shaped by people who arrive, build, and contribute despite uncertainty. As political rhetoric hardens and the ground feels increasingly unstable for many communities, we launch The Original Sanctuary City campaign with the Domestic Violence Project at the Urban Justice Center, which feels both urgent and grounding. It’s a chance to support a cause that is deeply aligned with our values and to invest our energy in work that directly serves the city we live in, love, and call home.

 

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Another thing feeling uncertain in 2025? The future of journalism and media.

In that vein, our partnership with Harper’s Magazine feels especially poignant. Harper’s is a New York institution. We are proud to contribute the design for its 175th anniversary landing page, drawing from their print issue to create something that honors the publication’s long history while living comfortably on the modern web. Antique-feeling dingbats, details lifted from the illustrated cover, and thoughtful interactivity help bring Harper’s past into the present.

 

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That month, we’re selected through a highly competitive process to partner with GrowNYC, an organization that quietly underpins New York City daily life, from Greenmarkets and food access to sustainability education and environmental progress across the city. Our engagement gives us the opportunity to sponsor their annual gala and celebrate the organization’s impact in person.

Summer

Earlier I nodded to the drawbacks of running a small, lean studio; now, I’ll talk about one of the pros: Being able to cherrypick clients and projects who are 100% simpatico.

We launched Silverline’s website in March 2020, the week the world shut down from COVID. Somehow, through the uncertainty and chaos of the time, we managed to fully gel with their team, and that early trust stuck. When Silverline returns in 2025 (post-acquisition by Mphasis), we are thrilled to partner with them again to reimagine their digital front door. Silverline is a consultancy helping their clients get the most out of Salesforce, from complex CRM implementations to data, analytics, and long-term platform strategy. We lead a full redesign and rebuild, migrating the site from its previous platform, all the while celebrating how good it feels when partners who know you and your work come back.

 

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On the homefront, Simpatico’s head of design Bruce buys a house! We pressure him until he caves to fire up the #diy-bruce Slack channel to give us visibility into his adventures in first-time homeownership and myriad of DIY projects.

The studio collectively cheers to learn that Zeth and his long-time partner Steph are engaged! We also applaud his ingenious stealth engagement plan in beautiful Yosemite.

During the hottest days of summer, Phebe and I make the trek down to the GrowNYC office to lead a series of comprehensive discovery sessions for the upcoming site redesign. We spend time with every program and department, listening closely to how the organization actually works day to day, where friction lives, and what success looks like across very different audiences. This is the part of the process we care deeply about: It is UX-centric, research-driven, and intentionally relational. By grounding the work in real conversations and lived context, we build not just a stronger foundation for the design, but trust and shared understanding with the people who will live with the site long after launch.

Autumn

Another simpatico project comes our way in the fall: a new site for Slice Communications, a woman-owned PR firm based out of Philadelphia. I run discovery and UX for this engagement, and enjoy hearing about and internalizing how the boutique firm thinks about attention and client relationships. The final site feels focused, in line with their new branding, and matches the tonality described during our discovery sesssions.

In late October, Simpatico NYC gets a delightful surprise visit from the head of our Simpatico West Coast division: developer Zeth de Luna is in town! We celebrate with burgers and cocktails.

Winter

Before we know it, it’s winter in New York City, and Studio Simpatico is cutting our teeth on some new projects. Get ready, the dad jokes are just starting.

First up: we partner with Smart Arches Dental, a growing brand specializing in advanced dental implant and full-arch restorative care, using modern digital scanning, 3D imaging, and precision technology to make complex cases more accessible and efficient, and to help patients reclaim confidence in their smiles. Several discovery sessions help us get to the root of their value proposition, allowing us to structure the site so patients can clearly understand their options without feeling overwhelmed.

Next: Central Park West Dentistry is a long-standing Upper West Side practice known for high-quality, patient-centered dental care with extended hours, flexible scheduling, and a focus on comfort and personalized service that keeps New Yorkers smiling year-round. We build them an on-brand, modern, fully accessible WordPress site, aligned with their goals.

After both projects are finished, we’re delighted that they both want to continue working with us … on retainer.

Similar to years past, it’s an all-out sprint leading up to the holidays, with little time to publish case studies or share news about launches. Amber kicks into high gear, delivering gorgeous, semantic code in record time.

Nothing can break our team’s concentration, especially for our back-end guru Corey … not even when one of his pet birds perches on his shoulder. (Conversely, when Alfie breaks through his Zoom virtual background, it’s completely impossible for me to maintain my poker face.)

One major partnership quietly takes shape during this window, and while it largely flies under the radar for now, it’s something we’ll be talking a lot more about in the new year. We partner with Isaac Health on a full visual identity and website: an ambitious, deeply meaningful project focused on expanding access to high-quality brain health care. Working directly with head of marketing Karissa Dong and founders Julius Bruch and Joel Salinas, the collaboration is energizing, thoughtful, and fast-moving in the best way. The work pushes us strategically and creatively, and it’s exactly the kind of partnership we love.