About Swash Labs
What is Swash Labs?
Swash Labs is a creative advertising agency founded in 2011 in Denton, Texas. Verbatim from /: "Swash Labs is a creative advertising agency that helps businesses solve problems while tackling the big ideas." The agency specialises in logo design, brand messaging, website development, graphic design and multi-platform media buying, combining creativity with what founder Josh Berthume calls "scientific experimentation" — specifically, behavioral-economics methodology applied to internal operations to mitigate cognitive bias.
Verbatim from /culture, founder Josh Berthume's story: "Swash Labs came into existence because I wanted to do good work that mattered. In starting a creative ad agency, I hoped to have the opportunity to tell good stories. I believed that small businesses and nonprofits have stories to tell, stories that are just as good as any Fortune 500 company, and probably more compelling... we help businesses grow, we help institutions communicate, and we help non-profits do great things like save animals or plant trees or promote art." The Denton-specific origin story: Josh complained for years about having to drive over an hour for meaningful work; Diana ("who is exceedingly smart and wise") eventually told him "Well, why don't you do it? You could be the person who starts that shop." That conversation led to Swash Labs.
The agency's three published pillars verbatim are: Unify ("Make a plan, then make it happen."); Simplify ("Say the right things to the right people."); and Amplify ("Louder doesn't mean noisier."). Named clients include Susan Smith Family Law, Truman National Security Project & Truman Center for National Policy, Langley Dental, Watson Brown Inc., author and professor Katherine Sharp Landdeck, and the More Fun Comics & Games / More Fun Toys! / More Fun Game Center group. A February 2023 blog post celebrates "Little Guys Movers and Swash Labs: Partners for 10 Years" — exemplifying the agency's "real, long-haul, in-it-together agency relationships" philosophy.
Where will I work?
Swash Labs is fully remote. Verbatim from /: "we are a small, fully-remote digital advertising agency where creative ideas and social science come together to make good things happen. Our team has members in Denton, Austin, Houston, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Sacramento." The mailing address verbatim from the site footer is "303 N Carroll Blvd, Ste 110, Denton, TX 76201" with phone (940) 808-0071. An August 2023 blog post titled "Trust Your Remote Workers — and Trust Your Workers To Work Remotely" reflects the agency's published remote-work philosophy.
What is the Swash Labs team like?
The team page lists 13 named members verbatim: Josh Berthume (Founder), Jessica Zerbe, Joan Wells, Diana Leilani Fonner, Stephanie Delk, Andi Harman, Nico Tracewell, Kennedy Johnson, Chris Lundeen, Adam Graves, Ruth Fonner, Brandy Brunow, and Hunter Schmitt. The agency's culture page emphasises Diana's role in the founding ("Following Diana's advice is always wise, because she is wise") and the team's broader commitment to "doing this good work closer to home" — a deliberate choice to keep meaningful agency work in Denton rather than driving to bigger markets. The published voice is informal and warm: "Swash Labs is, without qualification, something special."
Work-Life Balance
Swash Labs adopted a four-day work week in 2022. Verbatim from /: "Work-life balance is important to us, which is why, in 2022, our team transitioned to a four day work week." The DB schedule_type is 4_day_week at 32 hours per week, with the company-wide schedule "stagger[ing] days off so that we are open and fully functional Monday through Friday" (per the existing schedule_type_description). A blog post from August 12, 2022 — "The Four Day Work Week: How It's Going So Far" by Josh Berthume — documents the agency's published reflection on the transition.
Perks and Benefits
Swash Labs does not publish a detailed employee benefits page. The headline employment commitments are the four-day work week and the fully-remote distributed model described in the Work-Life Balance and Where will I work? sections above. As a small fully-remote agency operating from six US cities, we've retained no further benefit bullets in the absence of any explicit benefits page.