About UsWe're not looking for clients. We're looking for collaborators.

⸻ hello

Our guiding principle has never changed:cooperation over competition

field15 is a multi-brand and multi-discipline organization that builds software, creates art, and publishes books, digital publications, and podcasts around the central themes of cooperation, collaboration, and the unusual.

Our design and development practice, build, has been trusted by nonprofits, artists and authors, Fortune 500s, and federal agencies for over 25 years.

Our AI collaboration platform, fernglow, lets humans work in partnership with AI rather than simply being replaced by it.

Our digital publication and podcast, YGBFKM, shines a light on what a truly weird and amazing place the natural world is.

Our small, independent, book-publishing house, Group Ink Media, brings life to long-forgotten myths, narrative nonfiction with a twist, and science stories that spark young imaginations.

And our illustrations and art collection, AppendixC, presents the mysteries, wonder, and peculiarities of an imaginative universe in paint and pixels.

Across the decades and across the disciplines, our guiding principle hasn’t changed: cooperation over competition. We believe authentic partnerships based on mutual benefit build healthier businesses, healthier people, and a healthier world.

We believe humans should stay in the loop.

And we believe that life is filled with countless puzzles worth solving and questions worth asking.

We have history. This is who we are.Just imagine what we could do together.

1998-2002

Launched as Surf This! Web Design and headquartered in metro DC, we helped businesses and federal clients like the CDC, DoD, and NIH take some of their earliest steps online. From web design and multimedia kiosks to desktop- and browser-based applications, we brought conventional clients to the cutting edge.

2003-2010

HQ moved to Brooklyn, NY, and triggered rapid evolution in our services, our team, and our client list. Our design group expanded into branding and identity, and our strategy group launched with an eye toward SEO, marketing, and growth. Along the way, Surf This! became field15 to acknowledge all the new ground we were covering.

2011-2023

Reorganization and restructuring led the way to our home office in Providence, RI. The global transition to cloud-based computing inspired the birth of our infrastructure and operations services. And our bond with publishing cemented as we partnered with authors, artists, and agents like Naomi Klein, V, and Roam Agency.

2024-2026

With a fresh new look and sharpened focus, we embarked on a new era. While AI sent shockwaves through the arts, corporate media devoured everything in its path, and big tech laid waste to long-established business models, we continued providing authentic partnership and clear guidance, even through the murkiest of waters.

2026-Present

Stepping back from a publishing-industry focus and stepping into a broader mission, we restructured as a multi-brand, multi-discipline umbrella organization. Our in-house tools and teams took on lives of their own as they became publicly available to the world at-large. Our content and publishing prowess and partnerships turned inward through YGBFKM and Group Ink Media. But our guiding principles of twenty-five years remained the same: put people and relationships first, build what we believe in.

Now that you know where we came from,find out who we are

Meet the Founders

field15 is led by long-time life and business partners, Dave Rankin and Catharine Rankin. They are dedicated to helping clients build a platform for meaningful relationships and authentic partnerships. With the support of world-class and award-winning staff, partners, and advisors, they’ve been connecting the dots, building bridges, and guiding clients for nearly three decades.

Dave Rankin, Co-founder

Catharine Rankin, Co-founder