From Ron & Ari: what we were really building when we started Griflan

This is the real story behind Griflan. Not the polished version — the true one. Griflan co-founder Ron Griffel on how a thirteen-year creative partnership started on the side of a day job, what they were really chasing when they walked out the door in 2013, and the belief about storytelling that became the center of everything they build. A letter worth reading.

Before there was a company, there was a partnership

Ari and I met in 2009 at an agency in Philadelphia. We were both designers, both working on the same accounts, both quietly wanting more than what the job was giving us. We never talked about starting a company. 

We just naturally started working together in our free time — passing projects back and forth, splitting whatever came in, figuring out what we were each good at. I handled the design. Ari built the sites. It was simple. It worked. Though it wasn't long before he was designing right alongside me.

What I remember most about that time is that we were both hungry. Not just for more work. For something bigger. And somewhere in that grind, I realized I could count on him. 

The push we didn’t know we needed

By 2012, things were shifting. The agency we were working at was starting to go under — and at the same time, what Ari and I had been building on the side was starting to feel like something. When our boss told us he needed to let two out of the three designers go, we didn't hesitate. We looked at each other and said we'd leave.

Finding what we actually stood for

The early years were still a grind. We had clients but we didn’t yet have a clear sense of who we were or what we stood for. That took time. It took doing a lot of work, looking at what felt right and what felt hollow, and slowly learning to trust the thing that kept pulling us forward.

For me, that thing was storytelling.

I kept seeing brands that were just — there. Words. Images. Nothing that made you feel anything. I knew we could do something different. I wanted to build brands that felt alive, that pulled you in, that you didn’t forget. That instinct became our center. Not because we planned it that way, but because we kept coming back to it until we finally named it. 

Thirteen years later, it still drives every decision we make.

What makes it last

Ari and I are different people. I’m the energy — the one who wants to tear into a new project and see what it can become. Ari is the calm. He handles the details, keeps things grounded, and has a way of solving visual problems that I genuinely admire.

We fight like a married couple. But there’s a respect underneath it that never wavers. I know what he brings that I can’t, and he knows the same about me. That’s what makes it work.

Ari jokes that Griflan is like the Mafia — once you’re in, you’re in forever. He’s not wrong. But the reason I’d never let him leave isn’t stubbornness. It’s that there’s no version of this without the both of us.  

That's where Griflan came from. Thirteen years in, and honestly, we're just getting started.

— Ron Griffel Co-Founder, Griflan

This is part of an ongoing series. Read more from Ron & Ari in From the Founders.