Fieldwork isn’t part of the work. Fieldwork is the work.
Welcome to the Fieldhouse
A Fieldwork practice
I’m Eric Zimmett, founder of Braden Fieldwork & Advisory, a Fieldwork practice based in Bellefonte, PA, that believes good brands last when they’re built around the work.
Before we create anything, I enter a client’s world to understand it from the inside. I spend time on-site: walking the floor, sitting in the space, asking questions, and noticing the details most people overlook.
But understanding doesn’t stop there. I bring what I’ve learned from other people, places, industries, and experiences. Each adds another perspective, helping me recognize what makes a particular organization different.
Over time, patterns emerge. Those patterns become insights. From that understanding, we work to solve the right problems, whether they involve messaging, branding, social media, or larger identity and mission.
This is Fieldwork.
And the first question is simple:
What are we trying to solve?
Fieldwork isn’t the marketing. It’s how we discover what we’re really trying to solve.
What comes next depends on what the Fieldwork reveals. But Fieldwork always comes first.
Offerings
Ways to work together
Fieldwork engagements take one of four forms. The first three are ongoing. The fourth is a single project that could develop into larger work.
Fieldwork Advisory
Ongoing Fieldwork for organizations building toward something
We don’t have the answer before we know the question.
Outcomes +
- A clearer understanding of your organization, its people, and its circumstances
- Direction on what to build, change, or pursue next
- Insight that informs decisions before you commit to a solution
I work alongside you, ask questions, follow what we’re noticing, and build an understanding of your organization from the inside. Not every engagement ends in a slogan or a campaign. Sometimes it ends with a clearer sense of what matters. For Stable Mind, the logo was on Christian’s wrist the whole time, a Knight chess piece he’d had tattooed for years. From there, the identity and the services came together.
Fieldwork Social
Social media marketing built from the field
I enter your world. The content comes from the Fieldwork.
Outcomes +
- An ongoing social presence grounded in your people and your work
- Original photographs, stories, and observations from the field
- Communications that reflect what makes your organization different
I spend time with the people and places behind your organization, collecting photographs, conversations, and observations. That becomes social marketing grounded in what I find. For Long Construction, a fifth-generation builder, earlier Fieldwork shaped “Built for the Next Generation™,” and it still guides the content. More recently, a conversation with Kevin’s father, Nevin, opened up a deeper look at the family behind the company. When Kevin was younger, he helped his dad build a home for his grandparents. Today, two generations later, Kevin and his wife, Jenn, call it home.
Fieldwork Social & Advisory
Both sides of the practice working together
I help shape the work you’re building and bring it to life.
Outcomes +
- Direction informed by ongoing Fieldwork
- Photography, storytelling, and communications that grow from that understanding
- One person connecting the strategic conversations with what the public sees
The advisory work and the communications aren’t separate. What I learn while making the work visible feeds the bigger conversations, and the other way around. At Zion Lutheran, “Grounded in Boalsburg™” became the shared identity. Then we brought it to life with Music on the Lawn, a community concert series that gathered hundreds of Boalsburg neighbors on Zion’s lawn this summer, bringing the community and the church together.
Fieldwork Projects
Sometimes the work takes the form of a single project
A specific project. The same curiosity.
Outcomes +
Sometimes there’s a specific project worth taking on.
- Photography — Original images from events, organizations, and the places where the work happens
- Logo Discovery & Identity — Visual ideas uncovered through observation, research, and understanding
- Websites — Digital experiences built around the work, the people, and the story
- Social Guerrilla™ — Unconventional, real-world promotions that create participation, conversation, and stories worth sharingFirst used in 2015 for the Bookie Takeover at Student Book Store, Penn State.
Any project can include an optional Field Brief: observations and discoveries that may reveal opportunities beyond the original assignment.
Whether it’s photography, an identity, a website, or an unconventional promotion, I bring the same curiosity to the assignment.
For a recent hotel grand opening, I delivered event photography along with a Field Brief exploring an unexpected observation about guest loyalty: the perspective of a guest who stays more than 150 nights a year. That conversation raised questions worth investigating beyond the photographs themselves.
The project may stand on its own. Or the Fieldwork may reveal something worth following.
But first, Fieldwork
How I Work
In my back pocket is a worn Field Notes notebook, with bent pages and coffee stains. It catches the artifacts—the small data—that most consultants ignore. Those details are often the first clues to what makes an organization distinct.
Back at the Fieldhouse, the notes get taped to the wall or stuck to the whiteboard. Then I look for patterns and talk through what I’ve been noticing into my recorder.
I work the same way I did as a journalist: showing up, getting involved, and paying close attention.
Understanding grows in the field.
Every experience adds another perspective. And the more perspectives I develop, the more I recognize what I don’t yet understand.
That’s why Fieldwork doesn’t end when I leave a client’s property.
I follow questions into other businesses, industries, communities, and disciplines. I talk with people, collect field notes, study what I encounter, and return to the board to make sense of it.
That understanding accumulates over time. An observation in one field might reveal something useful in another.
The more I understand, the better I can question assumptions, recognize patterns and meaningful differences, and help clients decide what to build.
Upstream Fieldwork shapes downstream work.
Fieldwork is the starting point
Why I Work This Way
Many clients first come to me for social media marketing.
Social media may be what we’re trying to build. Fieldwork begins by asking what it should be built around.
Other times, the proposed answer isn’t the answer at all.
Too often, organizations begin with the answer. Fieldwork begins with better questions.
The format changes. The process stays the same: careful observation, clear thinking, and attention to what makes your organization distinct.
“If you want to understand how animals live, you don’t go to the zoo, you go to the jungle.”
— Martin Lindstrom, consultant and author of Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends
Fieldwork Portfolio
Field Notes
Some brands I’ve rolled up my sleeves with:
Penn’s Cave & Wildlife Park • Shaner Corp. • Zion Lutheran Church in Boalsburg • The Field Burger & Tap • Toftrees Golf Resort • Go Tell It IN the Mountains with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) • Centre County United Way • Domino’s Pizza • Long Construction Co. • Penn State University • Penn State Police & Public Safety • Stable Mind • AscentOps
“We turned to Eric when we knew we needed to take our social presence to the next level. Eric took a hands-on approach, helping us define our social media voice.”
Brian Cohen
Owner
Harpers, State College
“We cannot say enough about Eric. He has given us so much great advice, jumped in and just did the work when we couldn’t, and goes above and beyond in every way. Highly, highly recommended.”
Tracy Rigg
Manager
Seven Mountains Wine Cellars
“Once we did the Bookie Takeover [Social Guerrilla™ promo], it kind of took off. We were getting stopped for selfies, people were taking pictures. A lot of people were interested in what we were doing.”
Michael Woytowich
Director of Promotions
Student Book Store
“You always do such a great job capturing the raw emotions and special moments of days like this!”
Ellen Rodgers
Project Manager
Penn State
“I was so pleased with Eric’s work, I would hire him again in a heartbeat. I received such great feedback from my clients as well.”
Ciara Doolan Halloran
Global Real Estate Advisor
RE/MAX
“Your content is spot-on. It doesn’t feel like an ad, which is the best part. A lot of agencies try to do this but ultimately fall short.”
Gautam Kulkarni
Marketing Pro
Meta
About Eric Braden Zimmett
Still digging things up
For most of my life, I’ve been interested in the same thing: research, discovery, uncovering the story.
As a kid, I wanted to be an archaeologist.
In high school and throughout college, I worked as a journalist, which taught me to follow my nose.
Today I’m still digging things up—through Fieldwork.
When I started this practice, my first Fieldwork project was myself.
Braden is my middle name, but I discovered it has a deeper origin: the Irish Gaelic Bradán, meaning “salmon.” In Irish folklore, Bradán Feasa—the Salmon of Knowledge—gave wisdom to whoever caught it. That discovery led to the Braden name, the early slogan, Swim Against the Stream, and the salmon that became the logo.
Braden Fieldwork reflects the process behind my work. Fieldwork comes first. From there, the work can take many forms—strategy, storytelling, social media, photography, press, digital channels, events, identity, and whatever else the Fieldwork reveals.
The Salmon of Knowledge (Bradán Feasa) is a creature in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology
Training & Certifications
I’m Certified by Cannes Lions in Storytelling and Behavioral Science for Brands, and by Ogilvy in Applied Behavioral Science and Behavioral Economics. Penn State University, Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, 2008. Dale Carnegie & Associates Graduate, 2009; Dale Carnegie Graduate Assistant, 2010.
Fieldwork isn’t part of the work. Fieldwork is the work.
I like you
814-441-7717 · eric@bradenfieldwork.com
Braden Fieldwork & Advisory
A Fieldwork practice for brands built around the work
© 2026 Braden Fieldwork LLC, estd. 2014. All rights reserved. · Terms · Brand Kit · The Folklore
Home · Offerings · Portfolio · About · Field Dispatch · Book a Field Visit
Website built in the field by Eric B. Zimmett