MONDAY MADNESS: KELLY DESIGNS

Today's Monday Madness is a very special blog day for us.  Today we are featuring our own graphic designer.  I know as Kelly reads this, she will won't be surprised to hear me say that.  But Kelly has done so much for us that we can't begin to say "thank you."  We consider her the best of the best and are pleased that she is our "go to gal" for all our shop graphics.


We met Kelly Sorenson about a year ago on the Promotional Frenzy Team.  Our branding has taken us a considerable amount of time to come up with, but it was Kelly who brought our branding to life.  Our signature character and the way most people recognize us is through Parker.  What Kelly has done for us is beyond words.  She took our designs and inspiration and made it into something visually appealing that now marks us for who we are.


Recently, we again hired Kelly to do our branding for fall, which was released today.  While this Monday Madness special is solely about Kelly, please know that are new fall logos are already in place.  You will being seeing them first hand on this blog on Wednesday, where we again will feature Kelly and more of her awesome work.


It's not often that we get to feature a fellow Etsian who means so much to us personally, but today, this edition of Monday Madness is pure excitement for us!  We'd like to introduce you all to Kelly Designs

Tell our readers a little bit about yourself.

My name is Kelly and I live in a small town in Minnesota. My esty shop is my full time job and since I’m an extreme introvert, I LOVE being able to stay home and work.  I enjoy sewing and creating things that most people will buy at the store, everything from homemade coffee creamer to handmade school planners. Is it because I love to create or is it because it saves me from leaving the house and going to the store… I haven’t figured that out yet J I’m also a reader. Since I was little I would read every night before I go to bed. I have to  now or I won’t be able to fall asleep.  A few years ago I sold all my books at a garage sale and made enough money to buy a Kindle and a bunch of books to fill it. Now when I read in bed and fall asleep, it doesn’t hurt so bad when the Kindle smacks me in the face. Most of the books I read are rather big and man did they hurt!

What is the history of your store?

I found etsy in oh… around 2007 when I was making a doll for my daughter and wanted to see an example of embroidered eyes. I sat for an hour looking at everything and wishing that I could sell something on etsy… but I figured my sewing wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t until last October when a friend of mine wanted to open a shop and asked me to make the banner for her that the lightbulb went off. I did a search and sure enough, there were other graphic designers selling on etsy. So I sat down one Saturday morning and spent the day setting up my shop. I made 13 items to list and at the end of the day… I had a sale! I went crazy thinking that something was wrong and that it was a joke but no… someone had bought a design. I was hooked! I worked part time at a woolen mitten factory and soon I was making as much on etsy as I was at my job. Then I was laid off in December and decided not to look for another job but to jump into my shop with both feet.

What makes your store unique from other Etsy stores that offer similar graphic designs?

My designs are unique to my shop. One thing I have started doing that I don’t see often is that I sell premade banner sets that aren’t resold.  There are so many shops out there that now have identical banners and avatars because the shop banner set was resold many times.  So in July I took all the banner sets out of my shop and I’m slowly adding in premade sets that are sold once. Banner sets take some time to put together. That little space etsy allows us isn’t always easy to work with. I’m hoping that etsy will change that in the future and give us size options for our banners.

What is your favorite items that you make and list in your store?

I love making custom logos for people’s businesses. I can play with the text in a way that I can’t when I make the premade designs. I love seeing all the different color combinations that people come up with and finding ways to make their style show in the design. My favorite part of my job is seeing my design used in branding and watching their business grow.

Feature one of your items and tell the story about that particular item. 

I’ve been designing logos and advertising for a long time and I’m going to tell you about one of my most demanding customers. She was planning on opening a chain of 5 star hotels across North America. Everything was planned from the architecture to the china used in the formal dining room. There was a water park, pizza parlour, work out facility, pet boarding and grooming center and a tea room. She had spent the past 3 years planning the details of this super hotel. We talked about designs and I came up with one for her. The name of the chain would be Clover Suites and of course I used clovers. Well thank goodness this wasn’t done long distance or it would have taken forever. She plunked herself down in the computer chair and changed the font style to what she wanted, the colors needed to be muted and different elements of the design needed to be eliminated or moved. I was really impressed… the changes she wanted made were dead on and the design turned out beautiful!  We had a sign made and some business cards printed. The sign hangs in my daughters room and I keep the cards in a scrapbook along with all the other design plans and business plans my daughter had made for her hotel chain. She was 7 when we designed that logo.

Do you do custom orders?  What kinds of services do you offer for custom orders, what are your policies regarding custom orders?

I love custom orders! There is a section in my shop for custom branding for everything from custom logos to matching web banners. One thing I require before someone purchases a custom design from me is we need to make certain that they have really looked at my shop and like my designs. There are a lot of different styles and we need to make sure we are on the same page from the very beginning to ensure a design that you love.  I want people to be excited about their new logo or design… I want it to inspire them to grow their business. 

WHERE TO FIND KELLY DESIGNS:

Store: www.kellyjsorenson.etsy.com

Blog: www.kellyjsorenson.blogspot.com

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/kellyjsorenson

Twitter: www.twitter.com/kellyjsorenson

Email: kellyjsorenson@gmail.com