Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristy Wingfield.
Kristy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
After starting technology company Liquid Compass straight out of college (which she sold in 2004), Kristy launched Graphik Creative in order to get back to the fundamentals of what she loves: Being creative. Launching, growing and nurturing brands.
Selected as one of eight “Empowered Women” across the US by Salon Magazine and nominated as one of the Denver Business Journal’s Outstanding Business Women of the Year (2014), Kristy is the type who truly gets involved with each client’s business as though it were her own. “When you grow, we grow,” she says.
And it’s true – many of Graphik Creative’s largest clients began with them when they were just startups or as larger companies beginning a full rebranding process.
Several years later, these same clients are still with Graphik… and still growing. Fifteen years later, the client roster is quite expansive – and impressive – including names like Angry Birds, Internet Brands, Vail Resorts, Visit Denver, Mars, MasTec and more.
Kristy also had a (very) short-lived acting career, where she was an extra in the film starring Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul and Spiderman’s James Franco, back in 2000. She also was a photography judge in the 2010 series “Shoot!” and appears on the cover of Dr. Barotz’s “The Power of a Beautiful Smile.”
She is always open to new opportunities.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Of course, there have been larger struggles along the way. Partnerships don’t always go as planned, occasionally clients don’t pay their bills, real estate has gotten more expensive. As many entrepreneurs can attest, each day’s journey contains an unlimited number of both highs and lows, but over the past fifteen years, I have loved watching those around me succeed, grow in their careers, and challenge me in mine.
Let’s talk about business. Tell us about Graphik Creative – what should we know?
If we had an elevator pitch, the short of it would be that we act as companies’ out of house marketing departments. So the deliverables that a business would generally hire a marketing manager for, we step into that role but have unlimited access to designers, developers, content writers, and more.
That includes the creation of everything from naming and branding of products and companies to full-scale web development and digital marketing strategy, as well as collateral, fulfillment and more.
We’re different than a typical agency because of the fifteen years we’ve existed and the experience that brings to the table. We’ve helped launch and build companies in just about every industry you can think of and have an incredible client retention rate. Plus, to our testament, our business has been 100% referral-based since inception.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Each and every one of my team members over the years has helped contribute to the business in so many ways: their dedication, creativity, attention to detail and approach to client relations has always come back to our company mantra – we treat clients as we would treat our friends, always helpful, always on time and always going above and beyond.
While the business is now taking a different approach overall – my in-house team members Jessica Merced (4 years) and Katelyn Tuning (2.5 years) are integral to each and every project.
Jessica and I work hand-in-hand to not only pitch and project manage, but also focus on creative direction, execution, and pretty much everything required. She is always ready to jump in head first to anything required, whether large or small.
Katelyn also fills many roles on the team, with her very first project years ago being a 2,000 page manual for RTD. Since that time, she has continued to excel in multi-page booklets and documents, as well as various other projects across the board. She is very meticulous in working with vendors and is our go-to for “final approval” prior to anything going to print.
Together, we have an external network of brand designers, developers, photographers, and videographers that we consider to be the best of the best and we enjoy bringing in specialists to deliver the absolute best product we can.
This article was originally published by Voyage Denver. You can read the original publication here.
Flexoffers