How Kirsten Modestow Started a Branding & Design Agency in Her House and Thrives Outside of a Major City — The Busy Creator Podcast 75
01/25/16 • 49 min
Kirsten Modestow (@KModestow) is the founder & creative director of Brigade, a branding and design firm in Massachusetts. Brigade focuses on consumer packaging and communications; they create brands for products, and help them stand out on shelves. In recent years, this has translated to digital promotion and social media as well.
In this conversation, Kirsten discusses her origins as a young designer, learning from her elders, how she started Brigade in her house and where the company is now, and examines the curious culture of an agency that grows fast and lives in an open-plan office.
GET THE EPISODE- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 75 (MP3, 49:55, 72.1 MB)
- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 75 (OGG, 49:55, 23.7 MB)
Subscribe to The Busy Creator Podcast on iTunes or on Android
Show Notes & Links- Brigade focuses on food & beverage clients, within the packaging and communication media types, so not everything.
- In-store design materials include more items — shelf talkers, point of sales, mobile-friendly websites, etc. "Do you have to create a whole persona just for a box of crackers?" —Prescott Perez-Fox Tweet This
- Lately, consumers are more educated and more finicky — they want information
- Nabisco, Kraft - big companies in consumer goods
- Wheat Thins on Facebook
- Kirsten started working out of her home after relocating to Western Mass.
- Land Rover
- Svedka vodka
- To accommodate the growing team, Kirsten converted her garage into a studio
- 5 colleges are located in the Amherst-Hadley area, but none have a graphic design course
- Boss is sometimes a four-letter word
- Kirsten started at Hill Holiday in Boston
- Brigade has grown from 5 employees to 20 in the past 2 years
- Recruiting is tough outside of a "design center" like New York, Chicago, London
- Brigade's first Project Management hire was a photographer freelancing as a graphic designer "No one is on top of each other; they're alongside them." —Kirsten Modestow Tweet This
- Brigade is [finally] at the point of getting cold calls from potential clients
- The Dieline
- Tarik El-Khateeb "Production is a huge part of design!" —Kirsten Modestow Tweet This
- Hatch Show Boston
- Dribbble "Side projects are the internal fuel for agencies and small firms." —Prescott Perez-Fox Tweet This
Kirsten Modestow (@KModestow) is the founder & creative director of Brigade, a branding and design firm in Massachusetts. Brigade focuses on consumer packaging and communications; they create brands for products, and help them stand out on shelves. In recent years, this has translated to digital promotion and social media as well.
In this conversation, Kirsten discusses her origins as a young designer, learning from her elders, how she started Brigade in her house and where the company is now, and examines the curious culture of an agency that grows fast and lives in an open-plan office.
GET THE EPISODE- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 75 (MP3, 49:55, 72.1 MB)
- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 75 (OGG, 49:55, 23.7 MB)
Subscribe to The Busy Creator Podcast on iTunes or on Android
Show Notes & Links- Brigade focuses on food & beverage clients, within the packaging and communication media types, so not everything.
- In-store design materials include more items — shelf talkers, point of sales, mobile-friendly websites, etc. "Do you have to create a whole persona just for a box of crackers?" —Prescott Perez-Fox Tweet This
- Lately, consumers are more educated and more finicky — they want information
- Nabisco, Kraft - big companies in consumer goods
- Wheat Thins on Facebook
- Kirsten started working out of her home after relocating to Western Mass.
- Land Rover
- Svedka vodka
- To accommodate the growing team, Kirsten converted her garage into a studio
- 5 colleges are located in the Amherst-Hadley area, but none have a graphic design course
- Boss is sometimes a four-letter word
- Kirsten started at Hill Holiday in Boston
- Brigade has grown from 5 employees to 20 in the past 2 years
- Recruiting is tough outside of a "design center" like New York, Chicago, London
- Brigade's first Project Management hire was a photographer freelancing as a graphic designer "No one is on top of each other; they're alongside them." —Kirsten Modestow Tweet This
- Brigade is [finally] at the point of getting cold calls from potential clients
- The Dieline
- Tarik El-Khateeb "Production is a huge part of design!" —Kirsten Modestow Tweet This
- Hatch Show Boston
- Dribbble "Side projects are the internal fuel for agencies and small firms." —Prescott Perez-Fox Tweet This
Previous Episode
Web Agency Owner Matt Inglot Talks Client Selection, Workflow, and The Challenges of Working from Home - The Busy Creator Podcast 74
Matt Inglot (@MattInglot) is the founder of Tilted Pixel, a results-focused web design agency based in Calgary, Canada. A veteran web designer, Matt has been an agency owner most of his career, beginning when he was still a student. Over the years he's refined his own business strategy to bring greater value to his own clients, and in turn build a thriving practice. Matt is also the host of the Freelance Transformation podcast, where he speaks with creative entrepreneurs and practitioners about business and freelance issues.
In this conversation, Matt discusses his role in the business, how systematic (or not) he likes to be with prospective clients, and how he handles working from home.
Next Episode
Finding a Community Online and Crafting a Signature Style with Illustrator, Designer & Artist Alice Coles — The Busy Creator Podcast 76
Alice Coles (@HulloAlice) is an illustrator, artist, designer, and video producer based in Colorado. She has honed her skills and created a signature style thanks largely to her own video production schedule. Alice publishes tutorial videos and showcases her experiments on her YouTube channel, HulloAlice.
In this conversation, we discuss Alice's origins as an illustrator, how she found supporters in the YouTube community, what art supplies she relies on, and what sort of desk setup she uses to film her own work as it happens.
See more of Alice's work and get in touch on her website, AliceRColes.com.
GET THE EPISODE- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 76 (MP3, 38:55 18.7 MB)
- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 76 (OGG, 38:55, 20.2 MB)
Subscribe to The Busy Creator Podcast on iTunes or on Android
Show Notes & Links- Prescott and Alice met at a design conference in Phoenix
- Alice describes her work as "an exploration of herself, her memories, and her place and role in the world."
- Alice uses storytelling in her art, calling herself an illustrator
- Monument Valley
- Loish, artist and inspiration of Alice
- Kaizen, the Japanese idea of continual self-improvement
- Alice admits she doesn't quite have the time/focus for too many commissions
- Sycra on YouTube
- Baylee Jae on YouTube
"YouTube can be toxic at times, I've seen, but the art community is so supportive of each other."
—Alice Coles
- Alice started making videos "every couple of months" but found consistency through audience momentum
- Alice is primarily a watercolour artist
- Faffing, a definiton
- Matt Cremona, woodworker/furniture maker on The Busy Creator Podcast
- Matt Cremona on YouTube
- Doctor Who
- Papasan Chair
"Watercolour is the worst medium to scan."
—Alice Coles
"I tend to barrel through life like a rolling stone."
—Alice Coles
- Tsundoku, the Japanese word for "the constant act of buying books, but never reading them"
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