Business Inspires - Jason Design Studio

Jason Design Studio

Hi this is Michelle Wilson. I'm with the tri Village Chamber partnership and I'm here today on the business inspirers podcast with Jason Willis. Jason thanks for joining us. You're welcome. I was going to say you're with Jason design studio which you are. But there's there's so much we want. I want to talk about with you today because I've known you for so many years now you're my life with the chamber and and you've done a few different things during those years so yeah. To say the least. Yes you have. So when I met you you were doing ad sales basically is that right. That's right. OK. And you had what market.

I had downtown German village Grand View in the Short North. Not the greatest markets for community newspaper but right several grand view of course.

And so we worked together in that capacity for a little bit and then you started saying oh I'll design that for you because I would be taking out ads for the chamber for an event or something and I thought you know I don't know how to do any of this stuff. So I don't have a designer. And you started designing things for you is that kind of when your interest in design began or was it always there and you just had to. You had to find a fit to make it work.

Yeah I. So I worked with a great designer named Annie at this week news and I found that the my favorite thing to do you know selling advertising especially newspaper advertising is it is a tough game these days with everything moving more digital but I found that my favorite thing to do is do the layouts and to sketch out advertising that little ads and I kind of because I was in advertising I got a good feel for what people were looking for and how they read an ad and how they looked at marketing. So I would sit down with other designers and try to talk through how I wanted the ad to look and I'm like I just wanted to do this myself. And so you know kind of controlling. My old boss would say absolutely hate it all the time that I spent with with our ad designers but I wanted things to be right and in the end that's was my inspiration.

And they were and Kay side note love Annie Miss Annie is great. Clearly she was a good mentor to you. But you also helped the chamber at the time when I was just the Grandview marble Cliff chamber. Before we became tri village you helped us put together our first full size full color directory for the community and because you had such a great eye and and vision that publication for the first three years won national awards.

Yeah yeah I think it was national advertising in that in that community size won first place nationally which was surprise. I don't say it's surprising but it was a little surprising.

It was a little surprising because it was our first shot out of the gate to do that type of directory and we took a took a leap and did our cover as a night shot which when you're representing community was was kind of different because you know you want the sunshiny flowery rainbow picture of the community representing and we did a winter in Columbus Ohio area night shot and it was awesome.

I think that was because we were subject to the time that we had. I think we kind of started late.

We did go. We did course we did.

We started we started late going through the process of picking photography and luckily I had a friend who is amazing at Photoshop actually I went outside of the dispatch and talked to a buddy who was a photoshop guru and he took out all the power lines and just made it look really good.

If you remember he put changed the sign changed the sign on you can say yeah that's right. Yeah. It's still my favorite cover. I don't know if it was just because it was the first time and it was different and it won an award but it's still my favorite and if you remember the photo was taken by a vital vital vital fight for corporate America another chamber board member all worked out beautifully. So you started when I knew you were at the dispatch and you worked for the community newspapers. Is that where you got your start your career started.

No.

So I was sort of I always thought I was kind of artistic when I was younger but I always say you know I got into sales but I first thing I did I was in the school music at a high state and a lot of people don't realize that I played jazz and classical trumpet. Wow. So I did not know that. Yeah. So I took I wanted to be either an architect or you know one thing or be a musician. Yeah. So I went to a high school music for several years found that they were pushing me towards teaching which I liked but I didn't want to be a band director. So I dropped out of there and I've been going to college off and on ever since finally got my degree in graphic design and I just tidy that up a few years ago. Quite honestly so I have enough credits to be probably have four degrees none of them none of them would make sense. But you know I think that's one thing that I do as I constantly learn. You know I kind of got that from my dad. My dad got his degree when he was 40 years old to 38. So he was an inspiration for me because he was a carpenter and then he's like you know I got to do more with my life and I've found his passion and he went for it and that's that's kind of how I went to.

That's amazing.

So he he of his family yeah and he was he coached my team or took him eight years to get a two year degree. He was coaching me.

He was umpiring basketball and refereeing or refereeing basketball umpiring football and that's something I would say umpiring umpire yes like I don't know sports baseboard right.

But yes so he was a big inspiration my life he read. I don't remember those old encyclopedia britannica as lawyers side. We got those. And he I remember going upstairs and he read every single one cover to cover. Oh my gosh.

Just because. Because he wanted to and he just was constantly learning and you know I hated reading when I was a kid and yeah I find that is something I do every day now. I read every day I'll try to learn something new everyday even if by accident.

Do tutorials you know Google on YouTube is amazing if you're trying to learn procedures in Photoshop or wordpress or whatever. There's a lot of things you can you can learn from there.

So anyway it's I love the story that your dad was such an inspiration. That's great. That's great. So you were at the dispatch. You decide you've found this little niche that you kind of liked and that I have. I have something here and I'm good at this so what did it take for you to make the leap to leave that and start on your own. That's a big leap.

Well two things. One thing is that I lost my three biggest print advertising customers in like two months and not because of something I did it just because they were transitioning into digital advertising and radio and the TV.

More so you know that was a big chunk of change. And I was kind of at that point where I was going to kind of ride this bull till it bucked me in it and bucked me and I had a friend who I worked with in German Village in the German village society. That was a graphic designer design Smith Studios and he was he actually set me up with one of his big clients and I did all his overflew work. And so it allowed me to kind of get right out the gate and he was he was very precise and he kind of taught me how to really check my work. And you know it wasn't that I wouldn't say the sexiest of design work but it got me started. Sure. So.

And did he give you any good solid advice and starting your own business in that field.

Yeah names Jeff Smith design Smith. He was he had been doing it for years and actually he used to teach some design at Columbus State. So he was very patient with me. And you know sometimes I think I need to bring on more people to help me because I get overwhelmed. But I think it would take me just as long to explain what I want to have done and have it done myself do it myself. So he was very patient and he was great at that and I probably he was probably the real starting point for me it helped me get into the business.

Great. That's nice to have somebody and he's local so you can still rely on him if you had a question and that's great. Still DongJun village. So when you do face some of the challenges of being overwhelmed having a lot of work on your plate having a little less time than is ideal how do you how do you persevere what do you what are some of your tools in your toolbox that you could share with perhaps other entrepreneurs who are facing the same challenges.

Well the first thing that comes to mind is don't be afraid to work the weekends but which is something I do quite often find a little time extra. There's always time I think to do things and you get distracted very easily. I'll go four to six hours and I'll actually turn my phone and my email off. That's a little it's tough these days especially with things coming at you and deadlines and people need things really quick. But if you have a project that is really bearing down on you I find that just turn it off and people get mad at me sometimes I'm like where were you. I needed nine as well. You know you should have you know I get to give me 24 hours at least 48 is usually I can turn things around very quickly. But you know certain things need attention and you've got to give us some time.

Do you think that some of your customers are clients kind of think because you're on your own and you still have other things to do and so you have all the time in the world because you're not sitting in a big box office with a big staff do you think that that's that's a challenge that you face from your from the client perspective is that they just they think you're at their beck and call or no as it's always you set that I expect.

Not really as long as you set that expectation. Sometimes I turn things around so quickly that they're happy I tell them you know you set an expectation and you exceed it right. Right. So if I say you've got to give me 48 hours and I turn it around 30 minutes you know they'll get used to that but I I tell them you know if they send me something and I know that I'm busy and I know that I'm working on a big project I'm going to tell them this is going to be tomorrow or was that okay. Communication is the key. I find that when I was in advertising I didn't care if a customer gave me a yes or no. Just give me one of those things right. Right.

I'm not. Is it a hard sale. I was like yeah. I just don't. People

Ghosting me and especially you know your graphic designer. You don't want people that are in the service industry ghosting you. Basically you want communication even if it is to tell them that it's going to be a day or two.

Right. That's all and that's how I feel. So I think that's what you're saying is just if it's going to be a day or two just let me know that and then I'm good you know and I can plan around that. Exactly yeah. And you do that with me a lot. So I will mention that that you do a lot of work for the chamber. And right now I'm keeping you very busy day. Yes yes. And I say I need this today and most the time you're able to do that. So that's really appreciated. And you know I don't ever want to take advantage of that fact which is probably one of the reasons I ask that question is do you feel taken advantage of the times.

But if somebody needs. Sometimes people just need something today. You know I'll I'll take care of it.

And probably most of the time you can do that. Yeah yeah yeah. If it's. Yes yes. And you do. You travel a lot. So sometimes that means you set the expectation at least with me that says Hey Michelle I'm going to be out these 10 days. And and so I know you know try to load you up before you leave her. Jeff when you get back. But. But I pretty much. I know. And tell me about your travel.

That's where you go when it comes to business I have 10 to 15 clients constantly you know need something at some point during the month. But you know me and my girlfriend Kelley we travel quite a bit late lately at least once a month. Whether she's traveling I'm traveling or traveling together we're decidedly starting to slow that down because it is you know when you start your own business especially in the beginning it's been a few years for me now but in the beginning you got to be present. Nice thing about what I do is I can take my laptop with me and if I have emergency work that needs done. But I let my clients know a month or two in advance like I'm going to be out these days. Right. If it's especially if it's a good chunk of business hours. I want to make sure they know that.

And so for your regular clients is this is it ongoing or do do you do a lot of project worker. I mean are they calling you and you're doing work for them every day like this. Are you a part of their staff.

I have. I have several clients that are like that. OK. One being Jazz Arts Group of Columbus Yeah I do all their billboards and advertising and digital ads and all that. And that's pretty Conair playbills. So you know they have whatever their schedule is they have 6 10 20 shows a year whenever they are two different seasons they have their Zeu season they have their winter season. Some pretty dialed into that. I go to their events so I know what's going on with that and I go to their shows and a lesbian with actually them because I used to study jazz right. Yeah. Her goal seems to make sense but I have a couple of clients like that that are constantly Rockford homes is another I do all their marketing advertising. I even write some blogs for them which isn't my favorite thing to do but I do it. Yeah I do love it good.

So what do you think you would do differently today. Now that you're a few years down the road starting your business.

I would have started it 20 years ago. Really. Yes. But it took me you know it took me 20 years to really find my passion and sometimes that happens. Sharam it was been kind of a wild ride. I ran some pizza restaurants and I've I've done all kinds I was you know studied music I studied business I sold advertising and in the end that's probably where I got my launch into creative work for marketing.

I love helping small businesses medium size businesses.

I've had a couple large businesses that I've dealt with but you definitely feel more involved with smaller businesses feel more everything's more at stake you know especially when you're building a website for them. Occasionally I get brand new businesses where I'm doing their logo all other marketing picking their colors and designing their Web site.

He did that with us. You did that with the chamber Yeah. We matched and that was it was. I had no idea where to start. So you know even though you were kind of new into what you were doing the guidance that you gave us to develop our logo and our colors was really helpful because I had no idea where the starting point was. And you came in with a survey or a questionnaire that helped us really think about and identify who we wanted to be and find something that was going to stick and have longevity and make sense not only two years ago when we merged but 20 years down the road.

Yeah. You know everything needs freshened up after a while and trends change and sure you know everything gets stodgy. So that's why I'm always going to be in business because everybody's always going to need something new. Colors are going to change. We use dropshot when I use drop shadow. Is it a flat design. There's all kinds of things that are changing over the years.

You know I try to make things that kind of stand the test of time. But that's that's that's designed. It's constantly changing and it's exciting and you got to keep up with it.

Right. So I said I was just going to ask you was how do you keep up with the trends.

The reading I belong to a lot of blogs and blogs have been a sort of a weird thing over the years. But all they are just news feeds really. People write their stories and they blog it out. And I remember probably 10 years ago I was like I'll never read a blog. I read them every day. Yeah. Because it's information it's really industry specific inside information. There are so many blogs out there you just search new design techniques in 2018 and you'll get all these blogs and all these people were talking about what's trending now. So I read that stuff constantly now. It's kind of amazing.

Which is good for you and your development but certainly good for your clients. So do you have a preference on types of businesses or sizes of businesses. I mean you kind of mentioned that the smaller businesses you're a little more closely tied to. But you know is there something that you.

Is there a niche you prefer with smaller businesses. Give me a little more carte Blash so that medium larger sized businesses anything over 30 50 employees they're going to have a lot more to say about what they want which is which is fine. Sure. But I kind of like the smaller businesses sometimes because they give me a little more creative freedom than they trust me a little more and sometimes you have to sell your designs even especially to these medium and large larger businesses you really have to sell your designs and convince them what is right. Sometimes you know the customer isn't always right about these types of things so you have to educate them.

And that's probably hard to convince a large company who's been doing the same thing for a while and they're kind of tied to what they've been doing.

Yeah they're tied to their brand and you want to you know you don't want to go in and reinvent the wheel and the customer in the end. They want what they want. Sure. I'll try to talk them out of going into a bad habit type thing type designs. But it is what it is. Yeah. Got to get what they want.

I remember when we were coming up with this podcast and Brett and I were working on what do we called this thing. What is it you know we're talking about businesses but we want it to be a little more personal. We want to tie the listener to each of our businesses on a personal level so that you know maybe they they get their printing done with x printer but they also know that you know how that printer got there and why they're doing that and what their passion is. And Brett and I came up with something I can't remember what it was because I talked to you on the phone and I said hey I need you to design this logo. And we talked it through again. And and you said that sounds kind of inspirational and I said oh my gosh that's it. It's business inspires. And so that's how we came up with that. Forget about that. This nice reminder but that's exactly how we came up with that was having that conversation with you on the phone and that it's nice that you can listen to each client especially small businesses that are like me that are they I know what they want to do but they don't know exactly how to get there. And so you're able it seems to me to be able to adapt to who they are and what they're trying to accomplish and and help them get to that end game. So that's really nice. So tell us a little bit about what you do every day.

So I do graphic design web design and marketing photography you know photography was one thing that kind of came in late and it was something it was I took some classes on it and found out that I had a pretty good eye for it. And I recently did a wedding which I said I would never do. But I did it for a friend of mine you dress. It wasn't because it we just it was pretty laid back wedding but I I find I have a pretty good eye for marketing to toggery food photography things like that.

So I had shots which I've done for you guys too. Yes. So we do I do a little bit of that graphic design portion I do logo design advertising. I took probably five or six Photoshop classes in college and I still only know about 75 percent of Photoshop. So there's there's so much more to learn but it's it's it's fun because you have to learn every day and I love doing it using Illustrator doing logo designs like like the tri village logo and trying to make that work for everybody. InDesign is another program I use that's for doing layout magazine layouts and things like that advertising layouts. And most recently probably the last three years I picked up web design and that I took some classes on coding which is not something that I am I am not a coder and I will never be a coder but I know how code works and I can write code if I have to. I use WordPress as a basis for my web design but it's nice being. Most large firms that do web design they'll have a designer and then they'll have a coder who will make it happen. So the designer will send mockups to the client and then if they like it then they sign off on it and then the coder will actually create the Web site based on the mockups. Well I kind of cut that middleman out. I'm a designer who can design websites with a builder and modern technology has gotten to which WordPress certain WordPress Themes and builders are so easy to use now that you don't really need to do a full custom and pay the 100 to 300 miles. You know some of those companies do need these million dollar platforms but you know small medium businesses can get it done much less expense than they used to be and how about turnaround time does that allow you to turn things around more quickly for clients.

It does. But again I'm a one man show so sometimes I will engage some other Web designers to help out in that case.

But yes in the end yes it really does take less time and it sounds like it's more affordable much more affordable. You know I don't really have to I have to keep the lights on in my home office. But you know large firms they're going to you know you're going to pay 150 dollars an hour where you are going to pay half of that with me just because that's just I just don't have the overhead that these large firms have.

Right. Good. And so where can people find you.

My web is w w w Jason design studio dot com for me on my Web site.

Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today. I would highly encourage you to check Jason out. Clearly we use him a lot at the chamber and and for our events and lots of logo work and we really appreciate all of your help. But I would encourage everybody to to check you out get to know you because you do great work.

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