We were lucky to catch up with Kye Pirrie recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kye, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

I think the lack of practical and creative electives in most schools is atrocious.

I think there needs to be a much greater emphasis on practical and creative knowledge at least at the high school level. Cooking, banking, how credit works, how to buy a house, and classes spanning different industries all need to be standard. How are kids supposed to figure out what they want to do with their life, let alone how to function in the real world if they’re not exposed to things? You can’t know what you’ve never seen.

On the flip side, I understand that getting more practical and creative classes into primary education costs money and the funding isn’t always there. I get it, but if we can’t realistically provide more kids with access to classes that can help them find their passions, why are we telling kids they have to decide on it right away and go to college right out of high school?

I feel like a much better option is putting off college for 2-4 years, and telling kids to go try things. Spend those 2-4 years diving into new industries, hobbies, and activities so they can really get a sense of what matters to them. They’ll have a much better idea of what they want to do with their lives, won’t feel so lost, and be able to form some sort of trajectory for their futures. Priming children to just be another cog in the machine is ridiculous.

Happiness, fulfillment, and success all range wildly from person to person. Putting every child through the same paper-pushing, dream-crushing, authority-pleasing assembly line we call the education system is the biggest disservice to the human race we’ve come up with this far.

We’ve got to provide kids with options and experiences that allow them to learn more about themselves, and figure out on their own how they want to contribute to the world in a meaningful way. We’ve got to do better.

As a side note, I want to add that I fully support and am incredibly proud of our teachers. In no way are my thoughts directed at educators. The system is broken and to blame, not the people who make it their purpose to educate and work with children. If it weren’t for some of the amazing teachers that I had, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

To any educators or staff out there that might be reading this, you are appreciated. You are superhuman. The altruism and grit that you have to get up every day and do your best to positively influence the next generation goes unnoticed far too often, and you deserve all the praise in the world.

Kye, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Kye, and I recently started my own business, Eleven One Three. I help businesses develop their brands with creative solutions.

My journey into graphic design and digital art began in middle school (07-08), and I just haven’t been able to stop. I freelanced in high school up until 2016 when I started working at a small automotive restyling shop called Auto Film Solutions in Colorado Springs.

I helped build the design, production, and content creation department (lovingly referred to as The Lab) from the ground up into what I can proudly say is one of the best in the country. I spent the majority of my time there designing and producing vehicle wraps for businesses of all sizes, as well as individuals who wanted custom work done. I also helped a lot of the smaller businesses with brand development with logo design, stationery, and apparel.

After 6 great years, I finally had an opportunity to start my own business, which had been a dream of mine since high school. I still have a great relationship with AFS, and definitely miss being a part of the family, but I had to give my dream a chance. I knew if I was laying on my death bed and had never taken the leap, I’d die with 1000 pounds of regret sitting on my chest, and I couldn’t let that happen no matter the result.

Today, I specialize in helping businesses of all sizes, as well as personal brands, develop their brands a beyond visual identity. The biggest problem is that most people think their brand is complete once they’ve got a logo and a business name, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Brand is the entire presence of the business. Not only does visual identity fall into that, but the culture you develop, the personality you exude, and mission of the business all fall into branding. Without understanding how all of it works together, most businesses just blend into the crowd.

I think what sets me apart from most other graphic designers is that I’m not here just to create beautiful art and solve problems, but to educate businesses about branding and show them how to apply that knowledge moving forward. Branding and brand development is a perpetual process, and just getting that website built or throwing a couple of ads into the ether of the internet isn’t going to cut it.

You’ve got to establish a true brand strategy by figuring out why it is you do what you do, what you want to achieve, and how you want people to relate to your business. Humans are emotional creatures, and if you can’t connect with people on an emotional level, you’ll never make it.

My goal is to identify the problems that people have with their brand, help them develop a meaningful strategy, and then get into the creation stage. Designing logos, building websites, crafting advertisements, and producing stationery is only part of the battle. They all need to be deeply rooted in the why’s and how’s of the business, and need to effectively communicate that to an audience. I help businesses and personal brands through that journey and beyond.

As far as my proudest moments, I’d have to say working with some of the top YouTube creators is definitely up there. I’ve worked on projects for Mr. Beast, David Dobrik, MoreJSTU, and Matt Beem, and they’ve all been incredibly exciting projects.

Beyond the glitz and glam, I really do take great pride in working with small businesses to help establish their presence within their respective industries. There’s something special about helping other entrepreneurs grow their businesses, and when I hear that what I’ve helped them create has brought more clients in, I’m just overjoyed.

Going forward, I’m developing a pro bono platform to help non-profit organizations with their efforts. I’m definitely not a boots-on-the-ground kind of person, but I feel like I can effectively do my part by helping organizations create a greater impact through branding. I want to have a positive impact on the world, and I know I can help people spread their message. There is so much change that needs to happen, both environmentally and socially, but a lot of organizations are underfunded. I want to help by offering both my skills and my knowledge completely free so they can focus their efforts and finances where they matter most.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I communicate with my clients on literally any platform they feel most comfortable. I think that only communicating through standard channels like phone and email is incredibly limiting in this day and age. Especially if your target audience is within the younger generations, you have to be where your audience is.

As far as brand loyalty goes, it’s all about providing more value than you ask for, and it doesn’t just have to be monetary. Sure, bundling services together for a better price is nice and all, but it only goes so far. Someone will always do what you do for less money.

You’ve got to have impeccable customer service, you’ve got to provide useful knowledge, and you’ve got to provide support whenever possible. It’s never a case of, “what can my clients do for me”, it’s always, “what can I do for my clients.”

Fostering great client relationships is the key to thriving in any businesses or industry, end of the story.

Any advice for managing a team?

This is a fun one.

I actually don’t manage a team any more, but I’ve got plenty of experience managing teams of various sizes in a few different industries. Once I get to the point of having my own team under my own business, all of the thoughts below will outline how I’d lead my team.

Just like I mentioned in the last question, it always comes down to providing more value than you ask for. “What can I do for my team,” not, “what can my team do for me?”

The first thing I think a vast majority of management gets wrong is that their team works for them. That thought absolutely has to change. Yes, they do the actual work for the business, but you’ve got to cultivate an environment where your team feels good about doing it. Provide more value to them than you ask for.

I swear some people forget that their team is comprised of actual human beings. They need positivity, the need to be rewarded for doing well, and they need to feel like they can actually be human.

When I hear people denying time off or telling people they need to sort out their shift in order to take the time off, I get furious. Obviously if someone is abusing time off then it’s a different story, but for the most part, people don’t just take off to take off. Sometimes people need mental health days or just a break from the grind, they’re humans, not robots. They’re giving you the courtesy of letting you that they won’t be there for reasons X, Y, or Z, and it’s your job as a manager to sort it out. Manage the situation. Weird.

If you want to maintain high morale and reduce the turnover rate of good team members, do more for them than they do for you. Give them the time off, let them know they’re doing a good job, pay them an actually appropriate wage, reward the people who go above and beyond, and cultivate an environment and culture that people genuinely want to be a part of. Just be a good person, don’t manage, lead, and people will follow. If you’re a jerk (I had other words in mind but we’ll just use jerk), you’re going to have a much harder time leading your team successfully.

Think about the last time someone you liked asked you for a favor compared to someone you didn’t like. How did you feel? You probably had no issue and maybe even felt good about helping out the person you like. You probably grumbled and groaned or just said no to the person you didn’t. People want to go above an beyond for someone they genuinely like to be around. What a concept.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.elevenonethree.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/11onethree
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/elevenonethree
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kyepirrie
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/11onethree

Image Credits
Concept brand and packaging for Cthulhu Coffee Concept logo design for White Top Ski Resort Apparel design for Auto Film Solutions Personal 3D Render Event poster design for Faceless Ones Smart Car and vending machine vinyl wrap design, installed by Auto Film Solutions for Mr. Beast Label Design for Lush Leaf Life CBD Products