We were lucky to catch up with Chris Reinecke recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chris, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

I started my career in 2007 as a Graphic Designer, with some hefty student debt. It was pretty much always on my mind to do some freelance work on the side, to supplement my income.

But, it would take time. I was new to the industry, without much of a network to draw from, and the clients I could attract at that stage in my career were pretty small.

My personal financial outlook looked pretty grim starting out. I was just doing what I could to stay alive, really.

It took time to develop a book of clients and enough volume to consider what I was doing, as a “business.”

First, it was about getting clients to spend a few hundred with me. Then, I struggled to get orders into the thousands. Then, the ten thousands. I remember pretty clearly how proud I was of myself in 2009, when I had closed the year on $5,000 in sales. The next 2 years, I would add services, triple my rates for time management reasons, and double my volume.

I maintained a healthy side income for years, before finally launching my LLC.

Reinecke Design became official in 2016, as a soft place to land when my career was facing unknowns. From 2016-2020, I would experience what I now refer to as “career puberty,” due to a series of awkward changes in my work life. In 4 years, I faced unemployment four times, including burnout, unjust firing, layoffs and furlough.

From the very beginning of Reinecke Design, I had an awareness that job stability was not something that I could be given. If I wanted stability, I had to do the work to create it. Repeatedly in crisis, I was given the opportunity to apply my work ethic and creative talent in service of others, while creating security for my own career.

Now, with the opportunities afforded by the metaverse and crypto markets, there is more demand for creative work than I have seen the history of my career, and the possibilities are endless. It’s exciting to see how I can continue to help businesses put their best foot forward by providing quality design, illustration & creative work to help them visualize their dreams.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Chris Reinecke, and I am the Founder and Principal Designer of Reinecke Design, as well as a Senior Graphic Designer at Signet Jewelers. As a Creative Professional in the DFW Metroplex, I have served in Marketing Communications for over 15 years, serving companies of all sizes, including Sally Beauty, SUCCESS Partners, Solera, Raising Canes, Haggar Clothing and Signet Jewelers, as well as several medical practices, ad agencies and local businesses.

I founded Reinecke Design in 2016, out of the belief that businesses should expect more from their creative services. We began with a deep respect for small business, a background in Graphic Design, and the philosophy that “Design is the act of creating with purpose, on purpose.”

With this as our foundation, we have set out to build a new kind of business service that emphasizes listening to our clients, setting clear goals, and solving real-world problems.

Today, Reinecke Design offers a range of services, from marketing, design, and copywriting, to NFT Illustration, print and apparel production, and even workflow management. We are so serious about the power of ideas, that we want to help bring yours to life and to ensure every opportunity for success.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Some of the biggest challenges as a creative business owner involve knowing your worth.

At several key times in my career, I’ve been told by clients that I am was not charging enough.
There was a limitation in my head telling me that the people in my network were looking to me for a deal.
As I have grown in skill and worked to provide sustainable value to my clients, I learned that people were far more willing to justify prices for quality work, convenience, and a partnership with a contractor they could trust.

In my early career, I took every project I could, just for the opportunity to grow and to build a client base. My first lesson in knowing my value came when I was having trouble saying “no,” to projects. In order to better safeguard my time and spend it with family, I tripled my rates, and declined projects based on specialty and strengths. Surprisingly, this approach increased my demand, and my sales for that year formed a to-date record.

Later in my career, I started identifying my niche, and realized that my expertise is in campaign building and creative strategy. In order to offer the most value to my clients and do the work I do best, this meant taking smaller projects off of my menu of services, I stopped creating logos as a stand-alone offer, and now offer logos as part of a more comprehensive visual identity service. This was a difficult change because I pride myself on my logo work. But I learned that clients cannot realize the value of a logo without also receiving a comprehensive strategy for putting it into place.

This meant that I ended up saying “no” to a lot of work, but that the work I ended up saying “Yes,” to, were the projects I was dying to be a part of. As a result, I get to do more of the work that I do best. My clients trust me to not only create visuals, but to define the purpose and outcomes behind them. I am now developing a strong reputation for creative strategy. These never would have happened, without taking the risk.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I’ve been learning a lot about NFTs over the last two years. I’ve served as artist in a few projects, and own a few myself. They get a bad rap – largely because of sensational headlines, poor marketing and a number of bad players in the space.

I was first drawn to NFTs because it was clear that there would be a demand for illustrators in this space. NFTs are responsible for a renewed demand for illustration services, unlike anything I’ve seen in the last decade.

Some say NFTs are “digital ownership” of a JPG, or a certificate of authenticity.
Others will dumb it down and say people are spending small fortunes on image files.
NFT advocates even get it wrong, when they focus on the benefits of NFTs as a wealth building tool.

In reality, an NFT is most like a digital key (smart contract) that fits into a digital lock (dApp).
The tech is in its infancy, and the use cases are still being explored, but the potential is very exciting.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.reinecke-design.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/reineckedesign
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ReineckeDesign
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/chris-reinecke