Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelsey Mader. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kelsey , appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The story on how I came up with the name for my studio is also deeply rooted in our mission of working with and supporting women.

In order to graduate from High School in Pennsylvania you’re required to complete a senior project. As someone who has always loved purses and shopping, I decided to collect used and gently used purses and then fill them with feminine products, toiletries, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hair ties, etc and donate them to a women’s shelter that is near my hometown.

When a woman needs to remove herself (and her children if she has any) immediately from a dangerous situation the last thing she is thinking about is taking products with her, and she might not even grab her purse. So I wanted to fill the purses with the products that she would need on a day to day basis.

The community around me donated an incredible amount of purses and products and I sat upstairs outside of my bedroom and organized everything into piles to go into each of the purses, I can vividly remember sitting on the floor with the products all around me as I organized.

When my mom and I went to the women’s shelter to donate the purses we were able to talk to some of the staff members, get a tour of the facility and I remember getting so emotional talking with the staff members who were clearly so passionate about helping these women.

That day I donated 110 purses filled with products. When we got back to the car my mom told me that I “empowered one hundred and ten” and that has stuck with me in the years since.

When I was starting to think about the name I wanted for my rebrand, I had a couple of options but I kept thinking about 110. In my studio I only work with women business owners, as I want to support them in their journey’s of running a business and being successful on their own terms.

And I eventually decided on OneTen The Studio, as a nod to my senior project that I think really set the foundations for my passion of working with and serving other women.

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

I’m a third-generation artist, so being artsy and creative has kind of always been my thing. I’m very fortunate and appreciative to have a family that has been supportive of my artistic dreams.

I originally went to college (Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA) for fashion merchandising. My love of fashion is intricately intertwined with my desire to be creative and one of the reasons I had picked Mercyhurst was for the fashion program and the opportunity to study at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC) my senior year.

I wanted to work for a fashion magazine and I was doing research about fashion careers and ended up thinking that perhaps graphic design would be a good minor to have since I wanted to work in a magazine. So I met with the head of the department who told me that she had studied Fashion and Graphic Design as well in college, and I decided to enroll in graphic design classes for a minor.

In one of my first few graphic design classes I had what I lovingly call my ‘movie moment’. I was sitting in the back of the design lab in front of my computer and I was working on some sketches or taking notes I can’t remember, however I do remember thinking to myself “wow, I could do this for the rest of my life” and that is when I realized that graphic design was what I wanted to do.

Within days I had switched my major to graphic design and fashion as my minor and the rest is history. Now looking back I can see how graphic design is truly what I was meant to do, and I love my job so much.

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After I graduated from college in 2017, I had a couple of graphic design jobs and did freelance work off and on while I was in school and also after I graduated. I never really saw myself doing freelance work or running a business, even though I watched my mom run her own business growing up. I had a couple of close friends in school who said I should give it a try but I thought the 9-5 and working for someone else was what I wanted.

In 2019 and into early 2020 I was looking for a new job, and I had no success. I was looking for a remote graphic design job because as someone who had been working for a few years at that point I realized that I wanted more. I wanted more flexibility, more money, and most importantly more freedom within my job.

But I never got any interviews.

I became frustrated and began thinking about freelancing. I realized more and more that, that was what I wanted to in combination with a remote job. I finally got a remote graphic design job in September of 2020 and left my other position. In December of 2020 I created my instagram account and started posting my work. In January 2021 I booked my first couple of clients, February I booked more and by the middle of February I decided that I was going to take a big chance on myself and leap into running a business full time. So I quit that remote job and have been running my design studio ever since.

It was scary and I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but I knew that I needed to take a chance and give it my all. And I have no regrets, because that was the best decision that I could have made.

I guess that’s also one of those defining moments that I am most proud of too. Taking that leap and betting on myself to make it happen and now running my studio for over a year full time and working with clients from all over the world, I am so proud of myself.

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OneTen is a digital bespoke branding and website design studio for female-led fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands. With our unique OneTen Approach™, we help our clients become globally loved and renowned brands through strategic foundations, a collaborative design process, and giving 110% attention to every detail.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Instagram has been the primary source of clients since I started my business in 2020, we are now at the point where we are getting more and more referrals from previous clients as well.

So I just wrote a blog post about building your instagram and creating a great feed. It also includes a freebie so I’ll put the link here: https://www.onetenthestudio.com/blog/our-favorite-instagram-tips

For designers when you’re starting out and looking to build your audience and gain clients, passion projects are going to be your best friend. You can write the brief yourself, so you can essentially create passion projects that are dream clients for you. Then those projects will hopefully attract those clients to your business. I have had that happen with a couple of passion projects that have brought real life clients of those fields into my business.

For business owners; I would suggest checking out our blog post and accessing our freebie. Even if you aren’t a designer it is still a great resource and will help you generate content ideas and create a cohesive feed. Our best and favorite tips are in that post.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I could honestly talk all day about this!

Books:
Extra Bold – A feminist inclusive anti-racist non-binary field guide for graphic designers by Ellen Lupton + More
The Freelancer’s Bible – Sara Horowitz
Baseline Shift: Untold stories of Women in Graphic Design History – Princeton Architectural Press
Citizen Designer – Steven Heller + Veronique Vienne
The Brand Gap – Marty Neumeier
The Brand Flip – Marty Neumeier
Scramble – Marty Neumeier
POP! – Sam Horn

Youtube:
The Futur
Adobe Live
Megan Weeks
Paola Kassa
Abi Connick

We have a list of our favorite resources on our website, I’m always adding to it, so if you’re interested in checking it out and seeing what tools we use I’ll put the link here: https://www.onetenthestudio.com/fav-resources

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.onetenthestudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onetenthestudio/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onetenthestudio
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/onetenthestudio