We were lucky to catch up with Kevin Craft recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kevin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was starting my own business. Back in 2018, I wasn’t being challenged enough creatively at my current place and was looking for a fresh start. After many interviews, I realized finding a new place wasn’t going to change much and it was time to take the plunge. I always told myself that it wouldn’t work up to that point, it seemed impossible, that I’d run out of money, have to only take on very non motivating work, or not get enough clients. Fortunately, it was the opposite! Starting my own business opened me up to so many things: a diverse array of clients in industries I always wanted to work in, the challenge of managing my own business / schedule (as a creative I never thought of myself understanding the business side of things), and now I even doubled my salary. Now it’s something I’m so proud of myself for doing, and want to continue for as long as possible.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I’m a freelance brand designer in Dallas TX that specializes in brand identity. I started out as a web designer for Bergdorf Goodman, and have also worked as an art director for several agencies in Dallas. I went off on my own in 2018 to focus more on brand identity and have been loving the freelancer life ever since. I’d say I help my clients understand their own branding just as much as I design their identities. I like to work with them through workshops to decipher who their target audience is, and how design can play a role in reaching them. In addition to being a brand designer, I’ve also recently done a course for Domestika on brand identity design that helps beginner level designers create brand identities for their clients. I’ve recently been given the opportunity to host a live workshop for Adobe where I was able to show how I handle package design projects for clients.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
This book really helped me learn the basics of pricing for clients, something that I know a lot of artists and creatives struggle with since we always undervalue our work.
The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing: Price creative work with confidence. Win more bids. Make more money. by Michael Janda
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
One thing that has really helped me is called Otter.ai. It’s a resource that converts your meetings to notes. A lot of what I do involves understanding my clients needs / business approaches, so when I have calls I need to be paying attention to the client during their consultation as well as taking notes. This does that for me and I highly recommend it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kevincraftdesign.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevader/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-craft-1590341b/
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/pToLME-8dH4
- Other: This is a link to my online Brand Identity Course https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/3410-strategy-based-brand-identity-design/kevin_craft My Adobe Live https://youtu.be/pToLME-8dH4