We were lucky to catch up with Michele Mussatto recently and have shared our conversation below.

Michele, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

As a designer, copywriter, and brand marketing professional, I knew I needed to come up with a name and a logo that was creative, unique, and memorable. It had to be a brand that not only showcased my writing, design, and marketing talent but also showed businesses that I could create branding concepts that will showcase their talents as well. I wanted to come up with a concept that indicated that my designs would be hip and cool, so I played with different hand gestures and slogans that denoted such. When I finally thought of “high sign design” and the thumbs-up gesture also known as the “high sign,” I did an intensive internet and trademark search to see if anyone else had thought of this name. Then I did an intensive search to see if there were any bad connotations trending with hashtags related to “high sign” or the thumbs-up symbol, which is also the due diligence I do for my clients when branding new products or company names. Being in the clear, I quickly purchased the domain name, created all my social media accounts, and registered the trademark with the US Patent and Trademark office. I love the repetition of the “IG” in the name visually, and the catchiness of the name High Sign Design, it’s fun to say. It also aligns with my sign-designing talents, which is a helpful SEO boost for sign-design leads. And it hints at my love of hiking to the top of mountains, so look for my business flag on the top of mountain peaks in my social feeds.

Michele, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born with a passion for drawing and writing, so I have always done both. As a creative with a strong intellectual side, I am drawn to the cleverness and the psychology of logo design, and enjoy combining images and slogans in ways that excite and move people. I got my degree in graphic design and marketing, then obtained certifications in video production and animation to follow my passion for motion graphics and audio. Then my love of coding and logic led me to get certified in web design.

I love everything to do with marketing, whether it is producing a TV commercial, designing fun billboards, or creating a new logo, digital ad, video, or an entire website. I also love the strategy of market research, SEO, lead generation, and analyzing the effectiveness of marketing channels and budgets. Often my clients are established businesses that want to gain more customers or leads or beat their competition for market share and brand awareness. But many times my clients are new small business owners that just need a logo and a name and a website.

My ability to help clients with a wide spectrum of marketing needs is what sets me apart from other marketers. The biggest thing I see my clients struggle with is the “not knowing;” not knowing what they need or what they should do to promote their business or idea. I love to help clients navigate the mysterious and constantly changing world of marketing.

The project I am most proud of is the billboard series I did juxtaposing famous Kansas City landmarks with the values of Anthony Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric. It was exciting to drive past these landmarks and see the billboards posted nearby. It was a proud way to honor the city that I love. These can be viewed at www.michelemussatto.com/billboards.

I also have to mention the blessing I had to have been able to do a video interview with my hero Frank Bello of Anthrax for our online music magazine UnratedMag.com! You can view the interview on my YouTube channel or at www.michelemussatto.com/videos.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I have been doing art as a side hustle since I was in high school, and even though I obtained my degree in graphic design in college, it was years before I obtained my first full-time job as an advertising artist. It took moving from my small college hometown to Chicago to make this happen, and a bit of a pay cut. I decided to pursue a more lucrative career as an executive assistant to a handful of CEOs while in Chicago, but always found ways to use my graphic design and marketing skills to make myself stand out in those positions. Upon moving to Kansas City, I quit my executive assisting career, invested in digital marketing certifications, a Macbook, and a DSLR camera, and decided to live off savings for a few months until I broke into digital marketing. It was scary, but luckily I landed a digital marketing job that put me in a higher pay bracket. After 4 years of saving money at this higher-paying career, I took another chance and quit that job, and formally launched my marketing agency, High Sign Design. It isn’t easy to say no to big steady paychecks, but with hard work, strategic thinking, and confidence in my abilities, I have found that pursuing my dreams can pay off, both financially and in quality of life. It is a ladder of risk, reward, and repeat.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Shortly after quitting my executive assisting career and moving to Kansas City, I decided to become a certified web developer by enrolling in the Tallgrass School full-stack JavaScript web development program. I had to convince the instructor that my limited programming experience would be supplemented adequately by extensive digital graphic design experience, and it worked. I had to overcome two significant challenges, however. For one, I was significantly older than the others in the cohort, and it was unnerving trying to fit in with the talented, hip, young geeks. Also, I was awaiting surgery for double vision during the 3-month accelerated program and had to switch glasses every time I looked up from my computer to the whiteboard and back. Between my crossed eyes, my two sets of glasses, and my interruptions from calls from doctors and insurance companies, I wasn’t the most popular kid in class! But I believed in myself and stuck to my ambitions and am now creating websites like I dreamed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.michelemussatto.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highsigndesign/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/highsigndesign
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-mussatto/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MicheleMussatto
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@michelemussattovideography6124
• Other: https://nextdoor.com/pages/high-sign-design-marketing-edwardsville-ks/ https://github.com/MicheleMussatto https://codepen.io/mmussatto/ https://www.pinterest.com/mmussatto/ https://www.unratedmag.com/?s=michele+mussatto

Image Credits
All photos taken by Michele Mussatto.