We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sam Laubach & Meghan Martin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sam, Meghan below.

Sam & Meghan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

We had the opportunity to work with Diana Jarrar of MagicDates on a rebrand. Her current brand identity and packaging “followed the rules” in terms of what worked for retail. Lack of color (white background, black text), standard sans-serif fonts, and an unmemorable logotype. It was overwhelmingly generic and lacked a brand story.

We partnered with her to create a new brand identity that speaks to her Middle Eastern background and culture, while also speaking to the role of dates in Middle Eastern culture as well. We used bold colors and pulled inspiration from textiles and markets from that area of the world, and typography inspired by Arabic lettering.

She debuted the new identity and packaging on SharkTank and scored a deal with Mr Wonderful. Her sales have grown 14x and she’s moving towards entering bigger retail stores. We are so proud of the work we did and the success and admiration she’s received since. It’s incredibly gratifying to work with founders like her and use our creativity to share their stories.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Here and Now Creative Co is a female-led creative agency based in Baltimore and Austin that specializes in brand development and creative direction. Through big-picture thinking and detailed problem-solving, we develop brand experiences built on individuality.

Our startup story is one we imagine many can relate to. We both began our careers as graphic designers, and as we were working for different companies we began freelancing together on the side. In transparency, we had no official business plan, but we decided we didn’t have much to lose, so after only a few months of freelancing we jumped in full-time. Now over 5 years in we have worked with clients worldwide to build brands featured in Vogue, Forbes, Shark Tank, SELF, World Of Interiors, and more.

Together with a collection of creative partners, we see brands through their initial launch, rebrands, and beyond. We work on brand development including naming, brand strategy, visual identity, and personality, through application such as packaging, product photography, and websites.

We take pride in a process that allows us to get to know our client’s unique stories and missions and align that with a clear place within their market. We work strategically to establish how each brand is unique and what its brand story is, then how that relates to its target audience. We don’t believe in building pretty faces without substance. Our creative work is intentional and we strive to create brands that don’t just follow trends, but instead tell a unique story.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of what we do is the impact our work has. From working closely with founders to create a visual representation of their unique story, to designing packaging that reduces waste – we have the ability to make an impact through every decision we make when producing work.

Design has a tremendous amount of influence. By creating an unboxing experience, you can inspire excitement and awe – with every detail that has been thought through. You can design an ad that leaves someone feeling like it spoke right to them personally, or create a logo that doesn’t just look pretty, but also encompasses an entire story and emotion. Every detail in our work has the opportunity to make an impact on someone.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Our journey has not been linear, and we don’t think it will ever be. For us, since the begining it has been a series of rolling with the punches and not being too attached to one specific outcome. Sometimes you have an idea of how you want something to be or where you’d like it to go, but that’s not what happens. Whether that’s in a creative project or in business. Allowing room for creativity and unexpected plans is something we’ve had to learn can often turn out better than what you originally had in mind. In the same vein, your idea is not always the best idea. Remaining open to collaboration and input is how the best work gets done – not without challenge. When you’re pushed to stretch yourself outside of your normal, you learn and evolve as a creative and as a business owner. To summarize, staying open to new ideas and new opportunities may not make sense initially, but can be better than what you thought possible.     

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hereandnowcreative.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hereandnowcreative.co/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/here-and-now-creative-co/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZATXr1rd0PgdS88xHCrhLw

Image Credits
Photography: Miachel Pruett Photography: Willa Creative