Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sara + Troy DeRose. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Sara + Troy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?
Our culture loves some great “start-up” stories, and we certainly love this question as we love to know how people started. Our story is more circular than linear — a lot of evolutions in a direction, but certainly more than one idea!
After owning a graphic design and sign shop on the western slope since 2005, Troy moved to Colorado Springs and started over, launching Fixer Design as a freelancer graphic design shop with exactly one client who was a referral from a longtime friend. He worked part-time at a local print shop while working on that one client, while Sara was a full-time teacher. While Troy went to all of the usual networking events, sales groups, etc. to build his business, that never actually was fruitful. He simply continued to work on his one client, avidly responded to referrals, and spent his time immersing in the art, design and advertising community locally. After doing this for several years, he acquired enough work to be able to quit his part-time job and go full-time freelance in 2010. During this time, Sara (who had taken some design classes and was always interested in design) would lend her opinions and copywriting skills to a project here and there. At the end of her second year of teaching in 2011, when she realized that her “dream job” wasn’t a great fit, she started taking on some copywriting jobs for some of Troy’s clients.
We didn’t have an idea of exactly how we would work together, or what we wanted our business to be, we just worked in parallel for several months. What galvanized us to move ahead as a business team together was a higher-profile project we got involved in late 2011/early 2012, designing our city’s Visit Colorado Springs tourism logo (still in use today). We got this job through the only “networking” these two introvert business owners could do — authentically showing up to be part of and support the things in our local community we were interested in. Through relationships with marketing companies and other designers in the city, we participated in a “town hall” event constructively giving feedback to the city’s most recent branding rollout (the design of which was not an instant success (to put it mildly). That process led to the formation of a team of community leaders to lead a search, selection and design of a more fitting logo to match the new branding of the city, and we got the project. That project was the first one we had truly creative directed and executed as a team, combining our skills, and was the first big turning point in our business. We rebranded from Fixer Design to Fixer Creative Co.
We’ve always worked pretty lean to make our business work. we worked from our home office and out of the then-brand-new Epicentral Coworking as we grew our business. We always have had branding at the core of our work, but we expanded during those first years in related ways — offering website design and development, advertising and marketing campaign, as well as being the agency of record for a few larger regional companies.
The next stepping stone in growth came in the summer of 2012. We had recently collaborated with some our other designer friends to launch Wild Fire Tees, a non-profit that sold a series of t-shirts to benefit wildfire relief and help people who were effected by the devastating fires in Colorado (which ultimately grossed over $1M in sales and hundreds of thousands donated.) We had the opportunity to consider (along with our collaborators) if pursuing running this non-profit was an interest. This opportunity clarified for us that our hearts were in Fixer, the direction we were going.
From doing that work, we began the next period of growth of our business. We saw the power of collaboration and developed a mutual trust with our partner design agencies. As all of our businesses grew, we were in need of expanded, professional space and wanted to build more creative community. Together, we co-founded the Machine Shop in 2013 with four independent creative studios— a collaborative workspace (in a former automotive garage), as a shared studio space. While at the Machine Shop, we established the Colorado Springs outpost of AIGA and served as Field Director and board members, hosted lectures, art shows and events, and continued to work with more clients.
Our focus on branding came out of our time at the Machine Shop. Branded environments (designing and producing signs, ephemera, goods in a physical location) became a big part of our business from the collaboration with our shopmates Echo Architecture & Interiors on several projects where we’ve been able to work together to make sure our branding and signage coordinate and compliment the architecture and vice versa. We realized that our strengths were in branding and rebrands, as well as shepherding projects through the strategy, design and implementation of the brand — something that combines all of our combined experience. In addition to the larger brand and rebrand projects, we love to do a variety of design projects that help develop brand, grow brands, or make an impact through campaigns or unique experiences. This allows us to work on projects of all sizes, lengths, and areas — which makes us happy. As we focused on branding, we streamlined our name further — and are most known as FIXER.
Most recently, in June of 2020, we opened our own sunny, spacious studio in a historic building a few blocks away from where we were in Downtown Colorado Springs. This new space has allowed us to continue to work seamlessly amidst the changing COVID protocols, and have more space for the future growth areas of our business — a workshop for our art, printmaking, environmental and experimental projects alongside our branding work, and more room to continue to host client workshops and events in the future, and brand consulting.
Sara + Troy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
The short answer: We build better brands for companies and organizations who, well, to put it simply — give a damn. We are branding specialists — we believe there is authentic good in every company and organization we work with, and our job is to unearth, clarify, and amplify that story in creative ways.
Our process definitely sets us apart — we approach projects through tried-and-tested frameworks that allow us to approach every project the same way, but allow for creativity to flourish. Our biggest frustrations have come where we see a thoughtful strategy that was poorly executed, or interesting design that has no purpose or strategy behind it. We bridge the gap between the two, shepherding projects from first strategy to final execution, and beyond.
What we are most proud of is doing work that reinvigorates entrepreneurs, owners, activists in doing their work that creates our communities. We’re proud to be in our second decade of working with others to raise the standard for design and better experiences in our community. We align well with groups fighting for equity and justice, and intentional, tangible impact in our world.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
We were never focused on growing a clientele as much as we have been focused on doing work we found meaningful in some way that is core to us. Our version of growth is not more, but better — improving our craft to do better quality work, building a sustainable business that lets us have a life with our family and tiny human at time, time to be curious and learn new things, give our time away for good causes, and have more control over how we spend that time. To that end, we just decided to show up and support what we loved and felt strongly about — showing up at events, always answering emails/questions that came our way, supporting non-profits, and becoming an embedded part of the community.
Over the last decade, we’ve seen more of our work tangibly appear in all of those areas and are grateful for all the referrals that came our way because of it. It’s not a particularly fast strategy, and potentially not an effective one if you are looking at traditional business growth, but it’s an authentic one that means that the majority of inquiries and leads on projects we get are a great match for us.
How’d you meet your business partner?
We met in the days of the internet where online dating was just growing out of the sketchy chatroom era, but before you had your choice of dating apps and everyone knew someone who met online. We lived in different cities in Colorado, so we dated long-distance for about a year trading weekends visiting, and then Troy sold his business and started Fixer when he moved here for a girl (Sara). Working with your spouse or life partner is not for everyone, but it works for us, and we also work at making it work. We count ourselves lucky that we get to share so much of our life with the person we like the most. We became business partners the year we got married, so over a decade later, both are still going strong!
Contact Info:
- Website: fixercreative.com
- Instagram: @fixercreative.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fixercreative
- Twitter: @fixercreative
Image Credits
Richard Seldomridge Lauren McKenzie FIXER