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Q&A
Here you can find quick answers to most common questions. If you haven’t found what you’re looking for, or just want to talk to me in person, feel free to get in touch. I’m here to help!
Find a question below and expand it to read the answer.
Why you need a creative professional
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Canva and similar services use cookie-cutter templates that allow the creation of rudimentary flyers, business cards and other marketing materials. While it may be sufficient for creating the occasional whimsical social post, using Canva is like using Comic Sans - not a good look for any serious business.
Besides, there’s so much more to marketing than just putting words into a template. In short, using Canva won’t get you meaningful results - leave that to the professionals.
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AI is a hot buzzword that means many things to many people. As far as branding and marketing is concerned, AI exists in tools that can automate some tasks and help brainstorm.
But just like any tool, it has to be in the right hands as you can’t get good results if you don’t know what to ask and how to interpret it. Overall, AI is just a small piece of the puzzle and nowhere near a replacement for a creative professional.
Reasons to chose me
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For starters, most other designers are just doers, not thinkers. Most often working with instructions passed down from creative leads that inform and steer the strategy. I’m both a thinker and a doer, with an exclusive skillset to both create strategy and then execute it.
I’m more like a whole full-service creative department that combines design, marketing, direction, copywriting, content and a myriad of other roles. But most importantly, my background in business helps me see the big picture and provide companies with exactly what they need to tackle their goals.
A good analogy would be that much like full-stack developers, who can develop both front-end (UX, UI, design systems, etc) and back-end (programming, PHP, etc), I am a full-stack designer that can both come up with top-level creative strategy and execute it across a wide range of disciplines, medias and devices.
Full-stack designer. Omnicreative. Multi-role, multi-disciplinary creative professional. Do-it-all creative. Generalist creative. Creative powerhouse. All of these describe what I do!
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There are many benefits! Such creatives - myself included - are able to see the big picture and typically have much more experience and a wider skillset. Besides the hassle-free convenience of being just one point of contact for all creative needs, the resulting work has higher quality, consistency and originality.
Experienced multirole designers typically make for stronger brands because they combine a personalized approach with great attention to detail, deep research and an understanding how everything works together.
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Globalization is good for a few things, but creative work is typically not one of them. Language is the foundation of all marketing and branding and that requires a native speaker with high proficiency to make good work that resonates with the target audience. Only US-based professionals know all the intricacies and requirements necessary for brands to effectively interact with modern American customers.
Not to mention that vastly different timezones and legal considerations can be a headache when dealing with creatives in other countries. Too much can get lost in translation and meetings at odd hours, leading to weaker results and lower quality service. Right now we’re seeing that lots of companies that offshored creative tasks are actually hiring stateside talent again.
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More and more companies every day are moving their creative in-house. There’s a large amount of reasons to doing this, starting with purely operational benefits such as cost savings, increased speed to market and higher business performance. In-house teams are quicker and better able to adapt to changing business goals.
In-house creatives also have much better knowledge of the brand and industry, which leads to better results and stronger brands. And there are certain types of marketing (e.g. content marketing) which reach peak effectiveness only when done in-house. No one knows your business better than you do, and that extends to your in-house creatives.
I have more than a decade of establishing in-house creative teams and capabilities that scale intelligently with business growth. Ask me if in-house makes sense for you.
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Fiverr and similar websites are worldwide marketplaces for creative tasks with vastly varying levels of quality and service. Language and time zones are often big barriers and big projects require coordinating between many different people. But the biggest downside is that the results are often mediocre and don’t work well for US-based businesses.
Fiverr is the dollar-store equivalent for creative services that makes your business look like a dollar store. In many ways, I’m the complete opposite of Fiverr - I take care of all creative tasks and provide professional results that simply work.
There is no shortcut to quality. Good work produces good results and that takes time, research, skills and a deep understanding of contemporary US business and society. You just can’t get that on Fiverr.
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Because with me, you’re not just getting a designer, but a marketing specialist, brand consultant, copywriter, creative director, content creator and a few other roles which I routinely perform while providing my clients with all-in-one creative services.
You’re also getting all the benefits of decades of creative experience, along with the foresight to help you avoid common pitfalls and take shortcuts to success. But more importantly, I understand the needs of both businesses and modern Americans, with my work combining the two.
My services
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It means that I can take care of just about every single creative task that your company may have. I can work by myself or, if you have one, in a creative team as leader or specialist.
For many small-to-medium-sized businesses, I’m the only creative professional you’ll ever need. I can do most everything myself, and in the rare case where I can’t do something very specific, I know someone who can. This allows companies to get all their creative done very lean, very quick and very effectively.
I usually handle all the creative work and coordinate with all necessary stakeholders, so you have the convenience of a single point of contact for creative. This frees you to focus on running your business.
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I do! Have it right here. If what you’re looking for is not on the list, get in touch regardless to see if I can help. This list serves as a general reference.
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Sure do! Please see this list. My packages are reliable solutions with convenient pricing that cover most common creative needs.
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Adobe
Acrobat
After Effects
Audition
Bridge
Creative Cloud
Dreamweaver
Experience Cloud
Express
Firefly
Illustrator
InDesign
Lightroom
Marketing Cloud
Photoshop
Premiere Pro
XdGoogle
Ad manager
Ads
AdSense
Alerts
Analytics
Business Profile
Docs
Drive
Forms
Gmail
Groups
Keep
Marketing Platform
Meet
Merchant Center
Search
Sheets
Sites
Slides
Trends
Voice
WorkspacesMicrosoft
Excel
Forms
Office
OneDrive
OneNote
Outlook
Powerpoint
SharePoint
Teams
WordApple
Final Cut Pro
Logic Pro
Pages
Numbers
Keynote
MailMisc
Ahrefs
Autodesk 3ds Max
Cinema4D
Figma
Rhino
Semrush
Sketch
Sketchup
Zbrush -
I’m very flexible and always looking for the next interesting opportunity. Creative work is my passion in life and I absolutely love bringing my experience and diverse skillset to companies in a wide range of capacities. Perfectly fine with contract work, part-time, full-time, in-person, hybrid or WFH.
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I excel equally well as a one-person-marketing-department or as a specialist / director that’s part of a larger team. A natural leader, I help team members realize their full potential, breaking down silos, aligning stakeholders and getting things done.
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Soft skills
Analytical skills
Creative problem solving
Critical thinking
Early adopter
Expert communicator
Interpersonal skills
Leadership
Mentoring
Project management
Self learning
Storytelling
Strategic thinking
Tutoring
Visual communicationHard skills
360 marketing
3D modeling
Account-based marketing (ABM)
AI
Advertising
AP Style
Art direction
Branding and identity
Chicago Style
Concept art
Content marketing
Copywriting
Creative direction
Digital transformation
E-commerce
Email marketing
Film photography
Graphic design
Illustration
Inbound and outbound marketing
Integrated marketing
Local search optimization (LSO)
Marketing
Motion graphics
Performance marketing
Photography
PPC advertising
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Social media
Social media marketing (SMM)
SOSTAC
STP
Upstream and downstream marketing
User experience (UX)
User interface design
Video production
Videography
Web design
Branding
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Very important! You can have the best service or product in the world but without a strategy combining good branding, marketing and touchpoints no one will know about it. Many companies treat branding and marketing as an afterthought and that kind of thinking often results in more business for their competitors. But what they don’t realize is that having a better brand allows you to have better, higher-paying customers.
Branding sets you up with everything the company needs to meaningfully stand out and compete not on price or quality, but on the power of your brand alone. Marketing generates leads and helps make happy customers. Together, they allow your company to be the best it can be.
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A brand is so much more than just a logo. Modern brands have to be expert communicators with impeccable presentation skills. It’s impossible to achieve this without a robust and well-designed brand system that consists of the brand strategy and the visual identity. Think of your brand like a crown: the logo is the biggest jewel but it’s supported by the strategy and identity, making up the crown.
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You need a strong brand to stand out and succeed in a crowded market - it’s as simple as that. Customers will seek you out themselves, because a good brand is unique and has a well defined market positioning and x-factor. A thoroughly-designed brand allows you to compete on the power of your brand alone, and not just on quality or price.
Saving on PPC and marketing, a lesser need for future brand updates, increased equity when selling a business - these are all results of having a strong brand and the list goes on. But perhaps the most important fact is that a brand is the single biggest differentiator when it comes to customer choice.
Marketing
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Very important! You can have the best service or product in the world but without a strategy combining good branding, marketing and touchpoints no one will know about it. Many companies treat branding and marketing as an afterthought and that kind of thinking often results in more business for their competitors. But what they don’t realize is that having a better brand allows you to have better, higher-paying customers.
Branding sets you up with everything the company needs to meaningfully stand out and compete not on price or quality, but on the power of your brand alone. Marketing generates leads and helps make happy customers. Together, they allow your company to be the best it can be.
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Certainly! As a matter of fact, it’s even more important to continue marketing in an economic recession, because “In times of crisis, winners are made.” Your competitors will likely cut back, allowing you to come in and grab market share. Marketing in recessions doesn’t need to be expensive either - it just has to happen with smarter spend.
Here’s another saying: “Cutting marketing to save money is like removing your watch to save time.”
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A touchpoint is anything related to the company that interacts directly with customers. This typically includes marketing materials, stationary, advertisements, physical locations and so on.
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This is a cornerstone of effective marketing and allows you to see what your target audience is actually actively searching for. Knowing this allows you to build your brand and marketing materials to make it easier for customers to find you, as well as find new, untapped potential that can give you a leg up on the competition.
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Search Engine Optimization is the process of creating content that aligns with what your target audience is searching for, and then making it easy for search engines to see this content so you can show up in search results. There’s a few different kinds with different technicalities, such as Technical, On-Page and Off-page SEO, but by optimizing them you’ll be able to rank higher in search results.
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Local Search Optimization makes it possible for customers to find you on services such as Apple Maps, Google Maps, Yelp and so on. This is incredibly important for businesses that have provide services or products.
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Pay Per Click is a catchall phrase that essentially means ads on Google, Facebook and other search or social platforms. While there’s a great deal of variety, each with their own pros and cons, I help your business choose the best way to advertise, come up with a strategy and budget, then execute and monitor results.
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Search Engine Marketing is a popular sub-type of PPC with paid ads specifically on search platforms, such as Google Ads.
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Account-based Marketing is a methodology that allows for more effective marketing. It involves connecting to the CRM or other similar system, selecting the most important prospects and creating custom-tailored marketing and touchpoints to attempt conversion with maximum effectiveness. Very common in B2B, this methodology is finding its way to B2C as well.
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Performance marketing is a constant process involving advanced analytics. The goal is to improve the effectiveness of marketing and other key metrics by making data-driven decisions and using techniques such as A/B testing, etc.
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Integrated Marketing is focused on making sure marketing efforts maintain a unified voice, vision, look and style. It ensures and tightly controls a uniform perception of the brand and what it stand for - across every touchpoint that interacts with customers and other stakeholders. This is paramount to building and maintaining brand equity and goes a long way to increasing the right perception of the brand.
360 marketing takes that a step further and creates integrated campaigns that leverage all available PESO (paid, earned, social, owned) marketing channels to exponentially increase the chances of being seen by the target audience. A highly targeted message, customized for the each channel, increasing campaign success.
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Inbound and outbound marketing (AKA pull and push marketing) are two very important marketing strategies.
Inbound marketing (pull) is focused on creating compelling & useful content that customers will seek out themselves via search and social. It’s an organic way of getting more business and is much better for brand recognition and awareness than traditional outbound marketing efforts.
Outbound marketing (push) is a collection of all other, more traditional marketing efforts that are used to actively get more business in the brand’s direction. This is marketing that the brand projects & controls by itself, targeting specific audiences with specific adverts, messages and CTAs.
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An integral and very effective kind of inbound marketing, this technique focuses specifically on creating content that customers are actively seeking out online through search and social media with info that's useful and informative to the target audience. Playing an especially big role on social channels, content marketing benefits from consistency and regularity.
It’s also a way of bolstering a brand’s reputation by showcasing expertise in the brand’s area of doing business, leading to more exposure and thought leadership (when a brand becomes an authority in a certain area).
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This is a set of strategies that has two goals: reach out and create marketing materials that are directly needed now, at the current moment (downstream) and also look ahead, work with relevant stakeholders to figure out the long-term needs and trends of the market (upstream). This can be thought of as short-term and long-term marketing, as well as tactical and strategic.
An important detail here is that upstream marketing work can anticipate trends and needs long before competitors catch on, giving the brand an advantage. In some cases, combining thought leadership and upstream marketing can even create demand in areas where there was none projected - by offering customers something they didn’t know they needed until the brand offers it to them.