Canvas Rebel hit me up to talk about coming up with ideas, how I came to where I’m at, and what I wish I’d learned earlier. It was one of the first times I talked about Grand Rapids Branding Co. as well.
We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Derek Mohr a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Derek, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?
Oh man, the initial idea for Grand Rapids Branding Co. could technically be from 2016, if you count the original design I made. I always felt like it deserved to be printed, but never really knew how to go about it. One, ten, two hundred? Do I want to sell them? How was I going to sell them? This sounds tough, never mind. Earlier this year, I kind of reorganized my whole portfolio, and stumbled upon that old design. At this point, I’ve been much more involved in web development, and have worked for a few different companies with differing levels of learning. I talked through a business idea with my coworkers, and eventually I had everything together to get a Shopify website up. I launched with just two designs, so I could take the time to learn what things I’d need to be aware of, and I’m about to have a very big drop of new designs!
Read the rest on Canvas Rebel.
The headshot is from Leigh Ann Cobb, and the photos of the Adrian & Blissfield Railroad trains are from Peter Mayor.
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The edge comes from hearing new perspectives and new information like from the wedding planner who has worked with hundreds of couples during the pandemic and has noticed that couples are allocating significantly more of their wedding budgets on “small details” like personalized neon signs or the accountant seeing how there’s a huge uptick in ecommerce clients generating revenue from in person popups.
The small business owners, artists and creatives in our communities are brilliant and deserve more coverage, more platforms and more opportunities to share their stories and insights and we’re excited to play a small role in getting those insights out into the world through our CanvasRebel features.
