Hello

My name is Jo, and I am the owner of Retro Graphics Ltd. As a creative professional, I enjoy working with people who appreciate the fun things in life. I was born and raised in Edmonton, AB and now live on an acreage North of Stony Plain with my 4 dogs. I love the outdoors and being adventurous, reading and expanding my knowledge base, exercising to relieve life's stressors, and creating wild designs.

 

I began my career in the graphics and print industry in 2009, and over the years have learned many skills to be able to supply business owners with tangible branding advice. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, varying from movie theaters to oilfield construction companies. I grew up visiting my grandparents who owned a Billiards shop in Red Deer and learned many valuable skills in the “behind the scenes” of being a business owner.

 

I have experience working for large corporations, managing print campaigns for companies like McDonald’s, Pizza 73 and Harvey’s. I learned here that large companies take their branding more seriously than your average mom & pop shop. The absolute match had to be made on color, alternate fonts were unacceptable and consistent messaging were all musts. Which led me to the question - why don’t small companies have this same level of care for their brand? Noticing this gap locally set me on a mission to provide this level of care, while keeping it simple, for local business owners. You don’t realize the impact a different shade of orange has on how the client perceives your professionalism. 

 

Understanding the “WHY” of your brand is where we start. I want to know why you love doing what you do and how I can help you accomplish your goals. There are many ways to showcase your logo and turn it into your own personal brand. The term “branding” began in the 1500’s and it was all about making your mark. Think of farmers branding their cattle, every farmer has their own personalized symbol that they burned into their animals as identifiers. This quickly changed gears during the industrial revolution where it was used as a marker to identify products rather than just cattle. The 20th century is when a lot of great brands that you still see today were born; Coca-Cola, Ford, Chanel & LEGO.

 

If you think about your logo as something that you are literally going to burn into your skin, or tattoo onto it, it has a different impact on how you think about branding doesn’t it? Creating a brand also has a lot to do with the personality behind the logo. How do you make people feel when they see your logo or interact with your business? If there is no story behind your logo, clients lose interest and don’t understand why you do what you do aside from a service you may provide. To build customer loyalty, branding is of the utmost importance.