Today we’d like to introduce you to Zach Stevens.
Zach, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’m a born and raised San Diegan and I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil. When I was getting ready to graduate high school, I was debating between going down the law enforcement route or applying to the design program at SDSU. Lucky for the streets of San Diego, I became an Aztec. While I was at SDSU, I landed an internship at the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center as their graphic designer. It’s here that I met my mentor, Bern Schroeder, who coached me through using this skill strategically to build brands.
After graduating, I worked at a marketing agency for about three months until they fired me (one of those gigs where you’re happy to leave with a severance check on Friday instead of coming back in on Monday). Two months later, I was working for a startup called Bright Ideas Lighting Solutions where I met the founder, Alex Kamergorodsky, who became a good friend of mine. Though we were building out some killer marketing material, he and his co-founder battled on the overall direction of the brand. It became impossible to leverage a brand that couldn’t be defined. At that point, I decided to take on the role of an independent designer and founded Sygnal Studios.
But, something kept happening. It seemed that positioning myself as a larger agency wasn’t going to help out the community I cared about most, startups. Larger agencies meant more overhead, longer timelines, and rigid proposals. I had to change.
It wasn’t until I read Company of One by Paul Jarvis that I accepted being a small company as an advantage. And now, here I am. A one-man show hell bent on helping startups own their rebellion and using design/branding to make it happen.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
If things are going smooth, you’re not doing anything impactful or different. Certainly not rebellious. As long as I’m learning, having a good time, staying healthy, and meeting awesome people, I can’t complain. The biggest challenge I faced was accepting that not all success comes from getting big. It took a lot of self-reflection and thinking about what impact I want to stay solo.
Please tell us about your business.
The goal of my business is to empower rebels with confidence. Who are the rebels? The startups and small businesses in my community that is doing things differently. How do I help them feel more confident? I use design/branding to make them look like a million bucks and build them websites they can easily use. My areas of expertise are brand identity and websites.
Since I’m a one man show, I can keep up with the nimble nature inherent within startups. They need someone who can prototype, iterate, and also coach them in an area of business they are not familiar with. The fact that I’m content with being small to stay nimble is what I’m most proud of. A close second would be that everything I do is built with my own two hands.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Seeing my friend Alex light up when we formulated the brand strategy for his company. Something amazing happens when people feel like they are listened to and that someone else encourages their ambitions. Not only that but that they can now use those dreams and personality strategically.
Pricing:
- Consultation Call $125 (hour long consultation)
- Logotype Package $395 (type-based logo and usage guide)
- Minimalist Startup Package $1495 (logotype, single page website, and business card design)
- Identity Sprint $1595 (two day logo session, one finalized logo, color palette, logo usage guide)
- Rebel Base Website $3595 (Home, About, Services, Contact, and website training)
- Custom Websites and Brand Identity Systems $5,000+
Contact Info:
- Website: zstvns.design
- Phone: 8582042196
- Email: zach@zstvns.design
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zstvns/
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