By Les Kollegian, Creative Director

I would say on average, we meet with two-three potential new clients a week. The range of businesses can be from start-ups to fortune 500 companies. Frankly, there are benefits to both types of businesses. For start-ups, it is the ability to create a brand and message from the ground up. We love that work! To an artist, it’s truly a blank canvas that we can attack with any medium. As well, it’s the ability to create a partnership. I always tell our new clients that we have a vested interest in building their business. If they make money, they will keep us working and in return, give money back to us. Let’s be honest… I LOVE what I do but I am not in this for my health. I want to build my business just like everyone else so one day I can relax and not work ALL THE TIME.

When we meet with larger companies or established businesses that are looking for a new look, web design or brand strategy, it’s a different job. We have to work with what current brand equity they have and in most cases, make suggestions for changes that will enhance the brand and create new perceptions without a radical change in overall design.

Okay…so let me get to my point. I know you’re waiting. Everyone who walks through our front door comes in for a reason. They were either referred to us by another business that had a project completed successfully by Jacob Tyler OR they found us on Google due to our stellar search engine optimization and like our portfolio. The bottom line is they believe we do great work and we can help them. However, it never ceases to amaze me how many of the executives and entrepreneurs I meet want an award winning campaign as quickly as possible (i.e., tomorrow) on an exceptionally tight budget. It doesn’t work like that. Both start-up businesses and large companies are culprits of this practice. Thus I always tell them… Fast, Good, Cheap: Pick Two. I am not trying to be arrogant when I say this and I ask them to turn it around as if I was their client. For example, if my client was a doctor and I needed surgery to save my life ASAP, would I ask him for a discount? Okay…that may be a little extraordinary of an example, but let’s make it easier to understand. If I ask someone for a service like installing new countertops and appliances in my kitchen that I need in time for an event that requires extra work and overtime, why would I get a discount? It’s my house so of course it has to be an excellent job and I am requesting that it be done fast, so it would be pushing the envelope to ask for it cheap… right?

I’ll sum this up as I think I am starting to babble and vent a little too much here. Here goes:

If your job needs to be done quickly and in a fashion that will impress whoever will be viewing the result, it will not be inexpensive (or cheap). We love to work quickly and create award winning projects, that’s for sure but we can’t give discounts in this situation.

If your job needs to be done inexpensively and very fast, there is a good chance it will not be as good as you may want as we won’t be able to put the research and resources into it to make it as successful as possible. Frankly, we only do this for “quick and dirty” projects to show proof of concept.

If your job needs to be an award winner on a tight budget, it’s not going to get done fast. Oh, we’ll get it done and it will be great, but we’ll have to do it on OUR time since our resources may be going to other projects with different priorities.

No project is too big or too small for our firm. We take on every task as if it was our most important project. When you work with us, think of how you would charge YOUR clients or customers and how you would want to be treated during any transaction.

By Les Kollegian, Creative Director

While traveling to visit my East Coast clients in early 2008, I was staying with my ex-brother-in-law (yeah, we still hang out) who mentioned a start-up called College Magazine that may need some design help. My first response was… “College Magazine? There HAS to be a publication already out there of the over 3,000 current magazines named College!” Well, I was wrong. There wasn’t. I was in shock at the thought of such a great idea that hadn’t already been in the works. I mean…I was sure there were publications geared toward College students, but with such a strong market and being the most sought after (18-24 year olds), I was surprised that a name that simple wasn’t already taken.

Intrigued, I asked to be introduced to the founder to see how I could potentially help the fledgling publication. I called Amanda Nachman, the 23 year old, fresh out-of-school graduate who dedicated herself to making her dream of creating this magazine a reality. We met at a local coffee shop, A.K.A. her office, in Arlington, VA where she sat with her designer as they worked on the second issue. The first issue, released about a month earlier had a distribution of 5,000 copies at the University of Maryland, my Alma mater. The publication looked really good, especially under the circumstances… basically students creating it from scratch. As well, she was under $1,000 in the red for her first issue. Amanda got national and local advertisers, volunteer designers, copywriters and editors, and created a team of people that she engaged and enlisted to her cause… very impressive for someone with minimal business experience. Even more impressive, Amanda was creating the magazine in her spare time. She had a full-time job and worked on the book after hours. Amanda convinced me that she was on a mission to create the best College based content magazine on the market and expand nationally. I loved it!

I asked what kind of help she needed with the magazine. The response I got was usual from what I hear for most start-ups that I personally speak to. Design, marketing, and most importantly money! As a business owner, one of the biggest challenges is hiring good people, particularly with a strong work ethic. Amanda’s “gung ho” attitude and commitment to developing the magazine and building a company was refreshing. We immediately began discussing how I could help take over the creative direction of the magazine and Web site. As well, we discussed a potential partnership to fund the magazine development and decrease the time to expand distribution, both in the quantity of printed books, as well as location and additional schools.
Well…to make a blog story short (maybe too late), it was a match made in heaven. Our 3rd issue was just released to 5 schools in Maryland and DC… a total of 20,000 magazines. We have launched the beta version of the Web site and expect a full launch within the next 30 days. We are moving as quickly as possible to expand on the East coast and hopefully to the West coast soon thereafter. This is an exciting time and needless to say, I am thrilled to be a part owner in this venture.

For those of you reading this who are college students and for those who know college students, please spread the word and check out the site. We are always looking for contributors for articles, photography, editing, and more. For all information, check out the site at http://www.collegemagazine.com. You can also download a PDF copy of the 1st three issues of the magazine there.

Lastly, let me know what you think. The more feedback we get, the better. We are striving to make the site a great guide and community for college students.