MEET KRISTAmeet the face behind kreative. hi guys, i'm krista! i opened kreative at the age of 15, in 2011 as a side business in high school & i am proud to say that as of may 2020, i have made it my full time job. i am currently 26, living in ontario, canada on the beautiful bruce peninsula. i am a self taught designer with no formal education, but am always learning & expanding my wide range of design skills through life & experience! i offer a wide range of services, each one feeding a specific love of art for me & when i'm not working you can find me outside with my boyfriend & our dogs. we love taking advantage of the beautiful summer weather for boating & the crisp, cold winter weather for sledding.
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how kreative came to be
well, where do i even begin? for as long as i can remember, i have loved art. everything about it! i've tried every medium, i've tried so many different styles & i have always been very tech-savvy, so when i started to learn how to make art using a computer, i was sold, that's what i wanted to do with my life! kreative was born in 2011 when i was 15 & in high school. i was doing a co-op & taking all the design classes i could, to take in as much knowledge about this new skill i knew i loved. i spent so many lunch hours & free periods sitting in the library on the school computers, designing for people, for clients, for friends, for basically anyone that gave me the opportunity to do so. at first, i didn't have my own computer, so the school computers was all i had. thankfully, i had fantastic mentors, from my co-op peers to my design tech teacher. honestly, i would not be where i am today without them. i eventually bought my own computer in 2012 & from then on all i did was design in my free time. it truly became a passion for me, it just seemed like the opportunities were endless, there were so many new things to design! i just love to learn new techniques, try new styles & methods, the possibility are endless. i am completely self taught, so for me, graphic design is an ever-evolving skill.
fast forward a few years, when i had a couple jobs after high school, but i always tried to incorporate as much graphic design into these position to get more experience & more practice. i essentially try to incorporate graphic design into everything that i can. i always design my own art for my home, my own iPhone backgrounds, computer backgrounds, literally everything. by this point, i had started to explore the world of print, which i very quickly fell in love with. for me, there is nothing more satisfying than a perfect print. just seeing your design come out, exactly as you had imagined it, is the ultimate success for me. i found myself some trusted suppliers & companies to work with & then i began offering it as a service. once i was comfortable with the printing world, knowing what to expect, who to deal with, how to do things, i started to brainstorm what all i could offer that was within my realm; flyers, postcards, vehicle graphics, you name it. this also lead me to my next endeavour, wedding stationery.
ah wedding stationery, one of my favourite aspects of what do now. that oddly enough, wasn't something I specifically went after, but something that a friend of mine requested. the first set of invitations i ever did was for one of my old bosses, daughter. i had so much fun designing her wedding invitations that i decided to throw myself into the wedding world. i am so glad that i did! i started attending wedding shows in 2015 offering my services & it took off right away! to date, i have been involved with 40+ weddings. i continue to offer new services every season, to evolve with the ever-changing trends that are weddings!
now, back to the part where i said i like to design all of the art in my home, this includes the doormat that greets my guests. once i bought a house, i decided i needed a doormat, but of course, i wanted to paint it. so i sourced some mats to try as samples at my own house & i fell in LOVE. i not only got did i get back to doing art with my hands but i got to use my graphic design skills & my art skills to create these beautiful mats! i decided right away that this was something i needed to add to my business.
at this point, i basically said yes to any job that came my way regardless of what the client was looking for! i decided in the last couple years that i need to evaluate what all i am doing, what i do best, what enjoy the most & move into more niche markets of the 'graphic design world'. now jump to 2020, I offer business branding (which covers basically anything you would need for your business), printing, signage, apparel, logo design, web design & more. i also offer wedding stationery & signage, which as i mentioned is somewhat ever-changing, so basically anything that is customized for your wedding, we can help you with. last but not least, we also offer handpainted doormats. we offer a very wide variety of kreative designs, the option to do a custom design & a DIY doormat style.
kreative is so different now than it was when i started, but i am exactly where i want to be, doing something that i truly love to do.
fast forward a few years, when i had a couple jobs after high school, but i always tried to incorporate as much graphic design into these position to get more experience & more practice. i essentially try to incorporate graphic design into everything that i can. i always design my own art for my home, my own iPhone backgrounds, computer backgrounds, literally everything. by this point, i had started to explore the world of print, which i very quickly fell in love with. for me, there is nothing more satisfying than a perfect print. just seeing your design come out, exactly as you had imagined it, is the ultimate success for me. i found myself some trusted suppliers & companies to work with & then i began offering it as a service. once i was comfortable with the printing world, knowing what to expect, who to deal with, how to do things, i started to brainstorm what all i could offer that was within my realm; flyers, postcards, vehicle graphics, you name it. this also lead me to my next endeavour, wedding stationery.
ah wedding stationery, one of my favourite aspects of what do now. that oddly enough, wasn't something I specifically went after, but something that a friend of mine requested. the first set of invitations i ever did was for one of my old bosses, daughter. i had so much fun designing her wedding invitations that i decided to throw myself into the wedding world. i am so glad that i did! i started attending wedding shows in 2015 offering my services & it took off right away! to date, i have been involved with 40+ weddings. i continue to offer new services every season, to evolve with the ever-changing trends that are weddings!
now, back to the part where i said i like to design all of the art in my home, this includes the doormat that greets my guests. once i bought a house, i decided i needed a doormat, but of course, i wanted to paint it. so i sourced some mats to try as samples at my own house & i fell in LOVE. i not only got did i get back to doing art with my hands but i got to use my graphic design skills & my art skills to create these beautiful mats! i decided right away that this was something i needed to add to my business.
at this point, i basically said yes to any job that came my way regardless of what the client was looking for! i decided in the last couple years that i need to evaluate what all i am doing, what i do best, what enjoy the most & move into more niche markets of the 'graphic design world'. now jump to 2020, I offer business branding (which covers basically anything you would need for your business), printing, signage, apparel, logo design, web design & more. i also offer wedding stationery & signage, which as i mentioned is somewhat ever-changing, so basically anything that is customized for your wedding, we can help you with. last but not least, we also offer handpainted doormats. we offer a very wide variety of kreative designs, the option to do a custom design & a DIY doormat style.
kreative is so different now than it was when i started, but i am exactly where i want to be, doing something that i truly love to do.
HOW I NAMED MY BUSINESS
this is actually kind of a funny, full circle story. from a very young age, i knew i wanted a business. as a kid, i went to car shows with my family, very often & decided that with all these people walking around this event, i should be selling something to them. this is when i started learning to make jewelry, all kinds of jewelry, metal, beaded, braided, everything you can think of! my dad helped me build a portable display board to showcase my work & i knew i had to come up with a name for this business of mine. i worked & worked on the name, the logo ... all of it. i had custom printed tags that i made myself, a printed sign on top & this was where the "original" version of kreative started. Krista's Kreations, was what i called it.
skip a few years down the road, to when I started my graphic design business. once again, i needed a business name. I thought about it for a LONG time & I mean a long time. i had so many ideas, but nothing felt right. I found some of my old jewelry one day & that's when it hit me. kreations, with a k. kreative, with a k. not the exact same as what i had as a kid, but I was definitely inspired by it. i wanted something unique & bold that people would remember & that is where the name kreative came from.
skip a few years down the road, to when I started my graphic design business. once again, i needed a business name. I thought about it for a LONG time & I mean a long time. i had so many ideas, but nothing felt right. I found some of my old jewelry one day & that's when it hit me. kreations, with a k. kreative, with a k. not the exact same as what i had as a kid, but I was definitely inspired by it. i wanted something unique & bold that people would remember & that is where the name kreative came from.
why we do what we do
i wholeheartedly believe that graphic design won't change the world, but it will damn sure make it prettier. that's what i always say to people, 'i make things pretty' & that is exactly what kreative does. i've set out to do exactly that; one design at a time. through your ideas, your concepts, your visualizations, your thoughts & my kreative team can turn them into a design. every design kreative does for a client will be a true representation of them, their business or their wedding. our goal is for people to see their designs & feel joy. even though kreative's mission changes slightly depending on the project, the goal remains the same, to create something you are absolutely in love with!
BUSINESS
there is nothing i love more than working with small businesses. i really do love helping small business owners create a brand for themselves. to watch a client light up when they see how professional & REAL their business looks! it's like seeing your business in a whole new light & thinking to yourself, wow THAT'S ME, that's MY business! it's a feeling like no other & that is what kreative lives for! being that kreative is a small business, our vision is to be a part of helping other small businesses succeed in what they do & create a name for themselves; growing together.
WEDDING
when it comes to a kreative wedding couples, we insist to get to know you & your significant other to ensure we are bringing out your characteristics in your wedding stationery. your stationery sets the tone for your entire event & we want you, as well as all your friends & family, to get overjoyed with excitement when they receive the special piece of mail that is your wedding invitation! kreative wants your invitations to be something you cherish for years to come, as it holds all the details of your special day.