Branding a business entails marketing, strategy, print and digital design, exterior signage and a host of more detailed envelopes. But at the very heart of it is a connection between the client and the designer; an understanding of the community that a business provides its expertise to. That is what Kristine Neil, owner and lead designer at Markon Brand Design, brings to the table every day.
Along with Mike Wagner, digital and social strategist, and Jenna Bauman, designer and strategist, Markon focuses on the needs of small to medium-sized businesses from the company’s Orchards location. Growing up in Vancouver, Neil is dialed in to the economic diversity of the Clark County area in a way that not everyone may consider or attempt to accommodate.
“We work with everyone from electricians and plumbers – they can park their big truck outside and come in and it doesn’t feel overwhelming – to all the way on the other end of that,” Neil said.
Markon’s client list tells the story of their varied capabilities while maintaining a central theme of relationships. The team just completed a rebranding with the Ridgefield School District, but also works with small to medium-sized nonprofits such as the Pink Lemonade Project, the beauty industry (GLAMbeauty Bar and Men’s Natural Care Products), the fitness industry (F.I.T Ave) and neighborhood shops (Simply Sweets by Jen and Stacey’s Flowers), to name a few.
Although Markon services Portland clients, Neil has a tenacious focus to help the immediate business scene become self-sustaining.
“I have a particular passion to help Vancouver grow and bust out of the Portland shadow. I hear people say, ‘This restaurant’s nice, but it could be great if it was in Portland’– but that’s not the case. It’s great in Vancouver,” Neil said. “It’s hard being the middle sister; the Jan Brady of the bunch.”
Neil’s affection for the little guy stems from her background working alongside her family at locally-owned Peninsula Glass Company. After earning her MBA with a focus on small business entrepreneurship, she sought out a business to purchase that would afford her the opportunity to put her background to use helping other small businesses flourish. She acquired 30 year-old Markon Signs in 2012 and eventually changed the name to better reflect the full scope of its mission statement.
What began as a one-person, good-will business with a handful of customers who came to Markon for signage has increased to a three-person staff realizing steady profit-margin growth from 2012 through 2014. Under Neil’s direction, the company has also relocated from a Hazel Dell building in dire need of repairs to a newly-renovated space in an industrial park along NE Fourth Plain Boulevard that has some inherent advantages.
“There’s something to being in the ‘burbs,” she said. “This is where our clients work and it makes us more approachable. We’re closer to Ridgefield, Camas [and] Battle Ground.”
Emphasizing their desire to provide an environment of ease, Neil said she and her staff are straight shooters and throw the “designer speak” out the window when meeting with clients. According to Neil, they’ll even answer questions to the best of their ability that aren’t specifically in their wheelhouse of fees – not to monetize everything but, rather, to build community and further relationships.
For projects outside their technical abilities (I.e. website coding), Markon draws from a pool of area freelancers and contractors as their way of supporting the local economy.
“We always try to create an environment here,” Neil said. “People come here and linger and it doesn’t feel pretentious.”
Check out Markon Brand Design online at www.markonbranddesign.com.
