Holy buckets, we made it!
Many of you in our tribe got to see the wonderful launch of our new space, new website, and branding refresh this fall. It has been a whirlwind of excitement! And how wonderful that it all came together in this, our eighth year in business. I started the studio back in the fall of 2008 and boy have we come a long way!
We started our journey of creating a new website back in June. Every word, every image, every menu, and navigation was reworked, revised, and refreshed until it was perfect and ready for the public eye. I’ve got high expectations, and I have been 100% happy with how it all turned out (big props to Megan, our in-house Senior Design Coordinator and Brand Manager – who also does freelance work)!
We also took the opportunity to do a little branding refresh on our logo and all marketing collateral – but more on our branding refresh and pricing to come in subsequent blog posts. Part of that was now having Megan on board, and part of it was out of necessity after moving the studio!
If there are two consistent rules with business, they are:
1. If you take a group staff picture, someone will get hired or fired shortly thereafter.
2. If you print things with your address on them, you will probably move.
Ha! On a related note, there will be a TBA ceremonial bonfire of all the old materials sometime soon at my house. S’mores, anyone? But really, we couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out. We are living the reality of the dream every business owner has – to actually love all of your marketing materials and to not have missing pieces anymore.
And why did we move?
We got the opportunity to move into the Solar Arts building in the trendy NE Minneapolis Arts District with a vibrant artists’ community. I toured the building on a rainy June weeknight and by July 1st we had the keys. Everyone has asked – how did you keep it a secret?! If you know me, you know that I just Instagrammed my lunch and posted another picture of Frank to Facebook. It was extremely difficult to keep the news on the down low, at least until we had the remodel done and the website was ready to launch. We got some great advice from a business mentor to do one big launch/announcement all at once, which meant hustling on the last month of the website and keeping our lips sealed for just a bit.
We are so, SO in love with our new space and how it turned out! Once again, a design win for the décor and paint, plus the exciting new offering we have for brides to use it as a getting ready room. We nearly tripled in size and now have a wonderful shooting bay for headshots and family pictures, along with ample workspace for our team.
When awesome things happen,
you throw a party!
We had a wonderful grand opening party on October 6th! A huge THANK YOU to my staff, the participating vendors, everyone who came, clients, friends and family, our new building owner/manager/fellow artists/fellow neighbors, and last but very not least my personal #1, my Michael, for supporting us in getting to what very much feels like Brett Dorrian Artistry Studios 2.0 this fall! It was a perfect way to celebrate all of our amazing developments at the studio!
Cheers,
Brett Dorrian
xxoo
A big thanks to everyone who was a part of our very special grand opening party:
Photography by: Brett Dorrian Artistry Studios
We are now located at: Solar Arts Building in NE Mpls!
Food by: Chowgirls Killer Catering (they have the wedding venue on the 3rd floor in our building!)
Floral by: Martha's Gardens
Macarons by: Nikkolette's Macarons
We threw some Indeed Brewing Company beers into our champagne bucket for good measure! (they are in our building on the 1st floor!)
Cigar Rolling by: International Cigars
Giveaway donations from: Chowgirls Killer Party Food: Righteous Bites & Cocktails for Every Season, Flutter Boutique, Flirt Boutique, Kisa Boutique, International Cigars, and Brett Dorrian Artistry Studios
