About The Gilded Arrow
Krista Armbrust a busy designer living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Area of Minnesota. She has founded two companies, The Gilded Arrow and Armed Creative. While Armed Creative is more directed at marketing for businesses, The Gilded Arrow is a decidedly more romantic venture.
What made you decide to start The Gilded Arrow?
The Gilded Arrow is a sister company to my design business: Armed Creative. I love working with small businesses for their branding and design needs; The Gilded Arrow fulfills the more sentimental part of my aesthetic. It really gives me another creative outlet – plus, I adore weddings and all the details that come together to make the magic. I get the privilege to hear some amazing stories and meet wonderful people. It’s very rewarding to work with couples during such an exciting time in their lives!
What makes your business unique?
We offer printable and digital stationery designs, primarily for weddings, but also for any celebration.
In an age where people (ahem… millennials) want things fast, I am sure to keep my responses and turnaround times speedy. Hello procrastinators! Impatient? Me too! Yay shot-gun weddings!
We have a variety of masculine and feminine designs, realizing our market isn’t just “brides,” which we think is wonderful.
Today, there really are very little rules when it comes to wedding planning, and thanks to Pinterest, it has become the ultimate showcase of the couples’ style and story. It is very opposite to cookie-cutter. The details are very important – they have sentimental value, and add to the overall experience for guests. When a couple chooses to work with The Gilded Arrow, they can truly add their own personal touches and make their stationery, which often sets the tone for the event, as simple or luxurious as they want it to be. Our designs can be customized to a variety of specifications (color, size, additional pieces, letterpress-ready, etc.), they can be distributed to their guests however they wish – printed on beautiful paper, printed at home, printed on hankies, digitally sent via email, posted online, the possibilities are endless!
We don’t stop at just the invitations. We can carry the theme throughout other pieces (table numbers, wedding programs, wine labels, and more).
What makes our wedding stationery so sophisticated is that it reflects the couples’ style AND smarts; it leaves room in the budget for more of those details that make weddings such a good time (booze).
Lastly, our experience and knowledge offers amazing resources – such as vendors like Smartpress who offer small runs with hard-copy proofs, a variety of paper, ink, and options at an affordable price.
Can you describe the process of how Gilded Arrow Designs began?
The business sort of grew organically through the support and encouragement of friends and family. I’ve always truly loved being creative and really appreciate good design, but didn’t delve into graphic design until later in my career. I started out creating for my nearest and dearest on the side – literally for fun. When I started getting requests from friends of friends, or people who had seen my work, I decided to take it more seriously and really wanted to see what I could make of it.
Since I was doing this in addition to my full-time career marketing creative commercial space in Minneapolis, I really wanted to streamline things to be smart and efficient, but very customer-focused. I separated my business services from my wedding stationery services and opened up an Etsy shop for printable wedding stationery called Antlers & Chandeliers. See some of the reviews here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/antlerschandeliers/reviews?ref=shop_info
Focusing on pre-designed print-ready stationery allowed me to continuously create designs and put them out in the world. I also loved that putting the designs out there, rather than working strictly on custom projects, drew customers with similar taste to mine. Since I don’t offer printing, I was able to focus strictly on design so my time was always well-spent and business was at a comfortable pace for my schedule. I don’t need to pass the cost of assembly time, packaging, shipping, and surcharges down to my clients. Win/Win.
In 2012, our family grew and we welcomed a daughter. She has Spina Bifida, is doing phenomenally well, but entered this world with a lot of medical appointments. I left my job and took a break from business in order to really become BFFs with a variety of specialists and doctors, and to focus on being mom to the cutest cheeks you can possibly imagine.
Once family life settled, I was ready to get back to business and wanted to return with a fresh brand. Why The Gilded Arrow? Armbrust (our last name) means Crossbow. The arrow is part of our brand identity for Armed Creative, and The Gilded Arrow is named after our daughter. It seemed fitting to name the side of the business that focuses on life’s celebrations after our golden-haired, sunny little girl. I have been running Armed Creative / The Gilded Arrow full time ever since and haven’t looked back.
What do you like best about being a business owner?
I love the variety, the challenges, the ability to continuously grow, learn and be inspired. I love that I can, to an extent, control my own schedule and how my time is spent.
What do you like least?
I guess it is more difficult to find balance – maybe I am a little constantly distracted and am unable to turn off my brain.
What advice would you give designers about going into business for themselves?
I would say take care of your customers and always put them first. Nothing will help your business grow more than happy customers and nurtured relationships. Collaborate with great people. Communicate and set very clear expectations. Be smart with your money and your time.
What is your best source of new customers?
Relationships, referrals from happy customers, and my website.
What is your business’ greatest strength? What is your greatest business challenge?
My business’ greatest strength is that I have yet to have an unhappy client. The greatest challenge is continuing to evolve and anticipate the trends before they become “trendy.”
Who is your market?
Tech savvy diy’ers who are budget conscious, have discerning style, and very specific wedding stationery needs.
What is your philosophy/mission?
Customer service. Customer service. Customer service. I do everything in my power to be sure my clients have the most positive experience possible. I truly share in their enthusiasm for their wedding day, business venture, visions, etc. – and care about their goals.
What are the main questions you ask to ensure your customers get the best final result?
I “ask” that they always get a hard copy proof – always. I also have them send me a word document with all their information, and if there are ever any changes, to make them in that document. Proof, proof, and proof again.
Where do you draw your inspiration from? How do you keep the creative energy flowing?
I draw my wedding stationery design inspiration from textile patterns, nature, typography. I do love Pinterest, and Instagram. But, to really keep the creative energy flowing, it is important for me to unplug.
What is a tool that you wish you had, but don’t?
A letterpress!! I would love to create special pieces to sell retail. I want to gold foil everything!
If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about your business overnight, what would it be?
I would have an all white, light-filled, sunny, dog-friendly office space – with good music constantly playing, a great coffee shop nearby, on-site childcare, and all my wonderful friends hanging around.
How does social media play into your daily routine? Is there an average amount of time you spend on it daily?
I do have a Facebook page for Armed Creative / The Gilded Arrow that I update a few times a month. There is a collection of wedding inspiration for The Gilded Arrow on Pinterest that I like to offer my clients. I’m also starting to get more into Instagram. I would say I check Facebook and Instagram pretty regularly throughout the day, but most of my working time is focused on designing.
What books have you recently read? Which blogs do you read regularly?
The last book I read was Bossypants by Tina Fey, and I really want to read #Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso. I love reading blogs that really challenge my thinking about design, motherhood, etc. – and I prefer a little humor and light in my reads – these are my favorite: www.witanddelight.com, www.designlovefest.com, www.whatdoyoudodear.com, www.erniebufflo.com
Do you have any thoughts or predictions about the graphic design industry that will become more popular or significant in 2014? How does your business fit into those predictions?
The graphic design industry in general is trending on really minimalistic and clean design. I think simplicity is key now more than ever, in design AND service. Yes, we are very connected to our technology, and being knowledgable about that is very important for my business. But, folks are also really looking to streamline things and simplify their lives – so, I focus on providing that as an experience when they work with The Gilded Arrow.
Do you do any form of marketing for The Gilded Arrow? If so what type(s)?
Primarily online promotion via social media and Etsy. But, I get most of my business after clients mail out their wedding invitations or holiday cards. If the client is excited about them, they’re excited when they talk about them, too – which is contagious.
See more of Krista Armbrust & The Gilded Arrow:
Website: http://www.gildedarrowdesigns.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/armedcreative
Instagram: http://instagram.com/armedcreative
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/thegildedarrow/