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What do the logos for the University of Kentucky Wildcats, the Hope Center and the Lexington Farmers Market have in common? They were all designed by Jim Edmon, who also illustrates a line of greeting cards for Vermont-based Oatmeal Studios.
Edmon drew the official Wildcat logo — the roaring, clawing cat — while he was employed at Host Communications in 1987. Three years later, he and his wife, Patti, formed Edmon Design. He has been self-employed ever since.
“She was the driving force,” Jim Edmon said. Patti Edmon has retired from the design business to focus on writing short stories. In the early 2000s, Edmon Design moved to a large office space above Third Street Stuff & Coffee on North Limestone. The second-story space is now home to Balance Creative, a full-service advertising, design and marketing firm formed in January 2012 when Jim Edmon partnered with David Caldwell.
Edmon and Caldwell have known each other since their days as art students at Eastern Kentucky University. Each earned a BFA in graphic design in the 1980s, four years apart. They stayed in touch over the years, albeit sporadically, and would occasionally discuss the possibility of collaborating on something “someday,” be it a project or a cause.
“I always respected him as an artist and designer,” Caldwell said of Edmon.
The admiration was mutual. “I wasn’t able to do what all he was doing,” Edmon said of Caldwell. “All I want to do is create and design, not manage.”
Caldwell’s career path involved full-time employment in graphic design, advertising and PR. He had always wanted to own his own business, but there was never “a good time” to make it happen, he said. He often sat across from his kids at the dinner table and told them to pursue their dreams, yet he wasn’t chasing his own. On Jan. 1, 2011, he woke up with a bold thought: “This is going to be the year of change for me.” The actual change came on Dec. 31.
“It was one of the first times ever I let my dreams trump my need to do the right thing,” Caldwell said. “I went for it.” He and Edmon signed partnership papers a few days later.
Edmon had been running his own business for so long — two decades — that he had lost that fear of needing to be an employee in order to provide stability and security for his family.
“It may sound dangerous, but it’s not,” Edmon said about being his own boss.
On the first business day of 2012, the newly formed Balance Creative had no website projects; now there are eight of them. Caldwell brought digital and online marketing skills to the equation, along with business development expertise, to provide a good balance to Edmon’s artistic and creative skills.
“We’re very customer focused and consider ourselves very agile, relevant and affordable,” Caldwell said. “Our design work is easy for me to sell.”
Edmon takes the creative lead, setting the vision for clients’ creative work. Caldwell sets the strategy. Their clients include nonprofit groups, restaurants and businesses in the fields of financial services, health care and manufacturing.
“David knows more about business than I do,” Edmon admitted. “I’m more of a creative thinker. I don’t want to step into that businessman role.”
Caldwell enjoys both roles. “I don’t like being behind the computer all day creating,” he said. “I get energized by social interaction with people.”
Kristyn Disponette is Balance Creative’s manager of account and client services.
“They are a beautiful combination that this balance is about,” she said. Disponette has a degree in arts administration, which concentrates on the business side of artistic and creative organizations. Before joining Edmon Design in 2006, she was marketing director for the Lexington Philharmonic.
“I’m not as creative as Jim; I’m not as business-oriented as David,” she said. “I fit right in the middle. I’m more of a detail person.”
Details are a necessary component, and nice balance, for any company’s big picture. Balance itself is the leading philosophy for the team at Balance Creative, from handling the objectives, strategies and tactics for clients to the balance of family and work.
“Life is too short and days are too long not to enjoy what we’re doing,” said Caldwell, who learned from Edmon that the best you can do in any moment is all you can do. “That has been freeing. I thought I had to be the best 24/7.”
For more information about Balance Creative, visit www.balancecreative.net.
Kathie Stamps posts grammar tips at www.facebook.com/GrammarTips.