Graphic Design Genius and Branding Brilliance in one person
Imagine…
A thirteen year old girl, sits on her bedroom floor. She’s flipping through copies of Seventeen magazine. She’s not looking at the articles or cute celebrities. She’s looking at the adds. She cuts them out, like scrap-booking, with pretty cut border designs, and hangs them all over her wall. The good ones go on one side, the bad ones go on the other. She stares at them, like stars on her ceiling. Every night before she goes to bed and in the morning as she gets dressed, they are there. They interest her: their color, their scheme, the way the words are bold, or tiny, or bumpy. She notices these things.
Know any little girls like that?
Yeah, we didn’t either, that is, until we met Sharon Kolleth. She’s our Creative Director—obviously. What she does, is part of who she is. To quote her, “I honestly can’t believe people pay me to do what I do because I would do it for fun anyway, I think. Yeah, pretty sure.” She says with an easy laugh and a comfortable, knowing, smile.
Seriously. She’s that little girl all grown up, with now decades of passionate experience around creative graphic design and marketing.
When Sharon gets a project, she gets a monumental responsibility. She is in charge of a company’s entire image. She gets this. She gets how important this is, and takes it very seriously. They are trusting her to get everything right after all: the color, the branding, the theme, and the message. And…
She doesn’t stop till it’s a perfect design. Every. Single. Time.
We at Team Maryjane know how lucky we are.
Want to know more interesting things about her? Because yeah, she’s pretty cool.
She stumbled into a country western bar one night about 11 years ago or thereabouts (yep, this is a true story). Now, you see, this is really strange because Sharon is just not that into country music, but once there, something extraordinary happened…there, across the room, she saw a man, and fell in love.
Love at first sight. For real. (I can’t even believe I just wrote that.)
He didn’t like country music either apparently. (I guess he’s a pretty hardcore metalhead.) But anyway, they fell in love, got married, bought a house, got a dog, had two awesome kids, and are still madly in love.
So there you go folks, it’s possible!
She takes this commitment all the way through everything. When she meets with clients she makes them feel comfortable, engaged, and excited about their new designs. Sharon finds out exactly who her clients are and what they want their cannabis product to “say.”
She finds out if they are playful, professional, serious, or silly. She gets them to explore a balance of design schemes they already love, to new ideas they would probably never thought of on there own. A creative genius! She usually comes up with not just one, or two, or three ideas for logos for clients, yeah…nope…try more like 10-15. We’ve even talked to her about this. She simply has so many ideas, that she just can’t stop herself from making more, so we don’t!
Just like cutting out those Seventeen magazine adds…
she loves graphic design, so she still does it.
Want to know something else about Sharon we thought was pretty interesting, and awesome, and well…cute?
She’s a soccer mom! A real one, with a giant white minivan named Bullet, continually filled with elementary children going to and from soccer. Every Saturday her days are filled with hours of soccer, soccer, soccer. She carts around tiny little humans around, and watches them kick a full-sized ball all around a green field, shouting words of support to their triumphant effort! Sharon is even president of the PTO where her kids go to school. OMG.
There’s more awesomeness of course. Her and her husband, ride their bikes, swim countless laps, and run long, dusty miles in half Ironman races for ALS. This debilitating and difficult disease, has touched her family’s life in very deep and close ways. For years she’s raised money for these specified charities and has worked to spread awareness and education.
Go Sharon.
Sharon believes in the amazing health benefits of cannabis. She thinks that people who need cannabis should have the right to use it. And of course, we agree with her. Duh.
So there you have it! There is no one we’d prefer to head our creative team: inspired, passionate, an artist, a doer, and clearly someone who cares. Whether it is her family, her volunteer efforts, or her work, there is no one better for a job, than someone who is in love with what they do.
Thanks Sharon, for being part of our Team Maryjane!