Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Dale.
Alex, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Twenty years ago, I sat nervously in the office of J. Walter Thompson interviewing for a junior copy writer position. My sweaty hands fumbled through my portfolio as I attempted to prove my value to the company as a soon-to-be college graduate. I left the interview feeling confident about my chances only to learn later that I had lost the opportunity to a writer who also had a design background.
To this day, the irony of that experience makes me smile. I thought I wanted to be a writer and had no idea I was heading toward design.
I’ve enjoyed art as a hobby my whole life, but I sort of fell into a career in graphic design. For some reason, the idea of working as a professional artist never crossed my mind. Maybe I thought that all artists were starving.
After working in public relations for three different companies, I realized my heart wasn’t in it. The firm I worked for in Washington, D.C., was outsourcing all of its design projects, but I knew I could do better. So with my boss’s blessing, I bought some software and started teaching myself how to use it, designing more and more projects for the company. Over the course of several years, I worked my way up to Senior Creative Director.
I moved to the Atlanta area in 2007 to work for a small company as the head of marketing and creative services. Soon after moving down here, I decided to start my own design firm instead of waiting for the looming recession to make that choice for me. I’ve never looked back.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Comedian Steven Wright once joked, “I saw a bank that said ’24-Hour Banking,’ but I don’t have that much time.” The biggest challenge for me is that there are only 24 hours in a day. I keep trying to squeeze out more but time is annoyingly relentless. For the last decade, I have been privileged to serve some amazing clients and to see continued growth for my business. And I just wish I had more time to be able to say yes to more projects. It’s a good problem to have, and one I’m constantly trying to solve by working smarter, finding great designers to help me, and expanding the bandwidth of our team so that we can serve our clients better.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Loudmark story. Tell us more about the business.
We’re a boutique design agency, which is just a fancy word for small. We maintain a trusted team of about ten people, including content creators, digital experts, videographers, strategists, programmers and graphic design specialists.
We recently renamed our company Loudmark, which truly conveys our purpose – to provide strong design solutions that are visually powerful, strategic, and measurable; in short, to leave a mark loudly. This is an exciting change for us. What began as a small shop has grown to serve some of the top brands in the world, including Kraft Foods, Under Armour, Universal Studios, the U.S. Army and Navy, Humana, Microsoft, Walt Disney Pictures and more.
I am very proud of what we’ve accomplished as a company. We’re able to serve as a one-stop shop for our clients. We provide a broad range of services including advertising, event production, branding, graphic design, packaging, web development, and much more.
In addition, our size and lean structure sets us apart from other companies and provides a number of advantages, which we’ve worked hard to maintain despite our growth.
We’re more nimble and swift to meet client demands quickly and efficiently. We’re close to our customers both professionally and personally – we celebrate their birthdays and know their kids’ names. Our team has worked together for years and even vacations together. We trust each other, and that trust is shared by our clients.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Many people spend a lifetime trying to connect the dots between their job and their passions. I was fortunate to discover my dream job early in life, working for two amazing women who encouraged me to explore design and allowed me the freedom to make mistakes. They gave me room to grow into my new career. Good work and good bosses are key to realizing personal success – and ultimately, they gave me the confidence I needed to step out on my own. (A decade later, I still get emails and letters of encouragement from them – they continue to show me what it looks like to be a good boss.)
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.loudmark.com
- Phone: 678-489-7632
- Email: hello@loudmark.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loudmarkagency
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loudmarkagency
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/loudmarkagency
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/loudmarkagency
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