Ep. 44: The New Rules of Graphic Design, with Ryann Kivel
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There’s this food truck pod in Bend that I developed a new appreciation for during the pandemic. It’s all outdoors, of course, there are some funky structures for kids to climb in, fire pits for colder nights, live music a few days a week, and there’s a bar. Last summer, this food truck pod became a refuge, and new food truck pods sprung up successfully, even in a time when restaurants were forced to close.
As customers, we could safely social distance and dine at picnic tables and be amongst our small circle of friends. This food truck pod model really worked during a time when restaurants were shuddered. It’s worth mentioning since 1 in 3 restaurants in bigger cities have been forced to close in the last year. I’m sure my husband isn’t the only one who feels like his brick and mortar is still somewhat of a liability. He—by the way—has three food trucks in various pods around town, and they’ve been a huge reason his restaurant business has remained afloat. We’ve heard about ghost kitchens, curbside, the end of in room dining in favor of delivery services, and truly, many have completely changed their business models in order to remain open.
The food truck pods have proven to be pandemic proof. Something else that’s proven to be pandemic proof? A friendship that actually started at that food truck pod. I met Ryann Kivel and her family at that pod last summer.
Ryann Kivel is a graphic designer and creative director who’s been pushing pixels professionally for over 15 years. After starting her career in the San Francisco Bay Area and serving as the Director of Marketing for a venture-backed startup, Ryann moved to the Pacific Northwest and has been happily serving small businesses ever since. Via design start up MustHaveMenus, she’s worked with dozens of restaurants to create easy to manage, easy to update menu designs. Ryann is the owner of Napkin Ink, a boutique design studio, and as of just a few months ago, we started working together.
I tapped into Ryann’s graphic design skills and plugged her into some of the projects I was working on for hospitality clients, including email template design, a massive annual trends report that we launched as a subsite, and a website for a thought leader in the indie hotel space. Ryann is one of the most creative people I know. She has that eye for design—and serious talent—and the kind of curiosity to figure things out herself. That’s hard to come by.
So, when I thought about launching another marketing firm—this one focused on restaurant recovery—I called Ryann immediately to see if she’d be interested. In addition to running her own design firm, I’m thrilled to call Ryann my business partner at Sauced Marketing. Together, we’ve built a 90-day, turn-key marketing solution for restaurants on the road to recovery.
Today, Ryann is joining me to talk through the new rules of graphic design. How technology has disrupted the industry, for better or worse. We’ll learn about Napkin Ink and why she built it. We’ll get some actionable tips along the way. Plus, you’ll finally get the scoop on Sauced Marketing.
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I loved getting to introduce you to Ryann today, and I learned quite a bit from today’s episode as well.
My key takeaways were:
1. Just like everything else, graphic design is a field that’s constantly evolving. The agency model of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a website is no longer the only option. I’ve seen first hand the way the tools that Ryann mentioned, Squarespace for websites, and Canva for design, have really empowered small business owners, marketers, and social media teams to do more themselves and be less beholden to webmasters and graphic designers. That said, there’s clearly a place for graphic designers to establish brands, build templates, and be that design Sherpa, as Ryann described it, to guide clients through the design process and empower them to really own it.
2. When it comes to design principles, Ryann shared a lot, including the importance of creating a consistent brand across every customer touchpoint—knowing that it takes at least 7x to make an impression. She talked about designing both for desktop and for mobile, and the value of website stats. It’s not enough to build a beautiful website, it needs to perform. It needs to be bringing customers in and keeping them engaged with content that’s accessible. We talked about restaurants and QR codes being only as good as what’s on the other end. I love this wholistic approach to design.
3. Finally, we talked about Sauced; our restaurant marketing business. Our Secret Sauce really is that 90-day turn key marketing strategy and design tool kit that’s going to serve clients well beyond those 90 days. Plus, there’s that social membership where you get access to our monthly guides and the Sauced community of chefs, owners, hospitality leaders, and more. And...we do have this “Sauce on the Side” program as well, where we’re able to keep working with you past those 90-days or in something a bit bigger than the membership, if say, you’re in need of a full website redesign. I happen to know this amazing designer named Ryann.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Napkin Ink website.
Sauced Marketing website.
@napkin.ink on Instagram.
