2019 Reflections, Celebrations, and Growth
2019 was an incredible year of growth for us at Illustrated Designs. With 25% sales gains over 2018, we are grateful to have worked with many returning clients as well as welcomed quite a few new ones.
We attribute our success to both our creative team and the time we dedicate to our process of getting to know every clients’ unique differentiating factors, goals, and target audience. We are looking forward to further growth with our clients in 2020!
Welcome to our newest team member
We’ve also experienced growth within our team in 2019! In November, we welcomed Annie, a design intern, to our Illustrated Designs crew. She’s currently a high school senior at the Atlantic County Institute of Technology. In the fall, she will be attending Stockton University with a focus on art and graphic design. Her talent, creativity, and fresh perspective have already been a wonderful asset to our team!
Accomplishments
If we’ve ever created a custom display or exhibit for you – you’ve met Chris. He has some exciting news to share, as well! In 2019 Chris was honored to have some of his sculptures exhibited by InLiquid at Old City Publishing in Philadelphia, PA. You can see some photos of the exhibit titled “M’Ocean” below.
Personally, it was a year of growth and new experiences for me, too! I had a couple of noteworthy professional opportunities that made this year one for the books.
WBENC Conference
As a certified Women-Owned Business, Illustrated Designs is a proud member of WBENC. I attended the WBENC National Conference in Baltimore this June and participated in a Pitch Tournament. 80 women entrepreneurs delivered their best 90-second elevator pitch to a panel of judges from around the WBENC network. The event and grand prize ($15,000 and strategic mentoring) were presented by PepsiCo in partnership with WBENC.
Getting in front of a few hundred strangers with eight previously unknown judges from various industries forced me out of my comfort zone. Although I didn’t make it to the second round, I learned a few essential things from participating in the first round.
- We all need to know how to explain what we do, what pain points we solve, and how we differ from our competition…and effectively state it in 60 seconds or less.
- The importance of reading a room
- Excitement, confidence, and authenticity command attention!
You can check out the winner and view a list of the other 79 participants by clicking here.
Tuck Digital Excellence Program
Then, in October I packed my bags and headed to the Google office in Atlanta, GA to attend the Tuck Digital Excellence Program! As the competition was fierce, I was so fortunate to be admitted AND receive a scholarship to attend.
I spent 2 ½ days with 31 other entrepreneurs in an interactive classroom setting learning from the best of the best in the digital business world. I learned so much from the Tuck School of Business and Google about digital marketing and strategy in that short amount of time. Since then, our team has been working on our own digital strategy. This knowledge has sparked change within our own business and is something that we look forward to sharing with our clients!
Some of the notable speakers at the event included:
- Professor Alva Taylor, Faculty Director, Center for Digital Strategies, Tuck at Dartmouth
- Sophie Hasson, Program Manager, Google Cloud Gaming
- Professor Lauren Grewal, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Tuck at Dartmouth
- Síofra Harnett, Global Head of Supplier Diversity & Inclusion, Google
2019 taught us that if you don’t seek out opportunities to learn, grow, and step out of your comfort zone, life will just keep passing you by. Carpe Diem, as they say!
My creative team and I are passionate about continuing our growth in the coming year and are even more enthusiastic about our clients’ successes that lie ahead.
With that, Happy New Year! We look forward to working with you in 2020!
Tracey Piechocki, President of Illustrated Designs, Inc.
