Today we’d like to introduce you to Jose.
Hi Jose, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
After a career spent in advertising, I started my own design agency in 2014. In the early years, we focused on building CPG and outdoor brands through the discipline of design, primarily packaging and apparel. As those relationships grew, we expanded our offerings to include more traditional advertising services, foundational activities like strategy to support our brand-building work, and media planning to direct where our creativity would live for these brands.
Eventually, we began taking more hospitality projects, and as we did, we brought in Christina, my wife, who was doing her own residential interior design practice at the time. Having her as part of the team, we were able to build an interior design department to accommodate many of our hospitality clients who had hired us for branding, but also needed help telling that brand story through the interior spaces of their projects.
Today, we have a pretty diverse set of clients, from CPG and outdoor companies that engage us to build their brands and handle their marketing needs, to hospitality clients that engage us for branding and interior design. Of course, the interiors department still has its own set of high-end residential projects.
We’ve recently rebranded Canales & Co. and refer to ourselves as Brand Builders and Place Makers, nodding to the diverse design skillsets under one roof that we can now offer our clients.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There have certainly been challenges along the way. The first three years, it wasn’t evident that we would make it. While we’ve never had an unprofitable year, those early years were marked with peaks and valleys. Cash flow was a regular worry, and it trained me to be financially disciplined and conservative in the way our business spent money. Everything from staffing to equipment, we only pulled the trigger if we absolutely needed it.
Space was challenging as well. This is an expensive city, and to be burdened at such a young stage with a big lease didn’t seem prudent. We worked out of our house for the first few years until my wife kicked us out, because she was tired of people in our house. We have 2 acres in Sunset Valley, which we purchased in 2015 with the vision of building a studio in the backyard for our team. This would allow me to be close to home, while our kids were young, but out of the house. This office has served us well over the last 8 years, and proved to be a sound investment, saving us a lot of money in the long run. We’ve now begun construction on a new office that is not on our personal property, which is something we are pretty excited about to accommodate the growth of our agency.
Lastly, a challenge that might be common with entrepreneurs who start a business in a service they are skilled in is the owner’s transformation into a business leader. Today I’m CEO of Canales & Co., and that job is much different than being a designer, creating brands for our clients. You learn an unimaginable amount of skills required to run a successful business that nobody tells you about. In fact, had someone warned me of all the things I would need to be responsible for on top of the design work to be successful, it likely would have scared me off from starting this venture. Sometimes going in blindly can be a blessing, because once you’re in, your only option is to press forward.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are a design agency with a wide variety of talents and skillsets under one roof. We offer brand-building design services, with a keen sense for defining and expressing a brand’s personality through physical touchpoints that customers can easily relate to. We also offer interior design services for hospitality clients looking to extend these brand-building efforts into experiential spaces. We’re well known in the CPG and outdoor space, and some of our proudest work includes branding for YETI and Whole Foods Market. More recently, we’ve been especially proud of our work for Chalmers Bar and Nic & Juniors, a restaurant in Chicago where our branding and interiors teams came together to create a fully immersive brand experience.
What sets us apart from other branding or interiors firms is that we have a team in both of these disciplines under one roof. It’s rare to find top-tier talent in both areas within a single studio. Most clients have to hire separate firms and then manage the collaboration between them. Our integrated approach leads to a more cohesive process and final product. The benefit of having one unified team is in the details, the small moments, Easter eggs, and surprises that come from each team influencing the other throughout the project. Our teams literally sit next to each other, and that proximity shows in the work.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me today is building a company that our team members are proud and excited to come to work for. That means, first and foremost, we have to have a culture that people enjoy being a part of. As the leader, it’s my job to create this culture and then to protect it. Secondly, the work has to be interesting and engaging for our people to want to come in every day and work on it. If the work is well done, the rest will follow, all the accolades, recognition, and of course, new business. But it starts with the people. You absolutely have to get that part right first.
Pricing:
- Design projects generally start at 25k
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.canalesco.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/canalesandco
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/canalesandco
Image Credits
Jeff Jones – Chalmers
Daniel Kelleghan – Nic and Juniors / Jose & Christina
