Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Day.
Hi Megan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
The co-founders of Sign and Sealed are Megan Fakes & Megan Day. We first met in design school studying Graphic Communication Design at The University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, commonly referred to as DAAP. We became close friends while living together during one of our co-ops in San Francisco.
In 2018, we teamed up to design a friend’s wedding invitations, and we loved working together! Our styles complimented one another and we pushed each other to be our creative best. Through this friendship and admiration of each other’s work, we sought out more opportunities to collaborate, eventually deciding to start our own business.
We saw an opportunity to bring modern, custom designs to the local wedding market, formally launching Sign and Sealed in 2019. In the beginning, we focused primarily on designing custom wedding invitations, but slowly our business grew to include branding, website, and other graphic design services.
We are now excited to call ourselves a boutique design studio offering branding services, wedding design, and even some curated goods. We bring large and small agency experience to our design solutions — having worked professionally for agencies large and small. Our experience (which spans environmental design, branding, illustration, photography, sign painting, and web design) allows us to tailor solutions to each client’s needs.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Overall, it’s been pretty smooth!
We like to say we have growing pains — in a good way! We can certainly say we know what we’re doing when it comes to Design. However, the ins and outs of running a business are not nearly as effortless and glamourous as social media makes it out to be. There is a lot of budgeting, emails, and spreadsheets behind the scenes. This was a surprise to us — we didn’t expect to need so many hats on a given day! The varying demands throughout every aspect of the business, from administration to finance, have taught us so many valuable skills. We’ve found powerful tools like HoneyBooks & Asana that have made some of our processes smoother. As a small business, we have to be resourceful and find ways to be as efficient and organized as possible.
This year, a new logistical challenge has arisen in that Megan Day works in Seattle while Megan Fakes works in Cincinnati. In some ways, the pandemic prepared us for meeting with clients via video chat, so it’s going relatively smoothly (even with the three-hour time difference!). We’re hopeful being bi-coastal will help us reach some new clients in the coming year.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As two Megans make up our dynamic duo, we tackle each design as a team. We design collaboratively to create unique and relevant solutions for our clients that celebrate individuality and cultivate brands. We listen carefully to identify key opportunities and solve problems. Our designs tell stories, are layered in meaningful details, and are crafted with the utmost care. We like to keep things as local as possible and to focus on the genuine, the underdog, and the individualist. We support those who take risks and who dive headfirst into the unknown.
Our wedding couples go through the same process as our branding clients. We work closely with each client during the creative process, which allows us to get to know their desires and objectives, and means they’re just as invested as we are in the final design.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
By nature, neither of us is a huge risk-taker. BUT we learn best by doing, and sometimes that means taking a risk! It’s good to have a plan and goals, but when the right opportunity comes along, you’ve gotta be able to pivot. We learn a lot in those times of friction and anxiety, and usually, how you solve those problems is where the magic lives. That’s what takes you to the next level.
Contact Info:
- Email: mday@signandsealed.com | mfakes@signandsealed.com
- Website: https://www.signandsealed.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/signandsealed/
Image Credits
Bird and Rose Photography
Rebecca Carmel Photography
