Shirley based Sitka Creations graphic design studio celebrates 20 years in business

Tamar Russell Brown not too long ago celebrated an impressive milestone for her graphic layout studio Sitka Creations, the 20th anniversary of the enterprise headquartered in Shirley that she founded in 2002.

She and her group regarded the momentous celebration with a Nov. 2 celebration at Oak Hill Nation club in her hometown of Fitchburg to thank their purchasers, companions, close friends and loved ones for their assistance. The social gathering that drew more than 60 friends which includes regional dignitaries showcased stay tunes by The Jazz Depot, foods and beverages, and wonderful pieces of art by resident artists on display.

“The anniversary celebration was an unbelievable experience,” Russell Brown shared. “There were being many moments I had tears in my eyes because of how my customers and vendors joined together to celebrate my accomplishment of becoming in small business for 20 decades. I was so humbled that our neighborhood officers took time out of their really hectic schedules to understand my small business with official citations from the Massachusetts Household of Representatives, Massachusetts Condition Senate and the Town of Fitchburg, and my close friends at the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce presented me with a certificate.”

The 46-calendar year-aged 1st introduced Sitka Creations in Rockland, Maine with a number of freelance workers. About the many years, her graphic organization that supplies clients with creative and helpful graphic and world-wide-web style and design and visible communication products and services has expanded to places in Martha’s Winery, New York Metropolis, and Newport, Rhode Island. Russell Brown moved the headquarters from Leominster to Shirley in 2013.

“Moving to Phoenix Park gave me a true vision that I could increase my business,” Russell Brown said in a push release. “In 2015, I started off offering payroll, and in the very last a few yrs made available gains, this kind of as health and fitness insurance policy and paid time off, in an hard work to go on to increase and give our staff with what they want. These days, we have 6 workers and 3 contractors.”

Sitka Creations serves a wide variety of tiny firms and arts and culture organizations in the foodstuff, retail, manufacturing, IT, and authorized solutions industries. Russell Brown said they have purchasers all about the place and that when they are a compact small business, “we are flexible and can offer customers a wide range of solutions primarily based on their unique wants.”

In accordance to the press launch, like quite a few business owners, Russell Brown drew from her possess passion for artwork and currently being an artist herself as the travel for opening her small business, whilst also wanting up to her father, a tiny company proprietor himself.

“This begun as a way to make excess funds, but it was often in my head to style and design more creations than what I could do at my day occupation,” she stated. “In my free of charge time, I would try to receive design gigs that had been of fascination to me and given that I cherished operating with customers immediately, I created the transition to that of enterprise owner.”

She gained an associate degree from Nashville Condition Technological Institute and a bachelor’s degree in Visual Interaction from Rhode Island College or university and is also qualified in photography, Educating English as a International Language, and Training English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Russell Brown volunteers with different businesses within the bigger community. She is chair of the Fitchburg Cultural Council, a founder of the Fitchburg Open up Studios occasion, and on the board at The Fay Club. She earlier served on the Mount Wachusett Community College or university Design and style Board and the Montachusett Regional Technological Vocational Substantial University Style and design Office Advisory Committee and is in her next phrase on the Rhode Island Faculty Alumni Board, where she also served as a mentor to aspiring net developers.

Prior to living in Fitchburg, Russell Brown was a resident of Greenfield for a year and Leominster for 6 yrs. Getting closely concerned in her local community and offering back again to it is crucial to the entrepreneur.

“The North Central Massachusetts community has been so welcoming and supportive of my business, and it’s been an honor to devote and develop my business right here,” Russell Brown reported. “In addition to group support, we are grateful for our clientele and their belief in Sitka Creations which allow us to do what we appreciate just about every day.”

She said her business has “grown in just about every possible way” about the past two decades, which includes hiring further personnel, opening further destinations, maximizing technologies, raising revenue, and a lot more.

“Although it’s been 20 several years, in some cases it appears like it was just yesterday when I resolved to turn out to be an entrepreneur and I’m so grateful to have shared this journey with so a lot of supportive individuals above the a long time.”

When requested what her long term hopes and plans are when it comes to Sitka Creations, she explained in the subsequent 5 several years she would like to double the sizing of her present workforce and “experience double revenue.”

Russell Brown said she’s grateful for the support from so numerous in excess of the many years, which includes her lifetime companion.

“It’s vital to mention my spouse, Teddy Brown, who has been there due to the fact day 1,” she claimed. “As an entrepreneur, acquiring a supportive family members is crucial, and although a person can be successful devoid of a supportive spouse and children, I am grateful to Teddy and my household for serving to me reach for my dreams and attain them.”