Meet the Artist: Kimberly Lavon
Kimberly Lavon is a graduate of LEAP’s One and All class of March 2021, owner of Thimble Media and designer of the One and All program logo.
Hola! My name is Kimberly Lavon and I’m 10 pounds of dynamite in a 5 pound bag. I am a lifelong creative, Lansing native, and newly back from Atlanta, GA to abolish the #starvingartistmyth with my new company Thimble Media, LLC.
The refined idea for my new business started in 2018 but technically it really began in 2000 when my fine art career began to take off. I knew how to make art and I knew there was interest, but I had no idea of how to break into the professional industry, who to talk to, or what I needed to get there. I ended up piecing together over the course of 20 years: modeling/acting gigs, playing my saxophone in 2 different bands, apprenticing as a tattoo artist, earning my BFA in fine art printmaking & graphic design, (10 years later) an MA in Advertising from Savannah College of Art & Design, and even more to build my career. Sadly, after all that I still had questions and was striving for an answer. To my surprise that is when Tony Willis serendipitously informed me of the One and All program. I applied the same day and was elated to be later chosen as a cohort #2 participant!
Graduating from the One and All program has truly changed my life. I thought I was doing everything right. I went to college. I worked internships, took workshops, and enrolled continuing education classes. While I learned a great deal, I was never exposed to the key elements of what I needed to put it all together and make it work, and I had no idea why. I learned the why and then some in this program. I had no idea I would forge such strong friendships and working relationships with other entrepreneurs like me who have had the drive and talent the entire time just by participating in this program. We only lacked support (financial and otherwise), direction, and mentorship from people already in our industries proving success. All that, and more, is what I gained from the One and All program. I am so grateful for the opportunity and am eager to share my new work and business with the greater Lansing community and in the future, the state of Michigan. Watching all the participants graduate and grow their respective businesses in the city of Lansing is truly phenomenal. I am honored to be part of such a vibrant, diverse, creative community!
I had the pleasure of working with Victoria Meadows and Katlyn Lindstrom on the creation of the One and All logo. The direction I was given included several keywords that really helped me visualize the final result. Those words include: collaboration, connection, community, and creativity. The look and feel was to be bold, original, clean and simple. I took the words, look and feel direction, my personal experience in the program, and configured it all in a series of sketches. I was onto something but there was one main obstacle. How could I represent such a diverse group of people in a way that acknowledged their individual entrepreneurship journeys, and everything else that made them special? That’s when it hit me. Lansing, just like the program, is composed by the overlap. The blending of creative and business, pop-ups and food, culture and experiences that you can only find here. The visual I got was the logo you can now associate with the One and All program.
To learn more about me or my business Thimble Media please visit us online at www.thimblemedia.biz.
Category: Entrepreneurship, One&All