Giving Back
The face of a community is reflected in its small businesses. Tucker King, owner and creator of Red Bicycle Design, understands how important it is to support those entrepreneurs and help them thrive. Beginning his career in general graphic design, Tucker soon realized it was difficult to help businesses without understanding their individual identities, like trying to fill in pieces of a puzzle without the bigger picture. In 2013, he founded Red Bicycle Design, which now has offices in both Raleigh, NC and Richmond, VA.
“I fell in love with the process of helping small business owners find clarity in what they stand for and building everything around that,” explains Tucker. “Clients can develop a better relationship with their audience. That’s how my approach changed, from just design to focusing on the companies brand and identity.”
Red Bicycle delivers a professional experience, for both their clients and the small business customers their clients serve. He works with a variety of creative professionals to provide the highest level of service. If a project is ever outside of his expertise, he can refer to an expert in that field whom he knows and trusts.
“I work with a lot of different creative professionals, and I like to be able to connect people,” Tucker says. By partnering with these local vendors, such as photographers and videographers, Tucker has developed a broad network of fellow business owners, forming relationships which are mutually beneficial.
Draft Branding Free Workshop Series
Tucker enjoys brand consulting, and often meets with business owners to discuss ideas, even offering complementary one-time consultations to give general feedback. His passion for brand consulting and helping fellow entrepreneurs led him to develop a free workshop series called “Draft Branding”, which includes business education, brand strategy, and live mentoring. The workshops take place on the first Tuesday of every month at Gather from 12pm to 1:30pm.
“It’s specifically for small businesses and entrepreneurs on branding, covering topics such as how to develop a name, a tagline, creating a logo, visuals, photos, and much more,” says Tucker. Deriving its name from a racing technique (as a play on Red Bicycle), drafting in a cycling race allows one rider to follow closely behind another, thus experiencing less resistance, an idea which applies to the workshops.
“The whole purpose of the workshop is to allow business owners to help each other and take advantage of collaboration and working side by side,” he adds. Seating for each workshop is limited, so participants are asked to register beforehand. For more information, visit draftbrandingworkshop.com.
Although the Draft Branding workshops are a new series, giving back to his community has always been a priority for Tucker. He worked for various ministries doing design work after college, then moved to full-time graphic design for a non-profit organization before founding Red Bicycle. He continues to work with both non-profit and for-profit businesses, finding new ways to help serve others through his talents.
“There are a lot of agencies in the area, that offer all of these services, but most small businesses aren’t able to start out at a five-figure point for their branding and marketing. By having more of a virtual agency, it allows my company to adapt better to suit the needs of small businesses. Whether they need one service or multiple services, we can scale our team to fit their needs, without them having to pay for a lot of over head or a lot of different salaries.”
Overall, Tucker believes that small business owners have quality products and services which deserve to be presented in a manner which reflects that quality.
“The whole goal with branding,” concludes Tucker, “is to take the quality you already have, and let people recognize that immediately, so they can start to build trust and see you for the service you already offer.”
redbicylcedesign.com, Richmond Office 804.414.5066