Tarik Nally has long been aware of the lack of women in the creative principal position at design agencies. In fact, that's the position he held at Louisville-based web design and data firm Kale & Flax since he founded it in 2016.
At the time of the agency's founding, only 11% of creative directors were women, even though women made up more than half of the design industry. While that statistic has marginally improved in recent years, Nally wanted his firm to be a part of the solution, too.
So when Kendall Regan emailed him about an open position at Kale & Flax 15 months ago, it sparked a plan for the future.
"At Kale & Flax, we're very intentional about hiring for people more than roles," Nally said. "As soon as Kendall reached out, it wasn't like, 'OK, you can have this job we just posted,' it was, 'How can we bring you in? What are the areas you can help us grow in with your skillsets?'"
After a year with the agency as creative producer, Regan was recently promoted to creative principal, meaning she is guiding, directing and approving its creative projects. Nally maintains his role as founder and has become principal of Kale & Flax. Regan is the second woman that's been added to agency's the leadership team this year — Miyuki Kasahara was also appointed to COO and is leading its growth strategy.
Regan met Nally in 2014 while working as a freelance graphic designer. At the time, he was the senior art director at Mightly and asked for her help on a specific project.
"It was awesome... it was my first peek into the agency world and what that was like," Regan said. "It was so funny, but I never followed up. I should have followed up — we kept in touch — but I was so young and naive that I just thought, 'Well that was a fun day at the office,' and moved on."
Locally, Regan went on to work for Against the Grain, one of Louisville's largest breweries, as a chalk artist and helped to develop its brand. A few years later, she joined Generation Tux, eventually becoming its creative manager and moving out to San Diego to open its marketing office.
But when the pandemic hit, Regan started reevaluating the kind of work she wanted to be doing — and where she wanted to be.
"It was serendipitous. I remember having a conversation with my boyfriend over the phone and I said, 'I think I have to come home,'" she said. "The next morning, I woke up and saw the job listing for Kale & Flax and I was like, 'Oh my god, this is it.'"
Nally said it was his goal from the start to make Regan creative principal, but gave her a year to make sure she liked the agency.
"Kendall is such a great fit, not only for our team, but for creative principal," he said. "She's big, bold and an initiative taker. After bringing Miyuki on, they started to think about the next steps for Kale & Flax to grow, mature and evolve because we doubled our revenue in 2020 and did it again in 2021."
Nally didn't offer specific revenue figures, but noted Kale & Flax's revenue will surpass $1 million in 2022. Notably, the team is working on its fifth project with Zoom, just one of the big-name clients it landed during the pandemic. Kale & Flax is working with 20 to 30 clients during an average week, including TKT & Associates, Chicagoland Vaccine Partnership and the Melanoma Research Foundation, Nally said.
The trio had a conversation in December 2021 to start the leadership transition, but Regan and Kasahara were thrust into leading the firm without much guidance from Nally when he and his family got Covid-19 on a trip to Dubai and had to quarantine for 37 days. On an eight-hour time zone difference and exhausted from the viral illness, he had no choice but to step back and trust them.
"I literally had to say, 'You guys got this,' but also didn't have any fear about that," Nally said. "It was a great opportunity for them to jump headfirst into leadership roles, and I've tried my best to just be in the background on most projects and most decisions and just let them continue to lead."
This year, the leadership team is strategically thinking about whether to open a second office. Prior to the pandemic, Kale & Flax had laid the ground to open a second office in the Dominican Republic, but with travel restrictions, that effort stopped. Nally said he has also considered Chicago for a second office.
"We've reached a point in Louisville where we've got the 'Avengers' assembled in terms of being able to knock out projects," he said of the agency's 11-person team. "Our challenge now is where to grow?"
