EDMONDS — Every business wants to stand out from the herd.
In the age of social media and search engines, businesses have more opportunities than ever to gain exposure, but still need an edge.
The Branding Iron can make that happen. With digital aesthetics, not a hot iron.
The three-person graphic design, marketing and printing company crafts unique identities for businesses from mom-and-pop shops to law firms.
Lillyan and Timothy Hendershot, the company’s graphic designer and web developer, run The Branding Iron with production manager Mesfin Mengesha. The three worked at a big-box office supply store in Shoreline before starting their company in 2014.
Their company name was inspired by the practice of branding when cattlemen marked their cows to identify ownership.
“But I didn’t really want a cow in my logo,” said Lillyan Hendershot, who opted to use a bison instead.
The Branding Iron, located several blocks from the Port of Edmonds at 120 W. Dayton St., serves a variety of marketing, printing and website needs. Many businesses aim to seamlessly sync all of the above, but that can be tricky.
“Any time you have a rebranding project it’s not just the logo. It’s the business cards, the website, the signage, everything that goes along with it,” Lillyan Hendershot said.
Some clients approach The Branding Iron having already decided on a detailed vision for their company. Others are more flexible.
“You don’t design for what you like. You design for what your target audience is, and you have to be versatile,” she said.
The Branding Iron adapts to the needs and preferences of a wide- ranging clientele, including a yoga studio, a Rotary Club, law firms and a T-shirt company.
“Most of our clients are small businesses, and a lot of them are in the Edmonds Bowl (downtown),” she said. “What our customers love is that they don’t have to leave the Bowl to get their printing done and their graphic designing done.”
Bill Taylor, founder of the Edmonds-based nonprofit SE Asia Foundation, discovered The Branding Iron online.
“I wanted someone locally to give me some help,” Taylor said.
He requested a new website from the team, and was impressed by their work ethic and output.
“Working with Lilly was just so easy,” Taylor said. “She listens, she understands what you want, and then she does it. And the quality is excellent.”
Taylor continues to visit the company for all of his printing needs. “Everybody in there is just great.”
When The Branding Iron moved to its current spot, across the street from the Cascadia Art Museum, and sandwiched between a restaurant and a modeling agency, it was the first in a string of new businesses.
“It was kind of a dying area, and I feel like we were just at the front of it,” Hendershot said. The area has since been revived, and they’ve witnessed the blossoming of fresh small businesses.
“Every business over there is brand new. And they’re all thriving.”
As a result, The Branding Iron receives plenty of curious passers-by. Mengesha, 55, handles the customer service and printing aspect of the business. Originally from Eritrea, he arrived in the United States in 2006 with his wife and daughter.
An economist by trade, Mengesha earned his Ph.D. in Bulgaria, and said he worked as a senior policy expert at the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Trade for 10 years.
When he moved to the United States, he was first employed at the office supply store where Hendershot was his supervisor.
Recognizing her design talent and their strong collaboration skills, business-minded Mengesha suggested that they open their own company.
Hendershot, who had already been freelancing her designs, seized the opportunity.
“It ended up being that I could make more money working for myself than working for someone,” she said.
Hendershot earned her bachelor’s degree in studio art from Western Washington University. After graduating in 2009, she faced a dry market for art. She returned to school for a graphic design degree, and graduated from online-based Full Sail University in 2011.
She had discovered that the money she earned from freelancing her graphic design work dwarfed the income that she was receiving from the office supply store.
“When I did work at the office supply store, being a supervisor, I was making a little under $15 an hour. When I did graphic design, I would sell it to the client for $60 an hour. You’re basically giving away your talent.”
Hendershot and Mengesha invested in the high-tech printing machines The Branding Iron uses today. The equipment lived in Hendershot’s garage for six months until they opened their current office in Edmonds in 2014.
Mengesha said most of the work he does at The Branding Iron is similar to his work at the office supply store, but said he’s experienced greater enjoyment as a small business owner.
“When we come here, if we lose, we all lose. If we succeed, we all succeed,” Mengesha said. “We have a good job satisfaction here, so we all work intensively.”
“It’s so much better than working for someone else,” Hendershot added. “For me, since I’ve already had one child and now I’m having another, it’s the fact that I can bring a baby to work if I need to. If you’re a mother, you can make the rules.”
She brought her son Aiden with her to the office until he was 6 months old. The office remains baby proofed, with outlets covered and wires tucked away.
Hendershot’s husband designs websites and mobile web applications.
A self-taught programmer and former Marine Corps sergeant, Timothy Hendershot graduated from the University of Washington in 2011. He was working in the logistics department of the office supply store when he met Mengesha and his future wife.
When Lillyan Hendershot and Mengesha first opened The Branding Iron, Timothy Hendershot was working as a caregiver for autistic children. He eventually joined The Branding Iron full time in 2015. He also tends to clients for another online marketing firm.
Lillyan Hendershot said that she rarely considers efficiency when she approaches her husband about a design project.
On their website, Timothy describes his role as “fixing everything Lilly breaks.”
“When I design, I do it with zero regard for how he has to program it. Absolutely zero,” Lillyan Hendershot said. “Then I give it to him, and he figures out how to make it work. He’s never let me down when it comes to programming something. I’ll have customers who have crazy ideas, and I say, ‘We’ve never done it, but let’s try it.’ Tim has always pulled through.”
“Like any people working together, you will have disagreements at one point or another,” she said. “But it’s being able to talk through it, voice your opinion, listen to the other person voicing their opinion, then resolve it.”
“Or sometimes, yell into a cup of coffee,” her husband added.
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