I interviewed my father, Samuel, about how he started his own graphic designing and advertising business in 1992. Growing up in Seoul, Korea, he was taught things differently and tried to live up to the potential his parents wanted him to be. When he was younger he always wanted to work with art and made sure it happened. Today, he still associates himself with the same company and also manages more. He is the coauthor of the bestseller Great Chicago Stories and produced After the Fall: Srebrenica Survivors in St. Louis, winner of the prestigious American Association of Museums Book Award. He his the loving husband to Kathy Roderick and father to his two kids, Sean (21) and Kate (17), and owner to his dog Cody. He currently likes spending time with his family, traveling, and riding motorcycles along with maintaining a business.

What made you decide to start your own business?
Well I had been working for a while and I really wanted to focus on what I was good at and my interest laid in design and communication and I wanted to do more of that, rather than working for a big company where I spent most of my time in meetings dealing with politics and people, and I felt like if I started my own business I could do great work for clients that I wanted to work for and really focus on getting better at what I wanted to do.

What were the first steps you took in starting your business?

Umm, the first thing that I did was talk to a friend of mine who was already in the business. His name was Bill and he worked in retail. He did work for Marshall Fields and Carsons, which was a department store at the time, and umm we decided that we wanted to do a business that focused in the fashion and retail industry. So the first thing we did was decide on a name for the business, which was our names.We probably spent more time in the first couple of weeks designing the business card then actually looking for clients. But, before I knew it, correction before we knew it, uhhhh WE realized we needed to get clients. We needed to get, uh we needed to get revenue. So, for the first several weeks we got a phone line in Bill Zbaren’s home calling everyone we knew. We called our friends, we called photographers, we called hairstylist and makeup artists-- all the people we knew in the business-- and all of a sudden we started getting phone calls back. Our first client was a neck wear tie designer called zanzara International. Uh there were two guys named Jordy Left and Joe Farnella and they asked us to produce ads for them and what they did was they designed ties and fabric in Chicago and then they went to Italy to get them made. Uhh and they were really unbelievably gorgeous beautiful ties, very expensive and I remember the first ad we did for them. We had a necktie coming out of a wine bottle and it looked like instead of the wine pouring into a glass it was a necktie pouring into a glass, and that was the first ad we created and they paid us for that and kept asking us to do more. So we produced more ads for them and uh thats how I got started.

What other work have you done? What other big ads?
Hmm, after that we started designing magazine spreads for a couple of Chicago magazines that are no longer around. They were called Metro and then there was another magazine it was uhhh it was called Inside Chicago and we designed fashion spreads for them. Then I got another retail client called Russo and they made and sold really high end fashion for women on Halsted Ave. We did ads for Russo clothing also. [pause] But do you know what was really interesting? Even though we were doing this fashion work, of all clients we got a call from the Alzheimer's Association. They asked us if we could produce a newsletter for them. It was their National Association Newsletter. We started doing work for them and that actually created a steady income for us. That’s how we really began and we worked for that client for one year, until she ended up going to Jim Beam Vans. Its a liquor/ distilled spirits company and for almost 10 years after that we did work for Jim beam. We did work for Gilbey's Gin, which was part of Jim Beam, uhh we did work on DeKuyper Schnapps, we did work on the Dalmore Scotch and the Small Batch bourbons including uhh Booker No, and Knob Creek, and Bakers and we did everything for them. We did packaging, we did logos, we did newsletters, promotions, and then we started doing work for Coors Brewing Company and then we started doing work for Nutrasweet, equal sweeteners, and we did some work for uhhh Oh! then we got some work from a client going to Wolfgang Puck. So we did Wolfgang Puck’s identity and advertising work for a couple of years. Umm, lets see what else. We did the restaurant opening for Sullivan’s Steakhouse, we also did work for Houlihans, [thinking] Wild Horse Lounge [thinking] umm I think they’re in Nashville. [gets louder] Well thats how I started! This was all in the first ya know three years.

Did you wish that you did anything differently?
Umm, ya know it’s hard to answer that because I don’t think I have any regrets. I worked a lot of hours and when I started the business I had just met your mother and I do wish, the one thing I do wish, it’s not necessarily a regret but I wish I worked less hours. I worked to 9- 10 o'clock every night and every weekend for probably over ten years. I didn't take much vacation and ya know if I had to do it over I would probably work the same hours but when you own your own business you have to do everything. So nobody’s going to do it for you, so you just uh you just do what you have to, but I wish that I worked maybe a little bit less. I wish I had a little bit more time to myself and Kathy, your momma.


Besides Bill Zbaren, who else helped you in the beginning?
Uhhh well he, he was only with me for about a year and he decided that it wasn't right for him so I had another friend, Eric Larson. I worked with him for a few years until I started Design Kitchen. When I started Design Kitchen, that’s when it really became a business. You know previously it was just a couple guys just doing good work but after about six years I decided that I had to get serious about my future and hire people and I started Design Kitchen in 1992. The first day, even though I had planned it, It just so happens that the day I opened the business is the day Sean came to this world [Big Smile].
The same day?!
[Nodding head] First day of my business. We had a grand opening and we let all our clients know that we were going to be opening. I was opening up Design Kitchen and it was on a monday morning and Mom said, “We have to go to the hospital because we’re about to have a baby.” So we went to NorthWestern Memorial and I spent the first three days with mom before I came back and attended to the business. Now at the time I had three employees. So, you know they kept things going while we took care of Sean.

What influenced you to start the business? What was the really major thing that made you want to go into what you do?
You know I was influenced by other designers and the great work they did and it always seem to me that the best work came from small firms. All the great creative work that I saw in award shows and annuals and magazines came from small firms in Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York, and so there are a number of current agencies and firms that really influenced my decision to start a creative agency and to start a creative firm. And Back then, design firms were called Design Companies or Design Firms, and advertising agencies were called Agencies and it was in the mid to late 90’s, when I got into and switched from branding and creative work to more technology and digital work, that I started calling Design Kitchen an agency.

Did you have any major problems in the start?
Umm ya know I really didn't have any maaajoorrr problems other then every few years you lose key employees that are very talented so you had to make that up and you had to replace them with good people. When I actually first started Design Kitchen, when I mentioned I had three employees actually two of them were partners in the business. But, they worked for me because I funded the business and after about three years they decided to leave because our business Design Kitchen started getting really big and they wanted to continue working for a small firm. So I had to borrow money to pay them when they left the business because I paid them their share of the business. So that was a little bit of a challenge.

Did it take you long to recover?
No that didn't take me long to recover but there was a couple times in the business and in the mid 90’s and then early 2000’s- 2001 when our economy ya know hit a low. we had a recession and after 911 business was not that great. Actually in 2001 after 911 all many of our clients put their projects on hold and I ended up losing almost a third of my business, and I had to let people go. At the time I had about close to 20 people and and I had to let about errr uhh, no I had close to 24 people, excuse me, and it was down to 12-13 people before I recovered again and it took me about a year and a half to two years to really recover the business. So that was in 2012, 2011-2012 with were the hardest... oh I’m sorry, 2001-2002 were the hardest. You were four and five years old then so you don’t remember those because I used to still take you to hockey at McFetridge.

What was the hardest thing you personally had to go through and do yourself?
Ummm I think the hardest challenge for me or hardest thing was managing people, because when you hire very talented people it’s not just the money that keeps them in your company. You have to keep them motivated and offer them things to help their careers and to help them enjoy working for you and the company. It took me gradually over many years to learn how to manage people and help their careers because I found that if you hire really talented people and you tell them what your expectations are and you give them alot of room and latitude to grow and if they really feel like you got their backs and you give them opportunities with the kind of clients and opportunities they'll do great work and they'll work very hard for you and become very loyal employees. So I think a lot of people think that when you own your own business you can do whatever you want but I think the really good business people have a responsibility to their employees and their clients and that’s what makes them even more successful.

So, backing it up, where did you grow up with the influence of your parents?
Oh, well ya know when I was younger I used to always draw and doodle and its kinda a funny story, it’s sad but funny, my mom was a little bit like Lisa, your aunt, and my mom wanted me to be successful in everything and so whenever I drew something she’d correct it and draw over it and make it look better [laughing and smiling] and I knew that even back then that was probably not the right thing, but my mom just wanted me to be successful in everything so she’d try to help me but I always wanted to do things myself so i just kept doing it and doing it. But, ya know your grandmother, my mother, got cancer when I was eleven and she was in the hospital and we all knew she was going to die, and I remember her asking me in front of my dad what I was going to do and I said , “Well when I grow up I want to be artist, maybe even draw comic books.” My mom started crying because she thought I wouldn't amount to anything or make a living doing that so my dad got really upset and when I got to highschool, well middle school- high school, my dad never let me take any art classes. So for four years in high school I never took any art. I was a Political Science Pre-law major. So when I went to Michigan State, and I was a political science major I had the opportunity to finish my degree a little bit earlier so I had my last year at Michigan State to take electives and I started taking graphic design and advertising classes. I realized that even though I was way behind my classmates, ya know people my age, that it was what I wanted to do and I worked really hard and went to school the summer after my fourth year of school and I got a degree, I got a bachelor for fine arts and graphic design and I got a job right away in one of the hardest places to get a job in Michigan and I worked for them for about a year before I moved to Chicago and thats where I really learned how to become a good designer.




What was that place called?
Johnson Ciesa. C-I-E-S-A. Its now just Ciesa. because they, they separated. Thats where I really learned to be a good designer and ya know I won a lot of rewards and my work got published in a lot of magazines and thats one of the reasons I started my own business.

How is your business now? Is it still going strong?
Well, 5 years ago I got Design Kitchen up to about 80 people, and about 5 years ago I sold the business to WPP, which is in marketing and used to be the largest marketing company in the world a year ago. They own half the advertising agencies in the world including Ogilvy, JWT, Young and Rubicam, and Grey Advertising and they bought my company and I had a 5 yr contract with them and they asked me if i would stay on and that’s why I’m still working for them in this global role to help manage all the digital offerings around the world.

What is your current position with them?
I am the CEO for the largest digital agency within our business unit called Blast Radius and I’m the Global president for the brand experience division which has around 36 offices around the world.

What is your most known work?
We do work for Nike and Starbucks and Motorola and LuluLemon, we did their website. Are you familiar with New Era Hats?No.
They are baseball caps? We’re about to launch their website. We just did a small website in Chicago for Morton Salt [giggling].

Where do you see yourself going in the future?
Oh. I think I’m going to try and do this for one more year. (Long Pause) Maybe two, until my youngest gets into college and then I’m going to do something else. I think I’m going to switch jobs and do something much simpilar. Less hours.


Do you travel a lot?









Great Chicago Stories-- Sam and best friend Tom Maday
Yes. Last year I flew around 160,000 miles. I went to Europe 5 times, Africa, and criss-crossed North America including Vancouver, Toronto and Canada. I went to San Francisco a number of times, at least once a month, and I was in New

York at least 2-3 times a month.


Are you happy with where you are?
Now?
Yeah.
Like right this minute? Yes.