We don’t design for ourselves.
We design for you and your customers.
Olive and Company is a creative services agency specializing in website design, graphic design, front-end web development, and strategic marketing consulting.
We bring smart, thoughtful planning, design and development to print and Web-based marketing-communications efforts. From the very beginning, we have worked to build a firm that gives clients what they deserve: big talent without big-agency bureaucracy. A smart approach without death-by-process. Energy focused on collaboration and killer creativity, not egos or territorialism.
What sets Olive apart?
We are a bit of a rare breed — a small agency completely comfortable with both interactive and print design. Many of our projects include a variety of techniques and technologies, each used to fit the strength of the medium. We are experts at strategizing the most effective ways to communicate with your customers and are equally at home generating raw ideas or nit-picking details.
Olive is fluent in the cutting-edge programming jargon, odd prepress requirements, and quirky hand gestures that it takes to deliver a product true to its original intent. Each project is tailored to fit appropriately within your budget, without sacrificing effectiveness or creativity.
Why choose Olive?
We thrive with clients who desire a collaborative, productive, and dynamic creative relationship. You’ll find our size easy to work with, and our down-to-earth staff hard to resist. We identify three situations where you might find Olive to be a perfect fit:
- If you value quality design, but seek ideas to make the most of your production budget.
- If you need a strong creative team to augment your strained internal resources.
- If you’ve tired of the big-agency model, yet desire full design and marketing service.
Our multi-disciplined team brings together years of experience from nonprofit, corporate, and agency environments. We thrive on creative challenges, variety, and spot-on solutions. From initial concept to final product, we are committed to delivering high-impact design, exceptional service, unscripted moments of brilliance, and the satisfaction of results that exceed expectations.
Background
Olive and Company was founded in 2003 by Rob Haskin and Tom Keekley to provide creative support for companies looking for a fresh approach to common marketing challenges. We are located in northeast Minneapolis, MN, and serve clients with local, regional, and international concerns.
Olivemail is a full-featured e-mail marketing management tool that leaves you in control of content, recipients, and timing, with assistance from the experts at Olive just a click away.
How we do it
We do as much planning, concepting, presenting and refining as the other guys, but we are mindful to not let process impede progress.
Agency details
Considering Olive and Company? You can start your due diligence with a peek at our capabilities, clients and recent recognition we've received.
Meet the Olives
This week our talent-laden starting lineup is fueled by pretzels, licorice, Leinie's sample packs, rice cakes, dog food, and Bruichladdich.
What's in a name?
First and foremost, we didn’t want our own names on the shingle. When we started Olive, our vision was to create a collaborative environment that prized ideas, not job titles.
So who is Olive? [+].
So who is Olive?
She’s real, but she’s not who you’d think. And how we arrived at using her name for our company is a good example of how we work.
It started with a few friendly rules – some loose criteria to guide our thought process.
First and foremost, we didn’t want our own names on the shingle. When we started Olive, our vision was to create a collaborative environment that prized ideas, not job titles. Inspired concepts can come from anyone, anywhere. We didn’t want our names in some sort of lofty position to get in the way of equal-opportunity and inclusive creative expression.
Next, it had to be friendly. No buzzwords. No technical terms. Nothing that would seem at home on an attorney’s door. Just a short, simple and inviting word or phrase.
Being design fiends, we had an aesthetic wish list, too. Could it have some interesting letter forms? How about something that would allow us to play with color?
As we tossed around ideas one afternoon, Olive herself strolled through Rob’s living room — leaving a trail of suddenly inspiring puppy paw prints. Aha: Olive. And Company. Perfect.
The Roman philosopher Seneca wrote that “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Would we have landed on Olive and Company – which we still love – without our rules? Maybe. But we believe that a few criteria – guideposts that define a desired end result – are necessary stage sets that can lead to unscripted moments of brilliance.
It worked for us. And we’ll put it to work for you.