What the heck is a flywheel?
A flywheel is a weighted spinning wheel at the center of an engine. Once put into motion, it can store and convert huge amounts of energy into stability, power and momentum.
In Jim Collins’ business bestseller Good to Great, the Flywheel Effect is what happens when great companies focus on their core business: Their all-systems-go efforts build momentum and produce success. In other words, the flywheel is the mechanism that makes a machine go and keep on going.
That’s what our work can do for your work. We create the simple, elegant, effective flywheel that propels you and your business forward.
We are problem-solvers, dot-connectors and momentum-makers. We bring freakishly great ideas to the table, lend a sense of ease to the creative process and take your business to the next level.
Our Team
(But she still owns an actual letterpress. There’s a reason it’s a classic.)
Prior to founding Flywheel Creative, Karen spent many years at The Austin Chronicle. As production manager, she led a great team of designers and developers, art directed and managed an award-winning website, and collaborated with top talent in the alternative press.
Karen is a yoga enthusiast, a houseplant obsessive, and a semi-reluctant sci-fi consumer. She and her husband, Brian, and their son, Blaise, spend their time hanging, laughing and planning their next trip to a national park.
Carrie cut her design teeth at The Austin Chronicle. Her time at the weekly newspaper made her great at creating layouts that maximize readability in minimal space. It also introduced her to the concept of strict deadlines – she’s never met one that she can’t beat.
When she’s not DIYing costumes for her preschool son or taking her baby daughter for walks, Carrie enjoys watching vintage movies, playing computer games, reviewing local wines and tending her garden.
“Carrie is a breath of fresh air. She is the definition of professional: brilliant, supportive, and easy to work with. Any interaction we have had with Carrie has always left us feeling relieved and confident to have her managing our projects. We count on her immensely and she always delivers, which means we are able to have peace of mind knowing she is there for us. Her problem-solving skills, quick response and excellent follow up are all things we have come to rely on to keep our business going. It is rare to collaborate with such a sharp and sophisticated design/technology pro who is both easy to talk to and fun to work with as well. Carrie is continually a shining example of how things should be done and we can easily recommend her to anyone.”
– Anna Bergeon, CEO, Akamai Innovations
Her past professional lives include stints covering Florida politics for public radio, flacking for Texas’ petrochemical industry and creating corporate campaigns for an international public affairs firm.
Kristen spends her copious free time hanging and jamming with her husband, two kids and three spotty dogs.
As web director at the Chronicle, Brian developed and designed one of Austin’s largest news sites for more than a decade. In addition to his role with Flywheel Creative, he currently serves as webmaster for the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin.
A man of many interests, Brian enjoys playing guitar, writing songs, solving sudoku puzzles, playing video games, and hiking with Karen and their son, Blaise.
“Brian’s thoughtful ‘out the box’ approach has not only saved us time and money it’s also shown us things about our business we never would have considered without his in-depth analysis. He is intelligent, thorough, precise and always finds solutions. His attention to detail and professionalism are just an added bonus. Brian has a brilliant tech mind, yet he somehow manages to explain things in ways we can understand them. Highly recommend working with Brian if your goal is optimum results on any project.”
– Anna Bergeon, CEO, Akamai Innovations
“I would recommend Flywheel Creative to anyone looking for a thoughtful, well-designed web site. Karen really listened to what I wanted and how I wanted to set my site apart from other author sites. The final product is everything I hoped it would be—beautiful, functional, and uniquely suited to my work and my personality. More than that, the process of bringing it to life and turning it over to me was collaborative and comfortable. Working with Karen on my site is one of the best investments I’ve made.”
“My God, I love this!!! You are a genius. It captures everything I was hoping for.”
“Karen redesigned my Web site and provided exceptional creative, functional, and marketing solutions that exceeded my expectations. As a former art director, it was a scary prospect to turn the identity of my company over to another designer, but I was impressed to discover I could depend on Karen to manage the project from start to finish. Relieved of the hand-holding other designers have needed in the past, I was able to focus on my core business, As a small business owner, that was truly key for me.”
“Karen is a joy to work with and the results are stunning!”
“Karen is an absolute professional, a wonderful designer, and fun to work with too. Her finished product is solid and she’s someone I absolutely plan on working with again in the future.”
“When we came to Flywheel Creative to rebrand we weren’t sure where we wanted to go; we just knew we wanted a change. At our first meeting Karen asked us a lot of questions, listened thoughtfully, and took copious notes. We gave her a few ideas on the types of colors we were going for but wanted to leave room for her own creativivty and ideas. As it turns out she took the bits and pieces we left her with and created an entirely new concept for our logo, one that completely nailed what we wanted. The colors were perfect, the font was happy and crisp, and the added graphics captured the heart of our business. We didn’t even ask her to come up with a company slogan or tagline, but the one she offered was so unique and indicative of what we do, we built our entire web identity around it. If you need a brand makeover, Karen will blow you away with her ability to “get” you. She’s kind, easy to work with, highly skilled and has wicked creative superpowers. I can’t imagine working with anyone else!”
“Karen brings to our projects a rare combination of design sense, web development expertise, and ability to talk easily and productively with the project team to help surface what’s important to them, both design-wise and related to site functionality. We always look forward to working with Karen!”
“Over time, I’ve come to appreciate how lucky I was to find Karen to revamp my website. She is skilled at translating technological terms into language I could understand, and in creating a website which is easy to maintain. Her recognition of the importance of style and a brand identity has garnered the site lots of compliments. Perhaps most importantly, Karen is very responsive when we do have a problem, even years after she did my redesign. I’ve come to realize how rare this is, and for that I am so very thankful!”