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STYLE DRIVEN ✦BRAND → PRESENCE → ASSETS → RECOGNITION ✦CHARLOTTE, NC ✦DESIGN · PHOTO · VIDEO · WEB ✦ONE ROOF. ONE VISION. NO OUTSOURCING. ✦
AboutStyle Driven
Five leads · 93 years
Est. 2016Charlotte, NC
no handoffs,no hovering.
Freelancers first.Partners by choice.
Four disciplines. Decades of independent work.ANY BRAND. ANY SCALE. ONE STANDARD.
FIVE LEADS93 YEARS COMBINEDNOBODY UNDER FIFTEENFOUR CRAFTSEST. 2016CHARLOTTE, NCONE ROOFNO OUTSOURCINGTWO SIGN-OFFSOUR OWN GEAR
01Who we are
The Story
How we got here.
Ten years of trying, under a few different names, and none of them held. Everyone here came out of freelancing. Our own clients, our own reputations, our own way of holding it together when the deadline's on fire. Nobody came up a ladder.
About three years ago we stopped forcing it, and the right people fell into place. Two years ago it became Style Driven. Adding the photo and video leads is what turned a design and development shop into full-stack production.
Becoming partners didn't make the work better. It was already good. What changed is what we look at. We stopped thinking like media producers and started thinking about the business behind every piece. Why the deck doesn't close. Why the homepage doesn't convert. Which photo runs first.
Four crafts, one direction. Design, photography, video, and web and systems, each run by a lead, with creative direction above all four deciding what gets made and why. Ninety-three years across the five leads and nobody under fifteen. Behind each lead, a bench we've worked with for years. The team gets bigger. The standard doesn't move.
Over 200 brands have trusted us with theirs, big and small. The names got big, but the names were never the flex. A few from this year alone: Hunt Brothers, Shell, Pennzoil, Trimble, Ford Performance. Here's the part that matters more. We'll work with almost anyone. Big brand, small brand. Dialed in, or halfway there. Doesn't matter to us. If you love what you do and you want it to grow, we put in what you put in. A full production or a mom-and-pop shop. Same crew, every time.
since 2016.
The Founder
Founded by Ian Courtright.
Style Driven started with Ian Courtright, a creative who spent years on both sides of the work: making it, and watching businesses pay for work that didn't move anything.
Today Ian bridges the whole network. Style Driven for creative production. Voding for web and software. psst.studio to get found and get booked. Different names, one standard, one person making sure nothing leaks between them.
The Difference
WHY ONE CREW BEATS FIVE VENDORS.
Not a portfolio you like the look of. A team you can hand the whole brand to and not think about again.
01
These big brands we've worked with don't hand the keys to a vendor who needs hand-holding. We've earned that level of trust. You get the same team.
02
Each discipline has a lead who runs their own team. Design, photo, video, web. Not generalists faking range. Specialists who own it.
03
We scale up for a full production or down for a one-room shop without changing who shows up or how good the work is.
04
One crew across everything means the design matches the photo matches the video matches the site. Five vendors can't promise that. We can.
How We Operate
Three rules we don't bend.
01One team, end to endThe designer who builds your brand also art-directs the shoot. The editor who cuts your video understands the visual system. No handoffs between strangers.
02The lead you meet is the lead who does the workNobody gets swapped out after the pitch. The people in the room are the people on the file, and nobody running a lane here has under fifteen years in it.
03Built around yoursRetainer or project. One discipline or all four. We scope to what you actually need, not what fills our pipeline.
02Who you get
The Team
Five leads. Ninety-three years.
Nobody running a lane here has under fifteen years in it. That is the argument. You are not hiring a shop that staffs up around your project, you are hiring people who have already done this for most of their careers and have worked together long enough to stop explaining themselves to each other.
20+YRSCreative DirectionHas done the work in design, web, photo, and video before directing any of it. Sits between you and the crew so the brief only gets translated once.
22YRSPhotographyProduct, lifestyle, and event. Runs the shoot from lighting plan through final selects.
20YRSWeb and SystemsFront end, back end, and the admin behind it. Builds the thing that has to keep running after launch.
16YRSDesignBrand systems, campaign creative, packaging, print. Builds the system, not the one-off.
15YRSVideoPre, production, post. Boards through final color, with the crew scaled to the job.
Behind the leads
Designers, front and back end developers, and full photo and video crews we scale per production. Our own gear and our own space, plus access to more when the job calls for it.
How work gets approved
Every deliverable goes through its lane lead, then through the creative director. Nothing leaves that both have not signed off on.
03What we do
The Disciplines
Design. Photo. Video. Web.
Who We Work With
Two kinds of partners.
Small & Mid-Size Businesses
Brands that take their presence seriously
You've outgrown the freelancer lottery but you don't need a payroll line. One team handles the brand, the assets, and the consistency, project by project or with a fractional CMO on retainer.
Agencies
Agencies that need a production arm they can trust
White-label production under your name. We crew, shoot, design, and build, then hand it back for you to ship. Your client sees your brand, your invoice, your win. They never see us.
04How we think
Philosophy
What we believe.
Creative work has to build recognition.
The viewer never thinks about the design. They just trust the brand. If it doesn't make someone remember you, it's decoration.
Every business has the same problem.
People don't know why they should choose you. Industry, product, price point: almost irrelevant. We solve for that. Every time.
We're not a vendor. We're a partner.
Vendors execute tasks. Partners tell you when the task is wrong. One service or four. One-off or ongoing. Replacing the hire you can't justify, or working alongside the team you have.
Every touchpoint is a deposit.
Every surface your customer touches either builds recognition or erodes it. Consistency is how you compound. We make sure nothing leaks.
Worth Saying
We're not for everyone.
That's intentional.
We don't compete on price. We don't chase every lead. We take on work we can do well and say no to everything else.
If you don't really care about your business, we're not going to care more than you do.
If you want the cheapest option, there are plenty. We're not one of them.
If you like what you do and you want to grow it, we'll put the same into growing your business with you.
05Work with us
Get in touch
Book
the call,
or send a message.
Fifteen minutes on the phone, or a note in the inbox. Either way a person reads it and comes back to you.
15-MINUTE CALL. NO PITCH DECK. RESPONSE WITHIN 24 HOURS.