Meet Craig Johnson: Creative Entrepreneur and Branding Expert

We had the good fortune of connecting with Craig Johnson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Craig, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I’ve always worked on the business side of a creative endeavor. In High School and College, I played in rock bands and eventually ended up managing bands after college. While I loved what I did, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in the music business, so I tried to find other creative professions where I could help run the business side of things. I met a graphic designer and we began working together. Eventually, we started a creative agency together and have been working together for the last 17+ years.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Matchstic is a brand identity house that focuses on creating identities for companies, products and places. I’m continually amazed by the incredibly talented people around me. Our team is so smart and they are always blowing my mind with the things they come up with. I get inspired by them daily. I’m grateful to have a wonderful business partner, in which we have so many complementary strengths. Blake leads our creative team, I lead the business side of things and we have a fantastic relationship with each other. We share a common vision with common values. There are seasons of a business where things seem to be clicking and working well and then there are seasons where it seems like you can’t do anything right. I think the most important thing is to stay in the fight and keep pushing, keep working hard, keep having an open mind and thinking differently. If I keep great people around me, I have a strong belief that we will be able to figure it out and get through the hard times. We are passionate about what we do, and we’re really good at it. If you’re ever in the Atlanta area, swing by and pay us a visit.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Atlanta has a lot of wonderful historic places. One of the most unique is the National Center for Civil and Human rights. Atlanta also has some of the best food around and I would mainly focus on taking my friend to every Ford Fry restaurant. Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My first boss and mentor, Andy Levine was incredibly instrumental in the early part of my career and getting me started. I worked for Andy in the music business and he taught me so much about how to work with people, how to care for people and how to get things done. He ended up as Matchstic’s first client and loaned me money to get our agency started. He also introduced me to my business partner, we wouldn’t be a company without him.

Website: https://matchstic.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matchstichouse/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchstic/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/matchstic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matchsticbranding/