Founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, OakTree Designs is owned by our Creative Director, Christine Kollo and Computer Scientist, Nik Kollo.
We had a vision to create a design studio for everyone. From wedding invitations to websites, we wanted to create a business tackling any design project at affordable rates.
This vision was brought to life, and OakTree Designs opened to the public in early 2020, just a few weeks before the first COVID-19 lockdowns in Canada.
The world has changed in so many ways, and we work tirelessly to keep track of new trends, technologies and practices to make our clients’ goals a reality.
OakTree Designs was created out of love for our community, environment and passion for helping. Our business is lovingly named after our children, Olivia and Austin Kollo (OAK).
Our team is dedicated to helping our clients grow their ideas and through creativity and communication. We believe that the best design solutions come from working closely with our clients, understanding their goals and thinking outside the box.
We have created a simple 4-step design process to guide clients through our project together. This process is applicable to both web and graphic design projects:
During step one we get to know each other! We learn about your project, chat about your goals and vision for the final product and create a plan to make that a reality.
If required, during this stage we also conduct research on your target market, competition and complete a brand audit.
During this step, we will create a plan to make the most of the information you provided to us.
Once we have a solid plan, we will make some initial design concepts for you to review and we will continue to develop your project.
Once we have created a final design concept, we will go into production mode.
We’ll build out your web design and test it to ensure it’s beautiful and functional and/or finalize graphics projects and iron out any finishing details.
Step 4 is to deploy your design. This can be the launch of your website, presenting your brand style guide, sending your design off to the printer or making sure you have all the documents or files you need.
Lifetime support is included for all graphics projects. If you ever need a new size, different file type, etc. we are here to help!
We might not be able to do much, but we can sure do something.
As our name might suggest, we have a bit of a soft spot for the environment. We have a bit of a soft spot for lots of things and with the ability to have an audience as a business, we want to use any voice we have to help raise awareness, bring communities together and be a net positive. We want to be a force for good and spread kindness to the world around us.
We want to show our children that a tiny acorn can grow into a mighty Oak and tiny efforts can create a mighty difference.
OakTree Designs has partnered with One Tree Planted to plant trees for every project we complete! Every graphic design project will plant 5 trees and 20 trees will be planted for every web design project. To learn more about what this amazing organization is up to, check out their website.
Nova Scotia is our home and we have seen a 15% decrease in tree cover over the last 20 years. We are so thankful that One Tree Planted has a project right here at home and they plant a mix of diverse, native species from local nurseries that supports our community and one of those native species happens to be a might red Oak. The idea of supporting local businesses, help the reforestation efforts in our own backyard and give the planet an environmental high 5 gives us the warm and fuzzies.
Our goal for 2023 is to plant 100 trees in Nova Scotia! See below for our progress 🙂
Time Left in 2023
OakTree Designs Inc. is a proud member of the Clean Creatives Initiative. We have pledged to refuse work from fossil fuel companies globally. We will not take contracts from any company related to fossil fuel production.
We have a new initiative we’ve been working on but we’re not ready quite just yet. Our goal with this new initiative is through pro bono work and OakTree Designs services, to help community projects that have the vision to help others but lack the funds to get started. Please contact us for more information or check back soon!