SHe’s Well Done’s newest art director and guardian against the Clwxth-Q’n
Karah Nall earned her art and design degree from the University of Louisville and worked in both agency and in-house roles (including stints as art director for The Counter: Custom Burgers, and for California Pizza Kitchen) before joining Well Done Marketing just last week as our newest art director. Karah has a real passion for brand launches and brand refreshes, but she’s picked up an impressive array of other skills along her journey: print, websites, app development, and more than a bit of experience in food photography.
Karah’s boyfriend Kenney is a professional soccer player whose career has taken the two of them from Louisville (where they met) to Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and now Indianapolis. (He’s one of Indy Eleven’s newest midfielders.) Karah looks at every move along the way as a chance to have new experiences and learn new things. “I’m focused on my career, and he’s focused on his career,” she says, “but we’ve made it work for both of us to be successful and do what we want to do.”
What do you love most about launching a new brand? Or refreshing an older one?
I love being able to take a brand and work with them on their positioning, to find their tone of voice and make that come alive in print, and on their website, and all the other elements—the colors, the photography. I love figuring out how to make it all come alive as a cohesive package.
I know that food photography has a lot of unusual techniques and tricks. Did you learn the secret of the perfect cheese pull?
Sometimes we’d replace real ice with fake ice, so it didn’t melt during the shoot, or maybe just a spray of glycerin to give things a sheen. At California Pizza Kitchen, everything we used was real, which is somewhat unusual. Our chef was at the photo shoots, which was really cool. When you looked at it, you could feel that there was nothing fake in there. We didn’t really do a true cheese pull. When we did video, it was more about the social aspects than the food.
Speaking of social, how do you like to spend your time outside of work?
Kenney and I have two Great Danes, and they’ve taken over our lives. We’re always at the dog park, or we’re always taking them for a walk. We love the Monon Trail and Broad Ripple—just how everyone is out and about.
What are your dogs’ names?
Mowgli and Baloo.
The Jungle Book! Are you a fan of the movies? The book? Both?
We love Disney movies, and we liked the name Mowgli for the boy dog. And the girl is a bluish color, so it just seemed to fit. Kenney and I watch a ton of cartoons. And we both love the Marvel movies. I’ve seen every single Marvel movie of the new generation. I just saw Captain Marvel, and of course the new Avengers comes out tomorrow.
What’s your favorite Marvel movie?
Probably the first Iron Man. Maybe the second one. But we watch a lot of movies because Kenney has to train every day. We go out, but not a lot.
If Well Done were a superhero team, what would our archenemy be like?
That’s a hard question! I would probably compare us to The Incredibles, where there’s not one big obstacle or enemy but maybe multiple ones: Maybe it’s how to get the message across or deciding which tactic to use. In a team situation, you’re always battling a ton of obstacles at the same time, but you fight as a family.
So we’d battle villains like Mediocrity, and Boredom, and Confusion probably. And maybe some aliens with a weird name. I’m just going to hit some keys at random. How does the “Clwxth-Q’n” sound?
Perfect. Exactly.
What do you like most about Indianapolis so far?
We really enjoy the Monon Trail and living in Broad Ripple and, now that the weather’s nicer, everyone being outside. We can ride our bikes, whether along the trail or on the street, and not feel like we’re going to be hit by a car. People are pretty aware.
We’re also foodies, so we love that there are so many great restaurants to try, in so many different areas. And we like to cook ourselves, so we appreciate those experiences.
Anything you wish was different?
Maybe just…the weather? It may be a little unfair to say that because I’ve only been here since January.
No, that’s fair. I think everyone would say that.
Okay. I am really enjoying spring. Now that it’s here.
What excites you most about being at Well Done?
It’s the people and the culture and enjoying coming to work every day. I think you have a real balance of life and work here that a lot of agencies talk about, but Well Done really seems to deliver. And I’m excited to learn all I can about our clients and their work, and what we have coming up in the future.