We couldn’t have gotten this far without the support and encouragement of our clients, team members and strategic partners. So we wanted to take some time to recap and celebrate some of our favourite moments of 2022 with you. Sit back, relax and we hope you enjoy this read!

Year Over Year Growth

The KIMP Team’s Growth

First up, let’s take a look at 2022 through some of the metrics that mattered most for us. The KIMP Team grew from 230 to over 275 members strong this year. That includes our:

• Graphic Designers
• Illustrators
• Motion Graphics Designers
• UI Designers
• Project Managers and Leads
• Quality Assurance Team
• Marketing and Content Teams
• Internal Development Team
• Customer Support Team 
• And the Administrative Team

And our team members joined us from Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Ukraine.

What was unique to our growth this year is that a lot of it happened internally, and was supported by our investment in our internal tools and processes. In terms of the former, we saw many of our team members advance internally and take on new leadership roles. More often than not when we had a new senior role to fill the best candidate was an existing KIMP Team Member and had already proven themselves ready for the job. And we couldn’t be prouder of that!

In terms of the latter, as we invested more and more in our tool stack, and optimizing our processes, it enabled each of our team members to become more efficient and productive. In turn, we were able to get more done with less team members, while maintaining a sense of work-life balance.

For a company that has been bootstrapped since day one this type of growth has been incredible. It makes it possible for us to continue to grow, while remaining boostrapped, and maintaining control over the direction and scope of that growth.

In our earliest days when we were starting out with just a handful of team members across 2 countries, we never imagined that we could have this kind of global reach. And we hope to continue to connect with more creative individuals across the globe in 2023!

For those of you who may not be familiar with the KIMP story – the KIMP Team first started offering graphic design services in 2003. Over the years we’ve had different business models and served many niches. The culmination of all of this experience is KIMP.

Launched in early 2019, KIMP began with a single unlimited graphic design subscription. And the goal of creating a better design workflow for our clients while creating awesome jobs for designers. Today we of course have expanded to offering motion graphics and video editing services through our KIMP Video subscription. And we’ve expanded what’s included in our KIMP Graphics subscription, with the addition of services like designs created and editable in Canva!

The Growth of Our Client Base

Our clients are the reason KIMP was able to launch and scale. And they’re at the heart of every service update or enhancement we’ve developed over the years. 

We’ve been fortunate enough to work with such a wide range of entrepreneurs, marketers, corporations and nonprofit organizations. And as we lend our creative lens to executing their visions for their designs, they’ve given us incredible feedback as to how we can support them more effectively.

In 2022 KIMP supported clients spanning over 60 countries. And we hit the milestone of surpassing 5000 clients served to date!

While we’ve seen many customers continue to join us on a month-to-month basis, we’ve seen an uptick in customers wanting to invest in their design capacity with longer-term subscriptions too.  

We’ve continued to see high numbers of clients using our design services in the regions of North America, Europe, Australia and Asia in particular. But it’s been a thrill to serve clients from new countries within and beyond these regions. 

It gives us a chance to see how businesses around the world are creatively approaching the challenges of working alongside a pandemic and potential recessions. And how much they see marketing and design as crucial elements of staying connected to their client bases.

To this end we’ve been trying to do what we can to keep their creative fires burning with special promotions like 50% off the first 2 months of any subscription for new clients. 

If you’re a business looking to get design off your to-do list, give us a shout on the live chat (the button in the bottom right corner). And we’d be happy to let you know what promotions we currently have available!  

What Our Clients Had To Say In 2022

This year we surpassed over 450 reviews of our services in addition to case studies and testimonials! And while we’re super happy about that, we’ll let our clients speak for themselves. Keep scrolling to see what they had to say from January to December of 2022!

Many of them chose TrustPilot as their preferred way to share their feedback as you’ll see below. And when you see how thoughtful and encouraging these reviews are, you’ll know exactly why we feel so lucky to get to work with our awesome clientele.

While we love getting feedback in any format, this video testimonial was one that really made our year. When you get to hear in detail how your business has impacted and supported a hard-working entrepreneur, it’s so rewarding! So without further ado, over to Bec, the Founder & Creator of Love Thy Oils:

We also got a chance to connect more in depth with a few of our other wonderful clients this year. Below are a couple of examples, as excerpts from our chats with Wayne and Garry:

Learn more about our incredible client Wayne Hamlet, and his creative and kind business Smile Fred, in our KIMP Case Study.

Find out more about how Garry, his expertise in marketing and how he uses KIMP to drive results for his business in this KIMP Case Study.

Changing The Game

Our New Internal Team & Process Management Software

Since even before we launched KIMP, we’ve been relying on a wide range of software to help keep our projects moving forward. When it came to our internal projects this primarily meant Basecamp, with enhancements from integrations via zapier. 

Now, as with any business, the tools that you launch with won’t sustain you as you scale. And we found that our specific use cases just weren’t being served fully when we used third-party software.

So, we decided to build our own. 

Early this year we launched KIMPHub – an internal tool that helps us manage everything from HR related matters to design and development projects, with components that allow us to track time management, raise and resolve issues through a ticketing system and more. And with other components that keep us connected – like birthday and work anniversary announcements! 

Working remotely can be challenging as you probably know all too well. But we’re glad it’s pushing to create new tools and workflow too!

It was a lot to ask our team to move over to an entirely new system and way of working. But as with anything else – they came through big time. Not only adopting the new system, but suggesting new features and helping with testing and bug fixes too!

We’ve really lucked out with the amazing people we have on board.

Shifting From Trello to KIMP360

We can’t say enough good things about Trello. The software helped us build and go to market with a productized service that we believed could help a lot of people. And it has helped us not only achieve proof of concept, but to scale up to a certain degree. 

But over the years, we’ve heard our clients loud and clear. The feedback has gone something like this: “I really like Trello but I wish I could….”Or from time to time something like this: “I HATE Trello! I need it to be easier to…”

And it wasn’t just our clients who found that Trello didn’t quite cover all the bases in the design workflow as easily as they thought it should. 

We’ve been keeping track of the feedback and building up a wish list of features since 2019. And throughout this year, and a bit of 2021 we were finally able to bring it all together in our very own software -KIMP360. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl1SjurhHx5/

KIMP360 – as its name suggests – is a software that will bring together all the components of the design workflow from end to end. This means from making a design request to submitting feedback and getting revisions done, KIMP360 is built with our clients unique use cases in mind.

KIMP360 Features Include

• A Kanban view that allows you to stay on top of your workflow
• Easy collaboration that allows you invite team members to your KIMP board and assign them roles based on the level of access they require
• An AI-Powered request form that makes it easier to figure out what details you need to include a brief
• A custom feedback tool that allows you to point and click to give exact, precise feedback
• The ability to create brand folders that allow you to upload, organize and access all your assets easily
• And a file management system that makes it easier to find and download the files you need, when you need them

We’re super excited to continue testing with clients and preparing to launch our rollout of KIMP360 in 2023! Stay Tuned.

Getting Connected IRL

Working from home has its benefits, no doubt. But boy have we ever missed meeting up and collaborating in person!

So in 2022, as things opened up and it became possible to meet as a larger group – we planned and had a meetup in Sri Lanka, with some of our team members from across the South Asian Region. While it was only a fraction of the team that was able to meet up, we had a blast!

Just a weekend of creative souls getting together by the ocean to connect, and have a good time. Stay tuned KIMP’s social media feeds for a full recap coming soon!

We can’t wait to do it again in 2023 with even more of our team members, and to also have more meetups in the other regions where our KIMP Team Members are based.

Revamping The KIMP Brand’s Look And Feel 

Updating KIMP’s Social Media Feeds 

If you’ve been on any of KIMP’s social media accounts lately, you might have noticed that things are looking a little different around here.

And you’re right! As we continue to grow and expand our services, we’re also growing as a brand. And we needed a new look and feel to reflect that energy. That’s where the splash of orange comes in.

Check us out on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and TikTok to follow along. And for your daily dose of design inspiration, relatable memes, and creativity.

Preparing For A Site Update

Now of course for any company, organization or solopreneur, your social media is an important channel of communication and connection with your audience. But updating that without updating your site doesn’t quite do your brand justice. 

And in 2022 we’ve been working on different iterations of an entire site revamp. We’ll be doing the big reveal of the design that won us all over in 2023. But for now, we can share that the site will be even more informative and easier to navigate. 

And from an aesthetic point of you – everything down to our mascot will be looking a lot stronger.

Launching New Marketing

Since we’ve launched KIMP most of our marketing has centred around featuring our wonderful clients and the awesome design projects we get to work on for them. 

In 2022 we’ve ramped up our storytelling efforts, to help potential clients better understand what a service like KIMP can help them achieve for their brand and workflow. And the results so far have been pretty fantastic, if we do say so ourselves. 

Have a look at some of the fun concept videos we’ve been working on over the past few months: 

This first video is inspired by the struggle that many of us know all too well – trying to keep up with everything that your marketing demands of you is exhausting.

Our next video was inspired by what it feels like to try to find “the one” online. Dating apps aren’t easy to navigate. And neither is the process of hiring a good designer.

In the video below we feature the struggle of trying to get exactly what you want when you request a design. Trying to find a designer that doesn’t charge you an arm and a leg just to cover the basics can be surprisingly tricky.

Tired of video calls? Especially when they’re for interviews? We hear you. It’s tough out there. And sometimes candidates will promise the sun, moon and stars to land an interview – only for you to find out that it’s really not going to work. Our next video explores this idea.

And last but not least, the concept in the video below looks at how awful it can be to get ghosted. No one wants to deal with that, but unfortunately it can be a pretty common experience.

Looking Ahead To 2023

After such a great year of working with incredible people, and building the foundation for more growth, we’re excited to think about all the potential ahead for 2023. Not only for KIMP, but for the design and marketing industries at large. 

AI has all but exploded this year, and we’re seeing all kinds of exciting applications for how we can use it to enhance design outputs and workflows. And we can’t wait to explore this further so we can continue to roll out service enhancements that help our clients create visually compelling creatives and give them a competitive edge.

As we wrap up our reflections here, we just want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of our clients, team members, and supporters who have not only supported our growth – but have continued to challenge us to think bigger. You’ve made 2022 a year we’re grateful for and we’ll never forget! And we’d like to leave you with these heartfelt words:

“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” – Amy Poehler 

Thank you for being that “group of people” for us!