Molly Waxman & Shane Kupka #011
So Much More Than Printing By Amanda Younger
11/02/2020
Visual Marketing and Design take multiple forms and can elevate an event experience or give focus to a specific retailer. We sat down with the Managing Partners of MoWax Visual, Molly Waxman and Shane Kupka, on their national response to frantic calls, pivoting to protective solutions, and the future of printing and fabrication in the event and retail industries.
When Waxman met Kupka as her client and saw his creative design, she knew they were a business match. Kupka, less so, but eventually the partnership of production and design formed under one company umbrella. “We wanted a company where we could not only produce the items but also create them. And we didn’t want to keep it to just print media. So part of our vendor network was fabricators for wood and acrylic,” Waxman explains. It is this nationwide partnership with printers, installers, and fabricators of all materials that give them the ability to move faster and ship quicker to fit a budget.
Being a client one-stop-shop offers the ability for a $20,000 idea to be re-designed to fit a much smaller budget. Kupka says, “The cool thing about us, is that we come from the client-side, as well as the production side, so we understand budgets. We understand that you have to meet the budget, and you have to be as impactful as possible with the budget.” And being part of the installation process, they are able to fix mistakes unpredictable weather can cause, such as heat melting a fabricated item or strong winds off the water battering an entryway. As Waxman perfectly stated, “You can plan for everything, but when it comes to events, you just gotta go with the flow.”
So when the pandemic struck in the Spring of 2020, they decided to adjust and retool production facilities to create PPE equipment, plexiglass dividers, and custom protective solutions. For retailers, Waxman explains, “we’ve really adjusted focus to the windows, where [the store’s] people are waiting outside for curbside pickup. They can still get a nice experience with that store.” MoWax Visual also adjusted their approach with clients, trying to provide the same level of service with tighter budgets.
What should we expect more of in the next couple of years? Waxman and Kupka agree with more pop-ups and small event experiences, more virtual combined with the tangible experience. “We just have to continue to think outside the box and figure out ways to make people feel special, even if they aren’t at an event.”
