OLG's Matt Kelley was featured in the June 6th edition of The Journal-Gazette's "Business Leadership" Focus section alongside some of Fort Wayne's finest, including trusted clients like Mike Schatzlein, Kirk Ray, Carolyn Spake-Leeper, a collection of YLNI'ers and more. 

Here's Jenni Glenn's profile piece on on MK:

Age:  34

Birthplace:  Fort Wayne

Job title/experience: Kelley owns One Lucky Guitar Inc., a design and advertising firm that focuses on serving the music industry as well as local businesses. Before founding his business in 2000, Kelley worked his way up from a production designer to print department manager and creative director at LaBov & Beyond.

Community involvement:  One Lucky Guitar does pro bono work for the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and Arts United, among other organizations. The company also has helped organize the Down the Line fundraiser concert at the Embassy Theatre and the Downtown Improvement District’s Art Crawl.

Family:  Kelley is married to Angie. Their son, Henry, is 4, and their daughter, Ruby, will turn 3 this month.

Role models:  Musicians who display passion and commitment to their art inspire Kelley. He counts Bob Dylan and Paul Westerberg among his role models. A concert given by another idol — Bruce Springsteen —inspired him to change his college major from math to fine arts and English, subjects that he enjoyed and helped him find a career he loved.

"I think that it's just kind of all-on-the-line passion for what you're doing that is most inspiring to me," he said.

What makes a leader:  A strong leader has empathy for the team, Kelley said. He views One Lucky Guitar's staff as band members who collaborate on projects. He relies on his memories of being the office rookie to relate to colleagues.

"I can connect with everybody here from those very early stages all the way up to higher level creative positions," Kelley said.

Goals:  Kelley would like the company to continue growing slowly, but above all, he wants to ensure One Lucky Guitar keeps turning out high-quality work and has an honest relationship with clients.

"We've grown so fast that goal-wise, I think part of it is to maintain those core values that have got us to where we are now," he said.

Northeast Indiana's best assets:  The low cost of living makes it easier for young professionals to afford comfortable housing, Kelley said. He also enjoys spending summer days on the Rivergreenway and is enthusiastic about downtown revitalization efforts.

Northeast Indiana's underused assets:  Brain drain is a problem, but Kelley said he is pleased with efforts to combat the trend. Projects such as Harrison Square and the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center are making it more attractive for young professionals to stay here, he said.

OLG production manager and general superstar Paige Thurston has recently graduated from the Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana (YLNI) 2008 Leadership Institute, a series of educational seminars designed to cultivate the personal and professional development of young leaders in northeast Indiana.

Paige is part of a great group that also includes Jamie M. Bankert, 1st Source Bank; Tony Belton, Easter Seals Arc of Northeast Indiana; Andy Boxberger, Carson Boxberger; Laura M. Boyer, Shipley & Associates; Mollie Cripe, YWCA; Benjamin Faurote, Baker & Daniels; Shellie Goetz, Baker & Daniels; Ryan Hart, Lake City Bank; Alison Hoff, IPFW; Angela S. Hudson, Ivy Tech; Dustin Karns, Reusser Design; Varun Kaushik, American Specialty Insurance & Risk Services; Patrick Keefer, Keefer Printing; Wendy C. Liang, Swiss Re Life & Health; Alison Nehls, Vera Bradley Designs; Kyle Osting, Baker & Daniels; Jennie Renner, Community Action of Northeast Indiana; Brad Rutan, International Truck & Engine Corp.; Ryan L. Schiltz, 3 Rivers Federal Credit Union; Brian Spaulding, IPFW; Jon Swerens, The News-Sentinel; and Nicole N. Wilkins, Greater Fort Wayne Area Chamber of Commerce.

OLG-Lodge is pleased to announce that our work for the Lutheran Health Network has been awarded two GOLD citations by the Aster Awards, which recognize excellence in medical marketing.

Receiving the GOLD awards were our outdoor campaigns for Dupont Hospital ("Experience the Dupont Difference") and Lutheran Cancer Center ("Hope Is Happening Here"). 

As ever, we're thankful to the great team at LHN for their continued trust and collaboration.

We're excited to announce that we've received two Silver Addy Awards at the District Six Awards competition, which covers Illinois, Indiana and Michigan for the American Advertising Federation. 

OLG was recognized for the business identity we created for J K O'Donnell's, and OLG-Lodge was recognized for the music soundtrack for the Dupont Hospital television campaign, as composed and performed by Nate and Tommy's band Metavari. 

Fort Wayne received a dozen awards, all but one silver. As noted previously, we are tied as 13th-largest ad agency in Fort Wayne (according to Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly) — and are, as ever, pleased to be doing our part.

Matt Kelley was named one of the Future 40 (40 area folks under 40 years old that are making a racket in northeast Indiana) on Friday night, April 18, at the Upstate Indiana Future 40 ceremony at beautiful Sweetwater Sound.

Also receiving the distinction were Emily Bermes, Kelly Metzger and Heather Schoegler, three true champions who have made MK's life better. Big thanks to those who nominated Matt and of course to the OLG team, our trusted clients and champs, The Trainhoppers, Tim Rogers, Ike Reilly and, most of all, MK's family.

Matt nominated Nate Utesch for the award, by the way. 

One Lucky Guitar is proud to announce that the agency is featured in the new book Color Management for Packaging: A Comprehensive Guide for Graphic Designers, by John T. Drew and Sarah A. Meyer, and published in the United States and internationally by Rotovision.

The hardcover collection, available at all major book retailers and online, includes the work from 75 ad agencies and design companies from around the world. One Lucky Guitar’s work on The Possum Trot Orchestra’s Harbor Road album packaging and poster design is highlighted in the Three-Color section of the book, while the business card for Vorderman Photography is featured in the Materials and Stocks section.

Of the publication, One Lucky Guitar founder Matt Kelley said, "We're quite honored to be part of this amazing book. Professors John T. Drew and Sarah A. Meyer of Cal State Fullerton were tremendous to work with, and the book is an amazing resource for professionals and students alike. Of course, the Vorderman business cards have been around the galaxy by now, and it’s tremendously gratifying to see our work with the Possum Trot Orchestra — some of our very favorite champs — be recognized in this fashion."

The Vorderman Photography business cards were printed at New Haven Print & Copy on French Paper Company stock. The Harbor Road album artwork and poster were art directed by OLG's Matt Kelley with Possum Trot Orchestra singer John Minton. 

In 2006, One Lucky Guitar's work for Vorderman Photography won the Gold Addy Award at the American Advertising Federation's national award ceremony in San Francisco, CA, and was featured in Print magazine’s Regional Design Annual. It has been published in How magazine's International Design Annual, Rockport Publishing's Letterhead and Logo Design 10 and will be featured in 2008’s Business Cards 3: Saying Hello Again, a hard-bound book featuring the best business cards from around the world.

One Lucky Guitar is pleased to announce that the agency is featured in the new book Letterhead & Logo Design 10, by Sussner Design, and published by Rockport Publishers!

The hardcover collection, available at all major book retailers and online, includes OLG's work on four of its 237 pages. The book showcases 288 projects, out of more than 2,300 submitted from around the world (companies in 22 different countries submitted work).

One Lucky Guitar's logo and identity work for Vorderman Photography, Matilda Jane Clothing Company and Cleo & Dot clothing company are all featured. The Vorderman Photography business card is featured in a two-page spread, among the largest displays in the book.

Of the publication, One Lucky Guitar founder Matt Kelley said, "This has been a true honor. It's every designer’s goal to be featured in a book like this — especially one of this tremendous quality and prestige. We're flattered and thankful. And, as ever, gracious to Steve Vorderman and Denise DeMarchis (Matilda Jane and Cleo & Dot founder) for their trust and inspiration."

The Vorderman Photography business cards were printed at New Haven Print & Copy on French Paper Company stock. The Matilda Jane Clothing and Cleo & Dot business cards were printed in Grabill, IN at Courier Printing, also on French Paper Company's stock.

In 2006, One Lucky Guitar's work for Vorderman Photography won the Gold Addy Award at the American Advertising Federation's national award ceremony in San Francisco, CA, and was featured in Print magazine's Regional Design Annual. It has been published in How magazine's International Design Annual and will be featured in 2008’s Business Cards 3: Saying Hello Again, a hard-bound book featuring the best business cards from around the world.

In 2005, the company was featured in How magazine's International Design Annual for their work for Matilda Jane Clothing Company — a project which also won Local and Regional Addy awards.

We're excited to announce that OLG has collaborated with Hatch Show Print (Nashville, TN) to produce collectible prints for Grammy-winning singer-songwriter John Prine.

For the project, One Lucky Guitar created a silhouette illustration of Mr. Prine, made up completely of the titles of more than 100 of the singer's songs. Hatch Show Print artists then took that design and printed it on oversized poster stock with the singer's album names ghosted in the background. The posters are available for sale at Mr. Prine's concerts, on his web site and at Hatch Show Print.

Since 1879, Hatch Show Print has been producing handcrafted letterpress posters for clients as diverse as Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Beastie Boys, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nike and Jack Daniels! In 1992, Hatch became part of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In 2005, Prine was named Artist of the Year by the Americana Music Association. Ted Kooser, thirteenth Poet Laureate of the United States, called Prine "an American master, a truly original writer, unequaled, and a genuine poet of the American people."

Said OLG's Matt Kelley of the collaboration, "Truly, Hatch inspired me to get into the business of poster design. Their Americana styling, dedication to craft, and combination of tried and true roots and traditions — combined with forward-thinking concepts and designs — have made them heroes and role models to the OLG team. To work with them on a project for John Prine, another hero to us, is truly amazing. And our own Nate Utesch did an amazing job on the illustration."

Order the poster here.

Watch video of the Hatch process on this poster below:

We're happy to report that in the 2008 Book of Lists, as published by Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, One Lucky Guitar has been ranked the 13th Largest Advertising/Marketing Firm in Fort Wayne. Well, tied for 13th. With two other companies. Um, yeah. Does that really make us 15th?

The OLG team was fortunate enough to have been awarded the ‘Best in Show — Interactive’ award at the 2008 Addy Awards, held by AFFW (AdFed Fort Wayne) organization on Saturday, March 3, 2008. We received the award for our web site for The Joseph Decuis Experience (http://www.josephdecuis.com), a robust site that features the Joseph Decuis restaurant, online shopping at The Emporium at Joseph Decuis, Joseph Decuis American Kobe Beef, and more. We love the folks out in Roanoke, and our work for them is a true team effort — everyone's involved.

Additionally, we were awarded five more Gold Addys (for Matilda Jane Clothing Company, Gypsy Blue Clothing Company and Joseph Decuis) and nine Silver Addys (for Red Pajamas Records, J K O’Donnell’s, Brumbeloe Fine Art, Berne Apparel, Solstice Coaching & Consulting, HARP Magazine and Metavari).

Additionally, our work with Lodge Design for the Lutheran Health Network received four Gold and five Silver Addy Awards. OLG-Lodge brought home a Gold Addy for the Lutheran Cancer Center's Hope Is Happening Here campaign, and Dupont Hospital’s TV campaign netted three Gold Addys, for the TV Campaign, the ‘Diagnostics’ 30-Second Commercial, and for the Music composed for the campaign. We received Silver Addys for the Dupont Hospital ‘ER’ and ‘Birthplace’ TV spots, and three Silver Addys for the Lutheran Cancer Center’s ‘Hope Is Happening Here’ web site, print campaign, and outdoor campaign.

Last year, One Lucky Guitar’s work for Berne Apparel won ‘Best of Show — Print’ in the Addy Awards, where we also won three more Gold Addys and four Silver Addys.

In 2006, One Lucky Guitar’s work for Vorderman Photography won the Gold Addy Award at the American Advertising Federation’s national award ceremony in San Francisco, CA. We won six Gold and four Silver Addys that year locally, and one Gold and three more Silvers at the Regional level.

In 2005, we were featured in How magazine’s Self-Promotion Annual for our identity work for Matilda Jane Clothing Company — a project which also won Local and Regional Addy awards.

Blah blah blah. If you're a potential client, all we're saying is, we're gonna do great things together.