MEET REX ALLEN “RETRO”

Founder. Creative. Designer. Brand guy.

Over my 13+ years in design &amp; creative, I’ve worn tons of different hats. But one thing stands out:<br><br>I love to create and I love to build.

Somewhere along the way, I found a passion for brands – helping them find their voice, tell their stories, and grow their businesses.

STOKESHIP + REX ALLEN

I run a full-time creative studio called stokeship where we specialize in brand creative, where we (re)launch brands with strategy, identity, and content creative.

But those packages are often too expensive for the “bootstrappers” out there.

My mission is simple. I’m here to share everything I know about brand. For free.

But those packages are often too expensive for the “bootstrappers” out there.

I’m here for the litte guys – the scrappy small business owners, the bootstrapped startups, and the creatives responsible for brand.

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MY STORY

An engineering path to full-time creative

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01 // THE BEGINNING

I started my “Creative" career as a design engineer. I spend 10+ years creating some rad products for some awesome brands.

Product development and subsequent product marketing gave me a creative foundation that lead me to create rex allen creative.

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I'm not your traditional marketing or content guy.

before found rac and shifting my focus toward freelance + agency work and honing in on brand strategy and content creation, I worked as a design engineer (me) for 10+ years.

I spent a majority of that time doing r&d and developing products for brands and companies within the outdoor space.

I headed up large and small budget programs and have lead many projects from initial concept design through market launch.

I found that I thrived in a creative design space and always loved the conceptual/inventive phases of product development the most.

during my time as a product development engineer, I found that I had a knack for 'marketing' type tasks. I always jived with in-house marketing teams and ended up doing a lot of graphic design and video production to support marketing efforts.

the realization that I enjoyed creative work more than the technical design eventually lead me to focus my efforts on content creation and brand marketing.

so here we are. Now I run STOKE full-time and am enjoying every second of it!

02 // THE TRANSITION

After a fulfilling career in the outdoor industry, I took my skills and experience to the freelance market!

After spending countless hours working on all sorts of different projects, I founded a full-service creative agency for brands: Stoke.

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Let’s pick up where “The beginning” left off…

In case you didn’t read it, here’s the TL;DR – I was an engineer. Now I’m not.

During my 10+ year stint as an engineer, I found that I really liked creative work, like a lot more than engineering work.

I worked closely with many in-house marketing teams and ended up collaborating a lot with them, doing a lot of marketing and content creation.

Word got around that ‘rex was doing marketing stuff’ and I started getting hit up to take on all sorts of side projects:

LOGO DESIGN
GRAPHIC DESIGN
WEB DESIGN
VIDEOGRAPHY
photography

Before I knew what was happening, I had built apretty solid foundation within the adobe creative suite.
As my skillset grew, I found myself working with bigger (and cooler) brands. I was excited and decided to do something crazy with my newfound skillset and new passion for content creation and brand marketing!

In early 2020 (the Covid year), I decided to make this a real thing and founded STOKE.

I started pursuing client work in the creative space, helping brands find their voice and share their story through creative content and strategic marketing.

At first, I was running it on the side. I spent my days doing engineering work and my nights running Stokeship. But holy cow that was tough. It was a ton of hours and way too many late late nights!

At some point, the scale tipped and I knew I had a decision to make. Either back off or go for it!

So, I went for it. Full send. And here we are.

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SO WHAT'S THIS
REX ALLEN RETRO
THING ALL ABOUT?

share • educate • grow • launch together

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I finally made the transition from product engineer to full-time 'creative' and have been loving every second of it!

I'm passionate about content creation and am here to share my journey and provide value. As I continue to learn and grow in this creative business, I am here to share.

ABUNDANCE

>

SCARCITY

I belive in an abundance mindset - as we share and work together, we all grow, learn, and win.

I am here to teach and learn with other creatives that are on the climb with me!

My hope, is that through sharing, I will help elevate the community (and myself) to higher summits than we thought possible. Thanks for joining me on this journey!

Rex Allen // Founder, Stokeship
(nixed the 'Ribelin' because it is too hard to pronounce)

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INTERESTED IN THE MISSION?

Let's get together and have a chat.

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What the heck is a brand?

Brand strategy //

Vision. Emotion. Purpose. Position. Promise. Personality. Archetype. Voice. Tone.

Visual Identity //

Logo. Color science. Typography. Patterns. Icons. Illustrations. Applications. Print.

Application //

Website. Print. Advertising. Creative. Content. Articles. Videos. Photography. Publications.

Let's chat brand ➔
Want done for you branding?
➔ stokeship.com
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Copyright 2023 Rex Allen
All rights reserved

HEY THERE!

Drop me a line and strike up a convo - maybe we can work together and/or learn something fresh from each other.​

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