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Principal and Chief Creative Officer, Christian Adams, didn’t realize the full potential of Sigma Creative as a business until going back to graduate school to obtain a business degree in 2005. Sigma Creative actually got its start back in 1995, but it wasn’t until later that it became the business that it is today. In 1994 Christian was attending Ohio University in the picturesque town of Athens, OH to earn a degree in communications with an emphasis on video production. As a sophomore Christian joined the Phi Kappa Sigma International social fraternity due to many of his friends and dorm mates joining the fraternity the year before. Around the same time he had discovered a fairly new software program named Photoshop. Christian has always been interested in learning new things, especially in a creative setting. The only problem was he had no easy way of learning Photoshop as he was not going to school for graphic design.
During this same time the World Wide Web was starting to rapidly evolve with static html sites. Originally, the internet was more form over function, but at the time nobody realized the full potential of this new resource except for businesses who in their own way didn’t fully understand the trend either. It was not the internet we know today, post bubble and pre web 2.0. Christian turned to the internet to teach himself Photoshop and another program, appropriately called Dreamweaver. With theses two programs mixed with Christian’s thirst for knowledge and experimentation the Ohio University chapter of Phi Kappa Sigma website was born.
Over the years Christian continued to hone his web design skills while working at the local ABC/FOX affiliate in Columbus, OH. While working at the TV station part time he created his own personal portfolio site, christianadams.com to showcase his work in various disciplines of mass media communications. Soon after Christian accepted a full time position at the Transportation Research Center (TRC, Inc.) in East Liberty, OH as a photographer. Most of Christian’s work involved video documentation for an arm of the US Department of Transportation called NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). While working for TRC, Inc. Christian decided to go back to school to get his Master of Business Administration at Franklin University before his second child was born.
Before going back to school to earn his graduate degree Christian turned down two offers to develop branding and web presence for existing companies looking to update their image and messaging in order to increase market share. These offers only cemented the possibilities of his ambitions after graduating with a business degree. It wasn’t until Christian’s final thesis project, with some advice from his professor that Christian knew what he was going to do with his new education. Christian’s professor said, “Do your project on what you’re passionate about.” After that the decision to start Sigma Creative was an easy one to make. Thinking back to his days as an undergrad he realized what a great idea it would be to go into business with his fraternity brothers who were going to school for various careers in business and communications. This fact couple with networked relationships throughout his career created a solid foundation for the successful business that is Sigma Creative.
Now armed with the new found knowledge and backed up by a strong foundation in communications, Christian and Sigma Creative are prepared to serve their clients with the knowledge, experience and resources that clients should come to expect. The competitive advantage Sigma Creative has over bigger and more traditional ad agencies is its low overhead. As a new entry, with an already diversified portfolio, Sigma Creative’s business model is able to be more flexible in a market during times of both low and high demand. The firm is a decentralized ad agency of talented professionals with many years of experience in various aspects of mass communications. Today, Sigma Creative is, at its core, a multi-talented, multi-disciplined business venture always looking to implement new ideas, become a new entrant in new industries and take on new challenges while keeping customer service the top priority.