Creative to the Stars

This month we sat with the creative mind behind the famous wedding invitations for Gucci Mane and Keyshia Ka'Oir! Meet Ndidi Ayoola, Founder of Oda Creative. Oda Creative is a full service stationery, web and graphic design studio with a passion for creating spectacular, tailor-made experiences for clients worldwide. We know that a first impression is the most important one and strive to create unique and eye catching products that embody the essence of your vision for your event or business.

What was it like to create the invitation for Gucci Mane and Keyshia Ka'Oir wedding?

It was a lot of fun! We service clients that love the fact that we push the envelope and produce innovative and unique invitations and in the case of Gucci and Keyshia’s invitations, their budget provided room to do something dazzling. When we discussed the creative aspects, it became very clear we were going in the bling direction which was a lot of fun to put together.

Process wise, it was much like creating the invitations for any of our clients except for the fact that this was a bit more of a challenge due to the time constraints. We had to deliver something amazing and unique in a span of roughly three weeks from conception and design to execution which entailed my team hand affixing over 300 Swarovski crystals to each invitation in addition to the use of other luxury materials such as velvet and mirrored acrylic (and we had over 100 invitations to complete).

Needless to say that the pressure was on but I am a firm believer that once you commit, you have to do whatever it takes to deliver and deliver with excellence - which is exactly what we did. We gladly accepted the challenge and met it head on. You can’t grow if you’re not challenged right? It also helped that they had a fabulous wedding planner like Kathy Romero helping to coordinate some of the required details.

On a side note, one thing that I strive for as a business owner is to treat every single one of our clients like they are VIP’s because they are to me. Without every single one of them there would literally be no Oda Creative.

We’ve had the pleasure of working with a slew of high profile clients such as Gucci and Keyshia, Ray J and Princess, Kristen Jarvis – the white house assistant to former first lady Michelle Obama to name a few. Besides certain additional security measures that may need to be put in place we make sure that our level of service is the same across the board for everyone, high profile or not.

How did you come up with the concept for your business?

The original concept for Oda Creative was really fluid and started primarily to service corporate clients with their branding and web design needs. In 2011 an event planner who was a personal friend wanted to provide stationery as a surprise gift to one of her clients and requested custom designs that she would purchase as a surprise to them.

With absolutely no knowledge of the events industry we designed a custom monogram and corresponding stationery which included menus, table numbers and programs. I chuckle when I look at the work we did but needless to say, we thought that they were the best thing since sliced bread and it was truly amazing to witness the look on the faces of the bride and groom when they first saw them displayed during the wedding.

They commented that our designs added another level of beauty to their table scape and their level of happiness was more than I could have hoped for. I was really touched that the stationery made such a profound impact to such an important day and as a result, my love for stationery related graphic design was born.

Despite the fact that I am solely focused on designing and creating beautiful invitations and stationery for weddings, corporate events, and all of life’s little celebrations such as birthdays and birth announcements, ­we still maintain the original concept of Oda Creative. We are in essence able to operate as two businesses units under one umbrella where my partner and husband manages the branding and web design needs of our business clients.

What is your advice for women looking to grow their business?

My advice to women looking to grow their business is to “start with a vision and execute with revisions”. That is really the motto that I run my business with. I meet so many people that assume that you wake up one day and just establish a successful business without major changes which is just not true. Every quarter I reevaluate my business and honestly assess what has worked well, what has not worked so well and should be changed and how things can be done better. With growth, comes change. Whatever the change, do not be afraid to improve upon your vision with revisions in order to grow and improve your business.

What was it like to create the invitation for Gucci Mane and keyshia ka oir wedding?

It was a lot of fun! We service clients that love the fact that we push the envelope and produce innovative and unique invitations and in the case of Gucci and Keyshia’s invitations, their budget provided room to do something dazzling. When we discussed the creative aspects, it became very clear we were going in the bling direction which was a lot of fun to put together.

Process wise, it was much like creating the invitations for any of our clients except for the fact that this was a bit more of a challenge due to the time constraints. We had to deliver something amazing and unique in a span of roughly three weeks from conception and design to execution which entailed my team hand affixing over 300 Swarovski crystals to each invitation in addition to the use of other luxury materials such as velvet and mirrored acrylic (and we had over 100 invitations to complete).

Needless to say that the pressure was on but I am a firm believer that once you commit, you have to do whatever it takes to deliver and deliver with excellence - which is exactly what we did. We gladly accepted the challenge and met it head on. You can’t grow if you’re not challenged right? It also helped that they had a fabulous wedding planner like Kathy Romero helping to coordinate some of the required details.

On a side note, one thing that I strive for as a business owner is to treat every single one of our clients like they are VIP’s because they are to me. Without every single one of them there would literally be no Oda Creative.

We’ve had the pleasure of working with a slew of high profile clients such as Gucci and Keyshia, Ray J and Princess, Kristen Jarvis – the white house assistant to former first lady Michelle Obama to name a few. Besides certain additional security measures that may need to be put in place we make sure that our level of service is the same across the board for everyone, high profile or not.