Meet Travis Duda and Daniel Lee of Hunchback Graphics
Photo by Logen Duda
Today we’d like to introduce you to Travis Duda and Daniel Lee.
Hunchback Graphics was started in a dorm room at Central Connecticut State University by Travis Duda and was going to be the premier design firm of badass album covers and the most metal logos anyone had seen.
After graduation, Travis continued freelancing under the name but didn’t really do too much with it. He moved to Massachusetts and began collaborating with another designer from the Boston area.
When that arrangement fell through, in stepped Dan Lee, a software engineer by day and entrepreneurial businessman by night. Together they restructured the business, changed the focus from bands to small businesses and truly formed what Hunchback Graphics is today. They have been at it for the better part of the past decade, and Hunchback Graphics has grown from an after-work affair to a full-time source of income.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
If this was going to be easy, then everyone would do it. That’s something we tell ourselves weekly. Of course, it hasn’t been a smooth road, but I doubt we’d still be this passionate about our business if it had been. We have learned volumes over the past eight years, mostly the hard way, but it’s been the kind of entrepreneurial adventure we’ve always wanted.
We’ve botched pitches to high-level executives, left thousands of dollars sitting on the table in undervalued offerings and had our work blatantly stolen.
However, we’ve been able to learn from each of those challenges and used the knowledge to work on hundreds of successful projects. We pride ourselves on our reputation of being the friendly dudes who work their butts off for their clients. Travis maintains that the only way he learns is the hard way and has done much to prove that along the way. It also happens to make for a far more interesting story!
Hunchback Graphics – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Hunchback Graphics is a full-service Branding & Graphic Design shop. We help small to medium-sized businesses and organizations establish their brand identity and stand-out from the competition. We work with entrepreneurs to improve their marketing efforts, strengthen the quality of their collateral, and solidify their visual voice. We rely on core design principles to ensure that every typeface, image, and color are right for the brand. We specialize in logo creation, print and digital marketing collateral and brand development.
We are most proud of our commitment to being open and honest with our clients. Transparency has been a big part of our success. We tell it like it is and the people we work with appreciate our honest opinion and trust the information we share. We enjoy building long-lasting relationships with our clients and their businesses, enjoying their success as they grow. This is something we would not have been able to do without valuing transparency in all aspects of our business.
What set us apart from other graphic designers and branding companies is the effort we make to understand both our clients and their businesses. A successful project is achieved by understanding both what our clients want and what their businesses need. We don’t want to just make the client happy or just make a business more successful, we want to do all that and more.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
It has to be the first day he was able to capitalize on years of hard work and open Hunchback Graphics full time. Travis took a huge leap and walked away from his corporate design position at the end of May after moonlighting for over six years. It took that time to build a steady stream of work, but it’s a great feeling when a long-term plan comes together and are able to do what we love full time.
