Circle K Performance
Dream, explore, create and craft
your ideas to the palm of your hands
Equine Therapy & Graphic/Web Design
Work & Clients
Great websites and diverse products from start to finish
Who I Am
Hey! I'm Kelsey Gade (formerly "West", as I just married my husband July of 2021!) the "brain" of Circle K and actually the only one! I am a freelance graphic designer and web designer; in short a "freelancer" is one where a person works for themselves rather than for a company and are essentially self-employed. Which is correct! Although I consider Circle K my "part-time" gig because I do have a full-time job also.
I've often been asked how I got started doing this and most think it was during college when I was pursuing my A.A.S in Graphic Design... not quite! When I was about 15 years old I was heavily involved in motocross. When I wasn't racing I spent my leisure time at a private off-road ranch here in SW Iowa where my grandparents have a cabin and I would spend countless hours trail riding my dirt bike with my friends. I thought it would be neat to show those who don't have access to the great outdoors what it was REALLY like... and so my Grandma helped me get my first helmet camera and after I had recorded a season's worth of footage I would compile everything with music, transitions and burn it to a DVD. I couldn't stop there. After the word got out that I could make these videos, I had family friends ask me about making videos for sports teams banquets, high school grads even weddings! That same year I came up with the idea to create t-shirts and sweatshirts for the community at this off-road ranch and I continued to do so for 3 years!
Moving forward I graduated high school from a small town school, Lawton-Bronson, in 2011. In the Fall I pursued my A.A.S. in Graphic Design, minoring in Digital Photography and Web Design. I learned so much in those years on manipulating photos, photo restoration, print layout, web design and so much more. I took these skills and applied them to my freelancing and the possibilities grew immensely. After graduating from Western Iowa Tech in Sioux City with my A.A.S. I pursued my B.A.Sc in Business Management through Bellevue University, graduating in 2016. It wasn't until Spring of 2019 that I thought I should come up with a name for my freelancing and start really focusing on building my network, and so I came up with Circle K Performance.
Nowadays I work full-time for Chesterman's Co. Coca-Cola as the Quality Control Manager and continue to grow my freelance business with Circle K. I was fortunate enough to be born and raised in a small town in Northwest Iowa, I'm a country girl at the roots. I'm always on the go and involved with so many different activities. My main focus being barrel racing! My best friend, Devynn Banks, first got me involved in barrel racing back in 2016 when I was actually pretty deep into motocross racing too! After that year I decided I needed to pick one extreme hobby and put all my focus towards that one. I thought to myself "I've been there, done that with the motocross racing, it's time for something new." Don't get me wrong, I still go ride at that off-road ranch avidly with friends and family now that we are all grown up and have bigger toys, but being involved in horses and having more opportunities to spend my time in the outdoors has completely given me more creativity which all comes back to my work!
What I Do
I specialize in assisting business owners, big or small, brand themselves! Whether it be a new logo or ramifications to the old one, business/punch cards, decals, websites and custom items such as tumblers, hats and other apparel items. The "sky is the limit" here, I encourage you to present me with your ideas to see what we can come up with together!
It doesn't stop there, some clients may already have a logo and are looking for something more specialized to the product or service they offer. Such as a massage therapist that needs a "punch/reward" card to keep their clients returning to get bonus savings after a certain number of sessions. Or a non-profit organization needing monthly posters to promote their cause or a fundraising/community event they may be hosting. A trucking company wanting to get their name out there with eye-catching shirts and hats or gifts to their employees for an annual company party.
I encourage anyone to contact me with their ideas so I can help bring them to life and help grow your business!
What I Believe
Over the years I have made myself pretty flexible and transparent with the type of work that I can work with. Anything from restoring old photographs that may have water damage, cracked and torn to creating a logo or re-branding an existing one, websites, custom apparel down to putting my excellent Photoshop skills to use and more. I thrive in seeing business owners and entrepreneurs come to me with an idea that they just need to bring to life, with my art in diversity we can create something great. The gratification after they see the turn around is so rewarding!
I'm a freelancer, so I do this because I WANT to but I have such a big passion for it and I take so much pride to not only see my work out there but to watch these small businesses, that may have started in someone's garage, flourish and expand over the years. I have built many long-lasting relationships over the years and many of my returning clients are now good friends of mine!