MEMO Communications is a boutique agency that refines visual and verbal messages to have greater impact in the marketplace.
Our Story
MEMO assists its clientele with a variety of services that include brand development, creative strategy, art direction, writing, promotions and event execution. We are known for work that is thorough, elegant, innovative, substantive and stylish.
Our clients range from small to large businesses, including many artists and entrepreneurs. Some want help putting their creative ideas into concrete plans, while others already have solid ideas that simply need an infusion of creativity for them to thrive. MEMO operates like a temporary business partnership – our clients get the assistance of executive allies who take on projects with great personal commitment. Some projects last for weeks, while others evolve from year to year.
What our varied clients have in common is a bold belief that quality and depth do matter. MEMO understands this commitment to timeless, lasting value. It helps clients put products, services, art and music out into the marketplace so that audiences and customers feel the same. We call it, “succeeding well.”
We chose “MEMO” for the name of this company because its derivation, memorandum, is from the Latin word for “mindful.” It is from this perspective of mindfulness – an attentiveness to that which is truly at hand – that MEMO Communications strives to serve its clientele.
Kristen Kahlen, founder
Kristen Kahlen started MEMO Communications after enough life experience – entrepreneurial, broad-based and sufficiently quirky – accumulated into credibility.
Taken as a whole, these experiences taught Kristen how to listen and see differently. They developed into an uncommon ability to make ideas, words and images clearer and more refined. This is the fundamental service that she and her team offer their clients through MEMO Communications.
In addition to learning in the “university of life,” Kristen has extensive academic training – her degree is in Liberal Arts with a focus on Intercultural Communication, inspired by years of living abroad in both Europe and Asia. Her studies also include design, psychology, and Spanish culture and language. Kristen’s life experiences confirm for her that striving for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful may be an ancient notion, but will never be obsolete.
Kristen’s work experience covers an unusual array of industries. In the design arena she is a product developer and art director; in the words-and-ideas realm she is a writer and creative advisor; in fitness and health she co-owned, marketed and promoted an education and training company; in the human potential/personal growth industry she produced experiential executive courses. This constellation of skills and experiences results in a professional ally with insight, perspective, and style, which she slyly refers to as “Yoda meets Prada.”
MEMO Communications isn’t only about Kristen Kahlen. She has built a team of independent contractors – some of the region’s best graphic artists, photographers, writers and others – to round out the skill sets needed for more complex projects. Together they take great pleasure in combining vision, values and volition, while not forgetting that humor is the handiest tool in the box.