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Design Agency Marking Growth In The Cargo District

By Johanna Cano, posted Aug 20, 2018
Ebbing Branding + Design, located in the coworking space Coworx (pictured above) in Wilmington's Cargo District, is celebrating its first anniversary with a Design-a-Thon this week. (Photo by Johanna Cano)
Momentum continues for The Cargo District, a mixed-use area incorporating shipping containers that has been taking shape around Queen Street in Wilmington, where people are already living and working.

Ebbing Branding + Design, a Wilmington-based creative agency with a Cargo District office in coworking space Coworx, is hosting a “Design-a-Thon” this Friday to celebrate the company’s first year anniversary and support local organizations.

The event will be held at Coworx and will be free of cost for three Wilmington organizations: TRU Colors Brewing Co., the Cape Fear Chapter of Surfrider Foundation and Team Help Inc.

Matt Ebbing, founder and chief creative director of Ebbing Branding + Design, said his firm is collaborating with the three groups because of the large impact they have.

“We chose to partner with Surfrider Foundation (Cape Fear Chapter), Team Help and TRU Colors because their missions are meaningful to us personally and to our greater community,” Ebbing said.

TRU Colors Brewing Co. is a commercial brewery that employs gang members with the goal of reducing violence.

The Cape Fear Chapter of Surfrider Foundation is a nonprofit organization that focuses on environmental issues on the coast such as water quality, beach access and offshore drilling.

Team Help Inc. is a nonprofit that provides training and equipment to personnel in countries like Ecuador and India. The organization is also working to offer an opioid reduction program in Wilmington. It was founded by Jimmy Capps.

The organizations will receive design work and consultation from the agency.

“We will be working on branding and design projects for these companies, ranging from high-level brand strategy to logo and package design,” Ebbing said.

The event will give the organizations an opportunity to evolve their brands without spending any budget money, Ebbing said.

“Most nonprofits, our partners for this Design-a-Thon included, often take on great challenges without the financial and manpower backing that for-profit companies often have at their disposal,” he said.

Part of the event is to celebrate the design company’s first anniversary. Ebbing said the beginning of the year was scary as he sought clients and leads on potential clients.

“In the following months, I found many meaningful projects happening within a remarkably fast-growing client base,” Ebbing said. “I’ve now made three hires, two designers and a project manager, and currently work with over 20 beverage, food and tech clients in 15 states.”

Ebbing was one of the first companies to join the Cargo District, moving into Coworx the day it opened last year.

“Getting set up at Coworx was a great way for me to surround myself, professionally, with an industrious, energetic community—critical for a small fish that wants to swim in a big sea,” Ebbing said.

Coworx owner Bryan Kristoff said it's been exciting to watch Ebbing grow his business.
 
“He started off with a hot desk; within a year he moved from a hot desk to a dedicated desk, then to a private office suite,” Kristoff said. “I think it’s a great entrepreneurship story.”
 
The Cargo District, developed by Leslie Smith of L.S. Smith Inc., is also experiencing a large amount of growth. Coworx has about 75 members and all its private spaces have been rented out, Kristoff said.
 
At the district, workers are putting on the final touches to "Live + Work" units (pictured below), which are nine, 600-square-feet apartments each made up of shipping containers.
 
“We have a couple of folks moving in already and we are finishing up the last few units,” Kristoff said. “They are all reserved. People are starting to move in and get settled.”
 
The nine container apartments were part of phase one for the mixed-use development. Phase two is expected to include 50 to 70 container apartments that will be bigger than the first phase apartments, Kristoff said. They will use 40- and 45-foot shipping containers.
 
Besides residential buildings, the district is also planned to have commercial spaces.
 
“Right now, under construction, we have a coffee shop and a bottle shop that will probably be open later this fall,” Kristoff said.
 
Kristoff, Ebbing and the design staff at Ebbing Branding will be at the Design-A-Thon along with Team Help founder Jimmy Capps and TRU Colors Brewing representative Cory Wrisborne.
 
“We chose to mark our agency’s anniversary by hosting a pro bono 'Design-a-Thon' because rather than celebrate ourselves, we want to celebrate the greater community that is our home and our support,” Ebbing said.

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