It All Started In Science Class...

When people ask us how we became business partners, there is always a smirk shared between the two of us before deep diving into the story. Before we co-founded The Illunis Co, we had been friends for nearly 15 years. We met when our high school science teacher paired us up as lab partners in the 10th grade. We were the most unlikely duo you would ever meet. Kat dressed in all black, while I (Sam) was dressed in the preppiest clothing imaginable. Through the weeks in science class, we became great friends. Constantly hung out together and even then, people would ask us "Why are you two friends?"

Short answer is we aren't sure how the most unlikely people got along so well, but we were (and still are) glad that we did. Since meeting, anytime we are together, we celebrate our birthdays together (July birthdays, 3 days apart). When we were in high school, Kat's interests were in newspaper/photography/video. My dream career has always been graphic design. Separately, we went to college to pursue careers and one day Kat called me up and said that she was going for her marketing degree. I was so excited for her because I knew marketing well and I knew we could talk about it endlessly together. 

Fast forward to 2020, at the height of pandemic, Kat called me up one day and asked if I would be interested in helping her with a marketing client. I agreed because I wanted to get back into the marketing and design world after a few years away from it. We worked so well together that we decided to go into business together.

We have 3 main goals within The Illunis Co. First is to benefit the small businesses in a way that other marketing agencies don't (and to not take advantage of them). The second being an all female staff, to break the glass ceiling. Finally, the third goal was to make sure that any employee of ours (US resident or overseas) would be able to afford to live a comfortable life on a liveable wage (by US standards). Too many young designers and marketers are taken advantage of because of their location in the world or their "inexperience" (horrible). We are determined to break that cycle and provide the best environment possible for any employee that joins our team.