Go to top

Meet Kevin Fullerton

  • Owner
  • Creative Director
  • Teacher
  • Industry Leader
  • Speaker
  • Judge
  • Tandem Jump Instructor

Kevin Fullerton has a big head. A physically and figuratively large noggin.

He didn’t get it by winning lots of design awards (although Springboard Creative does have an amply stocked trophy case) or by spending inordinate amounts of time thinking about how to upsell his clients.

Kevin developed his capacious cranium by minding his clients’ business as much as his own, by thinking beyond design into communication and strategy, by assuming opportunities to educate and lead and partner, and by pondering and implementing CYP (that’s crap-your-pants) chances—for both Springboard Creative and its clients.

Kevin has a big head because he listens and then leaps, strategically, thoughtfully, and boldly—and always, always head first.

Where do you get your inspiration?

 

GIVING BACK. WHETHER TO MY COMMUNITY, MY INDUSTRY OR TO STUDENTS. IT SHOWS ME THE POWER OF WHAT WE ARE CAPABLE OF ACCOMPLISHING AND MAKES ME WANT TO DO EVEN MORE.

It wasn’t always that way. Fresh out of Northwest Missouri State University, a combo journalism and graphic communications degree in hand, Kevin headed for a safe job.

That, he soon realized, was a mistake.

To learn, to grow, to be wildly successful means you have to take chances. Scary chances. Crap-your-pants chances.

So he made a bold leap. He quit the safe job and went after the scary job. The job that challenged him, that forced him to believe he could be more and do more. And he didn’t look back.

Art director. Senior art director. Creative director. Vice president.

And then the cannonball. In 2006, Kevin left the pretty titles behind and launched Springboard Creative. His business started in his home, but soon Kevin was ready for another leap. He started teaching the next generation of designers at the Kansas City Art Institute. He opened his first office in the Vox Theatre. He became president of the Art+Copy Club and then president of the American Advertising Federation of Kansas City. He added staff to Springboard Creative and relocated to a larger studio in Mission. He became a member of the National American Advertising Awards Committee and was named to the AAF District 9 Board of Governors, then the AAF Central Region Board and the AAF National Board of Directors. He even founded and served as president of the Mission Business Partnership. We hear he has a personal life too, but we have our doubts.

For Kevin, it wasn’t—and never has been—about pursuing the Next Big Thing or chasing down shiny objects. It’s about taking big risks to achieve great things, to do something that matters.