Meet nine10
Our ideas are bold, but our approach is simple.
With every client we pull out our best tried and true tool—our ears. We listen. We get to know you, your needs, and your customers. We’ll look at things with a fresh perspective, creating brands and marketing solutions with personalities that will engage, influence and excite the people you want to reach.
We strive for perfection. We push the envelope. We aim to exceed our clients’ expectations.
We put our creativity to work with the mindset that design is about solving business problems. Great design can and will improve your business and affect your bottom line. From the moment our clients step through our door, they are treated as partners, and we work hard to help them achieve their goals.
Our nine10 team doesn’t just keep our eye on the future to stay ahead of the learning curve. We deliver concepts and strategies that will bring your brand and your business into the future.
Insight, creativity and problem solving is our specialty. We think it shows in our work. But see for yourself. Check out some of our projects and what our clients have to say about us.
Cris Seppola, Partner
While most girls her age were thumbing through seventeen magazine to learn how to get a guy’s attention, Cris Seppola was more interested in the way the Bonne Belle and Johnson’s Baby Soft ads were put together. As a teenager, commercial art was an obsession for Cris while her part-time job at the local DQ was teaching her how a successful business operates.
This interest in business and innate passion for design were quietly developing Cris into a creative force to be reckoned with. For as long as she can remember, Cris has been hungry to learn as much as she can to enhance her skills. Armed with a secondary education in E-Commerce and Design, Cris spends a lot of time with her nose to her iPad perusing business and design blogs to keep up to date with the trends. In one way or another, be it a clever advertisement or a informative blog post, Cris has spent her entire life learning how to make the most impact and when to take risks.
Although she didn't see it that way, one of those risks was to start nine10 Incorporated along with founding partner, Teri Chadwick. Born over a Chinese food lunch, these bold ladies left their lucrative jobs and began an exciting journey into entrepreneurship. With humble beginnings in a home office, nine10 Incorporated has grown into a 2,500 sq.ft. shared office with nine people and two companies.
Cris considers it a privilege to wake up every day knowing she’s going to be creative and help clients solve their brand and website puzzles. She does her most brilliant work when she’s free to trust her instincts and find the best solution to the client's problem. Known for being slightly eccentric and extremely intuitive, Cris brings wit and intellect into any project she works on.
When she’s not having fun dreaming stuff up behind her desk or spending quality time with one of her Mac products, Cris can be found snuggling with her beloved whippet, honing her public speaking skills at the Swan City Toastmasters Club, scuba diving in an exotic location or escaping reality with a nice thick fantasy novel.
Photo by Suzanne Sagmeister
Richard Podsada, Partner
As co-owner and managing partner at nine10 Incorporated, Richard Podsada has discovered the ultimate way to marry his passion for problem solving with his love of art and technology.
Born in Poland in 1979, Richard has few memories of his home country. Richard’s father was a member of Solidarity, a democratic movement that was quickly gaining influence during a time of communist rule. By 1981, Solidarity became such a threat to the ruling regime that martial law was declared in Poland, and as a result Richard’s family was forced to leave their home. Richard was 3 years old when his family arrived in Canada with little more than the clothes on their backs.
Richard was always an artistic and curious child. He started drawing at a very early age and took apart every toy he owned to see how it worked. While Richard may have been very poor growing up, but never had a problem using his imagination and creativity to stay busy.
When Richard turned 7, he was given a life-changing gift by a family friend—a Commodore VIC-20 computer. To this day, he can remember the overwhelming sense of joy & wonder he felt when he started it for the first time and realized the creative potential he held in his hands. He wasted no time in learning how to program in BASIC and within a few weeks was writing his own adventure games.
By the time he arrived at his teens, Richard was fluent in a variety of programming languages and had also been using the computer to draw graphics and make music. Richard went online in 1995 and immediately found the application of his skills in the design of web pages. He started creating graphics and web pages for friends and local businesses, and by the time Richard was in grade 12, he had a website design business operating from his home.
After High School, Richard went on to obtain a Diploma in Fine Arts, Interactive Digital Design Specialization from Grande Prairie Regional College. During his time in College, he continued to operate his website consulting business and also worked at Future Shop as a computer sales associate. It was at Future Shop that Richard discovered his passion for sales. The consultative selling process was a natural fit for Richard’s knack for problem solving, and during his first month of employment he achieved top sales in Western Canada for his department.
Today as a managing partner of nine10, Richard employs his problem-solving skills to help organizations of all sizes achieve their strategic branding and marketing goals, both online and offline. Richard oversees the development of brand identities and websites, and works closely with his partner Cris in the overall development and growth of nine10.
In his time away from nine10, Richard enjoys tinkering with his motorcycle, playing a riff on his electric guitar or diving into a book. He is also a member of Swan City Toastmasters Club, sits on the Economic Development Advisory Committee for the City of Grande Prairie, and is a marketing advisor for the United Way of Grande Prairie's Campaign Cabinet.
Photo by Suzanne Sagmeister
Karen Kiddine, Graphic Designer
Karen stumbled into the design world by accident, and has never looked back. One night while browsing through programs for film study (it was Oscar night, o.k.?) she stumbled across the Design and Illustration program at Grant MacEwan University, and that was it for her. Karen is still amazed that she gets paid to do what she loves: creating things and hanging out with cool people all day.
When not busy designing things, Karen enjoys bad kung-fu movies, attempting to bake, and riding her horse.
