A Decade of Design: JK Creative Featured in Avalon Park Sun

We’re proud to share an article highlighting JK Creative in the Avalon Park Sun. In this feature, Julie reflects on 10 years of building JK Creative. From taking a leap of faith and starting the agency at her kitchen table to growing an award-winning, relationship-driven design agency. She shares how receiving the 2020 Avalon Innovation Award during the uncertainty of the pandemic gave JK Creative the confidence and community support to keep moving forward, along with the lessons, growth, and opportunities that have shaped the business ever since.

Read the full feature below, or check out the original article in the Avalon Park Sun to learn more about JK Creative’s journey and the “Where Are They Now” series.

Article from the Avalon Park Sun

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW: A Decade of Design, Built on a Leap of Faith

“When the world was closing its doors, we decided to open one. Investing in these entrepreneurs was never charity. It was partnership. They helped bring The 5th Floor to life just as much as we helped them, and that shared success is what a real community is built on.” — Beat Kahli, President and Chief Executive Officer, Avalon Park Group

When the world shut down in the spring of 2020, most businesses were bracing for the worst. Avalon Park Group chose a different response. Rather than pull back, President and Chief Executive Officer Beat Kahli committed more than one million dollars to a new Entrepreneur Fund, created specifically to help local business owners survive, adapt, and grow through the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The idea was simple but bold: when a good idea only needs someone else to believe in it, be that someone. What followed was a remarkable show of community ambition. From one hundred fifty-three initial submissions, an international jury narrowed the field to twenty-eight finalists. Award packages were personalized for every one of them, combining cash investments, business loans, office space, professional consulting services, and memberships at The 5th Floor, the international co-working space and business incubator housed in the Avalon Innovation Center.

There was another side to that story. At the very moment offices around the world were going dark, Avalon Park Group was preparing to open one. The 5th Floor Orlando was coming to life just as the pandemic took hold, and filling it with driven, creative entrepreneurs did not only help those founders. It helped bring the space itself to life. The support ran in both directions. That kind of reciprocity, where a smart partnership creates a genuine win for everyone involved, is exactly what the strongest business communities are built on.

The recipients spanned five categories, from Innovator and Enterprise awards to Collaborator, Connector, and a special Community award. Behind each name was a founder with a plan and, in many cases, very little certainty about what the months ahead would hold.

Now, several years later, we think it is worth asking a simple question: where are they now?

Beginning this month, the Avalon Park Sun will run a monthly feature revisiting the entrepreneurs and companies that received support from the 5th Floor Entrepreneur Fund. We will catch up with founders who took that early investment and built something lasting, share the lessons they learned along the way, and celebrate the ways they continue to shape our community and beyond. Some have expanded, some have pivoted, and some have gone on to earn recognition well past the borders of Avalon Park. Every one of them has a story worth telling.

First up: Julie Kostic and JK Creative

We are proud to launch the series with one of the fund’s Innovator Award recipients, Julie Kostic, the award-winning designer behind JK Creative. Founded in 2016, JK Creative is a graphic design and marketing agency that helps brands of every size tell their story more effectively. From branding and logos to websites, packaging, print collateral, social media, and marketing strategy, Julie and her team have created work for clients across food and beverage, retail, wellness, real estate, government, technology, nonprofit, and more. The studio calls The 5th Floor in Avalon Park home, with a satellite office in Baltimore, Maryland.

What has happened since 2020 is exactly the kind of momentum the fund was designed to spark. JK Creative has grown its team, broadened its client base, and collected a string of honors along the way. It is a fitting place to begin a series about what becomes possible when a community decides to invest in its own.

Later this month, we will sit down with Julie for a full interview about the early days of JK Creative, what that vote of confidence meant during the pandemic, and where she is taking the studio next. It also marks a milestone for us: the inaugural edition of the Avalon Park Sun video interview series. Stay tuned for the full conversation, which will be shared across our social media channels and on The 5th Floor Orlando and Avalon Park Orlando websites.

If you are interested in learning more about The 5th Floor or the Entrepreneur Fund, visit avalonparkgroup.com or call 407-658-6565.

Where Are They Now returns to the 2020 The 5th Floor Innovation Awards, starting with JK Creative founder Julie Kostic.

This year, Julie Kostic is marking a milestone: ten years in business. The Founder and Chief Creative Officer of JK Creative has spent the past decade building a boutique design and marketing agency known for strategic, relationship-driven work, and that anniversary makes her a fitting first subject for the Avalon Park Sun’s new Where Are They Now series. The series revisits recipients of the 5th Floor Innovation Awards, Avalon Park Group’s 2020 initiative to help local entrepreneurs weather an uncertain moment and build something that would last.

From a kitchen table to an award-winning agency

Ten years ago, Kostic took what she describes as a leap of faith. After nearly a decade at creative agencies and inhouse roles with brands such as Under Armour and Walden University, she wanted to work with a wider variety of clients and tell their stories through strategic design. So, she started JK Creative at her kitchen table with a laptop, a great deal of determination, and, in her words, “a healthy dose of I will figure it out.”

Like most entrepreneurs, she quickly learned that owning a business meant wearing every hat. What began as a one-woman business working with small companies and nonprofits has since grown into an awardwinning, certified woman-owned agency.

A vote of confidence when it mattered most

In 2019, Kostic relocated JK Creative from Maryland to Florida and scaled back while rebuilding her network in a new community. Her plan for 2020 was to get out, meet people, and grow. Then the world paused. “By the summer we had almost no new work coming in,” she recalled. Having just arrived in Orlando with few local connections, she found herself wondering whether she would have to close her doors.

It was in the pages of the Avalon Park Sun that Kostic found the application for the 5th Floor Innovation Awards. “I have always believed you cannot win if you do not try,” she said. When she learned she had received one of the top honors, an Innovator Award, she was stunned. The award combined funding, office space at The 5th Floor, professional consulting, and a membership, but the greatest gift, she said, was the confidence it represented.

“I honestly do not know if JK Creative would still be here today. The Innovation Award gave me more than financial support. It gave me hope at a time when I needed it most, and I truly believe that vote of confidence changed the trajectory of JK Creative.”

Where they are now

The years since have brought remarkable growth. What was once a team of one is now a group of full-time employees and trusted freelance partners. JK Creative has partnered with organizations such as the American Cancer Society and the Adirondack Mountain Club, along with many Orlando area businesses, and has expanded into video editing, search engine optimization, and social media influencer events, all while maintaining a Baltimore presence that keeps it connected to longtime Maryland clients. Kostic has also appeared on Season 4 of The Blox docuseries, joined the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, and won last year’s NAWBO PropelHER Pitch Competition.

Although JK Creative is celebrating a full decade, its home at The 5th Floor belongs to the more recent chapters of that story. Kostic has been a member since her 2020 award, roughly six years, and she credits the community with helping her put down roots in Central Florida. “It introduced me to an incredible community of entrepreneurs,” she said. “Many of those connections are still part of my life and business today, as clients, collaborators, and friends.”

Looking ahead

The future, Kostic says, is all about intentional growth while staying true to the boutique, relationship-focused approach that has always defined JK Creative. This year, that includes anniversary celebrations, community givebacks, and a national speaking engagement at the PRSA ICON Conference. Her advice to entrepreneurs reflects the decade behind her: “Do not wait until everything is perfect. Start with what you have, invest in relationships, and stay flexible.”

This is only the beginning of Julie’s story. In the coming weeks Julie will share more about her vision for JK Creative, offers marketing tips that local businesses can put to use, and opens up about who she is beyond the work, both as a creative and as a proud member of the Avalon Park community in our inaugural video interview.

To learn more about JK Creative, visit jkcreative.design or connect on LinkedIn, Instagram at @jkcreative.design, and Facebook @JKCreativeFL.

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