testimonials
We have been blessed with having the most sincere and fun clients; we always look forward to our next creative adventure together. Life is short – love what you do and who you work with! Hear what some of our clients have to say about their HappyFish experience:
I highly recommend Karen Dahlquist as a graphic designer. Her creative process goes very deep into what you are doing and what you want to get across to your clients. Karen’s thought process and everything she does is intentional and well thought through.
Our conversations discussed what I wanted to do for my clients and where they could go.
Karen as an artist goes through a whole process from hand drawing first to get a feel for what you are looking for and what she is looking for, to going to the computer and doing graphic designing. She expresses herself in art and understood what I want my clients to experience working with me.
She created a beautiful logo for me that embodies my client perfectly!
We recently started a new e-commerce business and needed help creating attractive and engaging graphics for our e-commerce website to match the vision we had in mind. There was no clue how to find reputable and experienced talent. We tried agencies, google, etc. All the talent we found was – bleh.
We knew hiring a company was out because you never get to talk to the actual designer and must translate ideas and visions through an account manager. This was obviously producing undesired results. So, we set out to find a freelancer instead. After searching online, we found Upwork. We searched through several profiles based on skills. Then we came across Karen’s profile. What attracted me to Karen was her description of getting in the weeds with her clients and their business. To me, this sounds like someone who cares about the results they will be providing.
I made contact with Karen and WOW! Karen made the whole process cool, easy, and laid back. She got to work right away. Researching our business and honing in on ideas for presentation based on a very lengthy conference call. And let me tell you, Karen is fast! We had mock-ups in our inbox the next day. The next few weeks we had created several perfect pieces of content to match our vision based on exchanging ideas and tweaking. Karen is an excellent communicator and super responsive. We could not be happier with Karen and we have a lot of future work for her!
In conclusion, if you need a graphic designer, you found her. You won’t be disappointed.
We are very happy swimming with Happy Fish!
I just want to break down and weep!! I am so humbled by your beauty, work, creativity, and belief in me. Want to hug, hug you! Beautiful and overwhelmed and love that you came up with it. You are incredibly encouraging to me. Thank you for reminding me of gifts that God’s given me. I’m so blessed He put you in my life.
Karen went above and beyond for my RV Campground Map! She even looked at Google Earth to try to get the tree placement correct and worked with me on placing all our amenities and features in their precise locations. Most of all, she made a beautiful map, which will be really helpful to our customers who choose to book online or navigate our resort when they check-in. Thank you, Karen, for all your hard work!
Karen was quick to understand our needs, caring about details and asking pertinent, meaningful questions, and totally supportive of our schedule requirements. Karen has an eye for detail, and a wonderful creativity that sparks joy – what a pleasure to work with!
Karen and her team are wonderful. We’ve done over 200 projects with them over the past few years, with several hundred more projects incoming. Karen is friendly, professional, timely, and skillful. She also communicates extremely well, which is, perhaps, the most important part of hiring someone outside of your organization. Our business has grown thanks to Karen’s skills; your business will grow, too. I strongly recommend Karen and her team for her graphic design work.
You are right – I AM THRILLED. And so, so grateful. This is just outstanding!
Congratulations!! You did an absolutely FABULOUS job, Karen. Thank you soon much for your great work and for the HEART you put into it!! Blessings to you and your family…
Literally breathtaking. Absolutely perfect. Karen, you are so good at this. Honestly. You are noticeably and clearly more talented than others in your field. It’s just that simple.
I absolutely loved working with you, really enjoyed the one-on-one personal service that is so rare these days, and feel like you’re a very talented woman. I’m very grateful I have found you and Happy Fish. Your work is outstanding and you’ll be hearing from me again, soon.
OM-GOODNESS!! You are incredibly talented!!!! You nailed it! We are floored. Thank you for your hard work, I know that you have dedicated a lot of time to this.
I absolutely adore working with Karen!
At our studio, it’s just my husband and me. We can’t do it all, and when we were looking to outsource album design, we were fortunate enough to find Karen.
When it came time to find a new designer for our marketing needs, we tried a couple different designers, but became frustrated by them not “getting” what we wanted. My husband said, “What about Karen?” A light bulb moment!!! We’re so happy with everything she’s done. She knows exactly what I need, and — despite my sometimes muddled messages and unclear direction — delivers amazing designs that capture the sentiment I’m going for! Her designs are crisp, beautiful, sentimental, and perfect! She goes above and beyond for us, too, making sure we get our true message to shine through!
Karen is amazing and is a natural at creating marketing pieces that work. We love using her creative talent for our postcards, flyers, brochures, prices lists, and email marketing pieces! Plus she’s fun to work with! We genuinely love her!
I was extremely happy with the service and design. I like working with people that stay in constant communication to ensure everything goes smoothly. I am already prepping a few more orders to be designed!
I LOVE IT, LOVE IT LOVE IT. You have done such an amazing, fantastic, wonderful job!! Thank you so much!!!!!!!! And oh, you were SO quick!!! There is nothing I want to change about it….it is perfect!! Once again, you have blown me away. I can’t wait to do more of these with you!!!!
My experience with Karen at HappyFish has been exceptionally great!!
She’s designed two wedding albums for me, and in terms of the design, she totally knocked it out of the park. First of all, she really listened to what I prefer in terms of style (which was so helpful for me to pinpoint because she shows examples of lots of different styles), and she delivered both albums in the exact style I wanted… but better! She has a real knack for laying out wedding albums in a way that tells the story and showcases the photographs, the couple, and the full wedding day in the best possible light. I absolutely love her album design!
She was also very responsive in terms of revisions. On my sample album, there were a few tweaks that I wanted, and she was able to implement them beautifully. Also, I *really* appreciated that there were times when she wouldn’t just blindly follow the suggestions I had. She would really listen to what I wanted, and there were a few times that she was able to tell me why that might not be the best idea, and she would make suggestions that were way better than what I asked for! I really appreciate that she cared to make the best possible product, not just to please me. She has so much experience (way more than I do), and she was able to guide me in making this album way better than I could have on my own.
I must also mention that her customer service is above and beyond. Not only did she design albums for me, but she also helped me with other parts of the albums (for instance, how and where to order the albums) that were really out of her scope of work. Again, because she has so much experience and really truly cares about her customers, she has proven to be a priceless resource for me. And she’s so nice and sweet and fun to talk to! 😀
I’m so glad that Karen at HappyFish was recommended to me. I couldn’t imagine using anyone else to design my wedding albums!!
HappyFish and Karen are just wonderful and probably the best business / time saving decision that I made this year. Being someone that does not like to give up any control, it was hard to pull the trigger… no matter how much time I needed to save. With Karen’s promptness, kindness, cheerful attitude and WONDERFUL design skills, I want to kick myself for waiting so long. I can not tell you how much confidence it brings me to know that whenever we are pressed for time, or just want another perspective on album design, Karen and HappyFish are right around the corner to save the day!
Karen ROCKS!!!! I can’t wait to see what kind of reaction I get from my clients.
I was extremely happy with the service and design. I like working with people that stay in constant communication to ensure everything goes smoothly. I am already prepping a few more orders to be designed!
Every business owner could learn from Happy Fish’s customer service. I’ve never worked with anyone as attentive or responsive as Karen. Her thoughtful designs have changed the way I view wedding albums, and I am now proud of making books I think every couple would be thrilled to have.
Karen is very precise and easy to work with. I felt immediately that she knew the look I was going for, and I have been so excited and pleased with the final designs, as have my clients!
My husband and I worked with Happy Fish Design for our wedding album and it was an absolute pleasure! Karen was beyond helpful, thorough, knowledgeable, and above all extremely kind. She immediately provided us with all our album options and a detailed description of the difference between the options.
She made the photo selection process as easy as it could possibly be as well. I was unsure about the leather color I wanted to use for the albums so she mailed me two samples so I could be 100% sure. She was so prompt and on top of communication – replying to our emails, questions, and requests very quickly.
We needed our wedding albums prior to Christmas, as two of the three albums were gifts to our parents. She made sure that we received our albums before the holidays and we actually received them earlier than expected! She oversaw the complicated shipping for us and followed up immediately.
The albums turned out BEAUTIFULLY! The layout and design is perfect and the quality of the pictures is impeccable. The leather and imprinting on the cover is exactly what we wanted. We know our parents, and anyone who looks through our album, will be blown away by her amazing work! Thank you Karen & Happy Fish for all your help and hard work!! You turned our special day into a forever memory – we are so appreciative!
I just wanted to send you a little thank-you note. I must say that I am so happy with the first album you designed for me. There will be many more to come! I remember when you first sent me the link to the design online…I was so excited looking through all of the pages. Every single page exceeded my expectations. You are a very talented designer! It’s exactly what I was looking for. I’ve also been very impressed with the way you conduct your business. I just like how you have everything streamlined through the web. It makes it easy to communicate and review the page layouts. Keep up the amazing work! I’m looking forward to working with you on future projects.
Within minutes of talking to Karen I knew I had found someone special. She just immediately got me. Figured out my approach to photography and how I would want the design of my albums to reflect that. She is a great listener who can translate ones ideas to great design and also comes to the table with her own thoughts. Of course, those are the ones that invariably raise the quality of the design. Her albums are clean and confident. They feel at the same time current and timeless. I feel super lucky to have found her and plan on keeping her very busy!
Outsourcing my album designs was probably the smartest business decisions I’ve made in a long while. It has allowed me to spend more time on the aspects of my business that I actually enjoy (designing albums not being one of them). I’ve worked with several album designers and Karen’s work simply stands out. Her designs are always fresh, never predictable. I love that she doesn’t work with template programs. In addition, she’s FAST, but not at the expense of quality. What more could you want. Probably the best thing about working with Karen, though, is working with Karen. She’s so easy to work with and really takes the time to understand what I’m looking for. As a result, the designs she does for me look nothing like the designs she does for other photographers. They are truly John Riedy albums. Karen ROCKS!
Karen Dahlquist ROCKS!! I recently had her design a digital sample album. Not only was it fun to work with Karen, but she had a quick turnaround time and the layout was perfect. I looked at the design… and looked at it… and looked at it again to see if there was anything I could or would change. Nope. Nothing. Nada. Right off the bat she gave me a product that was exactly what I want to show my clients! Probably the biggest bonus is that I now have more family time and time for running my business. I will definitely be using HappyFish for my future albums and look forward to working with Karen again. Thanks Karen!
I don’t know if Karen Dahlquist works 24 hours a day or if it just seems that way. If she does, she’s incredibly well adjusted, because not only does she get back to you right away if you have questions, but she’s so very pleasant when she does. I can be easily flummoxed by current technology:
“Although I’m really old, Karen, you’re going to have to talk to me like I’m five years old.”
But Karen doesn’t. She patiently explains everything and the job goes smoothly and quickly. It’s a pleasure working with her. She is one of those people you want to go have coffee with. And did I mention the beautiful design work she did to make my photography look even more expensive than it is?
You were such a pleasure to work with and I so appreciated your willingness to make all of the little changes that my client requested. You truly went above and beyond to meet our time schedule and to keep my client happy with numerous changes. You are very creative, but were wonderful about working within the parameters of what my client was requesting, though it wasn’t exactly the way you would have designed. I look very forward to working with you again, as there are very few people these days that provide the wonderful customer service and have the patience and kindness that you are so gifted with.
Thank you for the beautiful yearbook you create for Branches each year. You do an amazing job capturing all of our memories. It is obvious that a tremendous amount of work goes into the creation of the yearbook. You make it so beautiful and thorough. It’s an incredible task. Our family very much enjoys the books year after year and are so thankful to have them as a momento of our time at Branches. Deepest thanks, Renee
Thank you so much for being such a positive life force! From the first time I’ve contacted you to delivering the final product you have been nothing but positive and helpful. With juggling 50 things at once as a wedding photographer – you’ve taken out a lot of the stress out of album design. That’s priceless. I look forward to working with you in the future.
Thank you so much you have instantly made my life easier. I wish I discovered you before.
Karen and her team were ABSOLUTELY amazing! I can’t believe how quickly she was able to put together the perfect album for my bride. Not only was Karen accommodating in every manner possible but she went above and beyond by calling my album company for me when I didn’t have time as well as delivering a perfect layout the very first time. My bride loved it so much the first time – we didn’t need to make any changes. That has never happened to me before! Karen and her team were quick, delivered a superior product, and most importantly had impeccable customer service. I will definitely look forward to working with Karen again and she has now become my sole choice for design work when it comes to my albums.
Thanks so much, Karen!!
Just returned to my office this morning and I received the album. It is so beautiful and it came out beyond amazing!! I could not have asked for a more beautiful memory of my son’s wedding…. I love the calendar as well. You are just amazing.
The albums arrived last night and I wanted to send a large, sincere THANK YOU! They look amazing. Truly wonderful and I can’t wait to show the couple. The are going to love it!
Karen taught me everything I know about customer service — and I’m not just saying that to be nice.
- She treats her customers like they’re her favourite client (although I’m SURE I really AM her favourite client!)
- She return calls and e-mails immediately
- She’s warm and fun on the phone and always seems to have endless time to talk about my projects– although I know she couldn’t possibly.
- If communicating by e-mail, she throws in lots of 🙂
- She’s reliable. When she says the album will be done in two weeks, the album is done in two weeks.
- She’s m..e…t…i…c…u..l…o…u…s detail oriented and double checks everything– which, for me, is probably the biggest reason why I keep hiring her.
- She works really, really hard. Sometimes I get e-mails from her in the wee hours of the morning
- She’s fair and has never overcharged me for her services
- Every aspect of her business is completely professional– website, letterhead, blog, logo– even the Happy Fish DVD’s of the clients album layouts are lovely.
- She never gets mad at you for fiddling with her album designs
- She’s fun!
Karen and Chad at Happy Fish were an absolute pleasure to deal with, Karen’s professionalism but comfortable way of communicating with me was superb! She displayed some tough love at times but the proof was in the pudding and my album was just like I envisioned it to be! Fantastic work and a breeze to deal with! I could not recommend them enough A++!
The album arrived Friday at the office, so we were able to drive by yesterday and pick it up. It is FABULOUS! I love it. That cover looks so cool. My mom could not stop saying “Oh My Gosh, this is beautiful”. So you have two very happy and impressed ladies. One last time, thank you SO MUCH for everything. You’ve been fantastic to work with we are thrilled with the result.
I don’t think you could have done anything differently to be better. Everything was perfect! You really listened to what we wanted and the design style we wanted to capture and stayed true to that. The end resulted in a gorgeous album that our client was thrilled about! She didn’t make one single change or alteration to the design. We couldn’t be more pleased. Everything about our experience was fabulous and we loved the personal attention we received. We tried another design company before and they didn’t not stay true to our style or wishes so you guys just blew us away. Thank you so much!!!!! We will definitely be using you all again in the future.
I can’t tell you how happy we are with this. It’s really stunning. I usually like to try to provide some concrete feedback for changes, but honestly, there’s nothing I can think to change. It’s really perfect. In fact, I kept forgetting that I was supposed to take notes. The design, while being strong, fades into the background and let’s the evening take the center stage.
I love Karen, with Happyfish. One of the best album designers in the US. Can’t wait to get my new two-toned Finao album.
Quote from her bride after receiving her album: “I just wanted to let you know that the albums arrived yesterday, and they are spectacular. I never could have imagined just how beautiful these books would be. Thank you so much for documenting our wedding so perfectly; the album really tells the story well, and looking through it feels like reliving the day.“
These guys rock, If you haven’t tried them you’re missing out. Just sayin’!
I’m so happy with the album and my experience with HappyFish. You handled everything in a timely professional manner. The design of the album is stunning! Thank you! I will definitely call on you in the future.
Thank Goodness for HAPPYFISH DESIGN!
Karen was a dream come true for me! As I’ve been getting busier and busier I realized there was no way to keep designing albums and keep my sanity in check. I looked around a long time for a designer I thought would be a good match and Karen’s designing skills and warm personality really stood out. The first book she created was stunning…there was absolutely nothing I’d want to change. I feel comfortable and happy knowing my photography is in great hands. I’m so excited for her to design all my albums in 2009 and beyond!
My experience with you – it has been nothing but fantastic, and I’m so looking forward to working with you again. I felt like you immediately understood my style, and the customer service was amazing. I always want everything to be so perfect for my brides that I have a hard time letting go of any task. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to find someone who cares as much as I do about the quality of my products and the beauty of the work.
Working with you was amazing!!! I don’t think you could have done anything better cos you were already perfect! Services you could offer – since you are so good at design perhaps branding services would be a nice idea! I can’t wait to work with you again!
You are a complete joy to work with and I am thrilled with my new logo! Thank you for listening to me and understanding what I needed, for asking the good questions, and for using that special creative gift you have. You went above and beyond! Thank you.
You were such a pleasure to work with and I so appreciated your willingness to make all of the little changes that my client requested. You truly went above and beyond to meet our time schedule and to keep my client happy with numerous changes. You are very creative but were wonderful about working within the parameters of what my client was requesting, though it wasn’t exactly the way you would have designed. I look very forward to working with you again, as there are very few people these days that provide wonderful customer service and have the patience and kindness that you are so gifted with.
I enjoyed working with you on the Jones album. You made my first experience with album design completely seamless. Will definitely be sending you more projects in the future! Thanks Karen.
I can’t tell you how much we’ve appreciated all your hard work and attention to detail! You are a fabulous designer and a wonderful person! My clients did not have any changes because the design was fantastic. Thank you for taking the time to figure out our specific design tastes and being so open to our thoughts! I can’t wait to send you more albums! We’d highly recommend you to anyone!
Thank you so much again!
I just wanted to let you know our Asukabook just arrived and it looks spectacular!!!! We are so happy with it and can’t wait to start making them for our clients!! 😀 The EX Laminate was definitely the way to go, it’s so elegant! Thanks for the advice 😉 thank you very much Karen, you did a GREAT job with everything, the design looks even better in print (which is hard to imagine since it already looked spectacular on screen!!)
Thanks again!!!
Thank you for your design work-it is respectful of the images and of my personal style as a photographer. And you run your company in such a professional and efficient manner. It’s the best of both worlds-artistic and business!
Yes we are two, or including our client, three happy fish clients. You came to my rescue, in a very tenuous period of the album design endeavour.I knew what I wanted but did not know where to begin looking for this person! From a referral, I contacted you, and with your persistence, you rescued me from almost giving up on a particular album layout. Finding the right person to collaborate with the design of an album is the biggest roadblock! But you seemed to understand what I wanted,with very little discussion, sent me several page layouts, and we quickly put it all together, or YOU quickly put it all together, from design , to uploading to our album publisher, to delivering it to my door. We could not have been happier! You saved us time and money and having this product outsourced is definitely the way to go, and, the coffee table album IS, the way to go!
Thank you for making such an amazing album to make our wedding memories last a lifetime. Your work is amazing and working with you is even better!! You created the perfect album for us and really embraced the emotion of such a special day. Thank you! Thank you! Some comments about our experience:
- We are extremely happy with the final product
- Karen listens well and really tries to understand your style while discussing your pictures and your idea for the album
- Karen was excellent in seeing the issues I felt could be changed or giving better ideas, I LOVED how she would find issues and give me options before I could even spot them.
- Karen was great about staying in communication and letting me know her time frame. The time frame was something we agreed upon in the very beginning, she really takes her time and is very thorough
- My wedding was in Hawaii so I wanted the style to be bright and fun and not formal black/white designs. This was why I chose Karen because she was open to doing something different and really saw the potential in my pictures as I did. I tried 3 other wedding album designers before she and I knew she was perfect for this from our first conversation.
- She is very professional and also extremely personable. I felt comfortable asking her tons of questions she always got back to me right away.
- I loved about her is that even though she is the designer she doesn’t get offended when discussing potential changes or if I keep changing my mind… which I did frequently! I really didn’t know what I wanted until i saw her creation…. it was exactly what I was looking for 🙂
- Trust her opinions because she sees so many albums that she really knows what looks good and what will last a lifetime. I wanted an album that wouldn’t look outdated in 10 or 20 years. My album rocks!!
CLIENT OHANA
ABCD Labs
AdaptEd4 Special Ed
AE Velocity / Law Velocity
AEPS, Inc.
Ahmed Elsawi Bakery
Appalachian Extracts CBD
Athena Gold
Attainia
Air, Inc.
AviationCareers
Ben Chrisman Photographer
Berit Bizjak Photography
Black Swan Gourmet Dressings
Bombardier
Branches Biltmore & Central
Broadmoor Outfitters
Carey Ann Photography
CC Zing
CELA Publishing
Christina Lombardo Nutritionist
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E1 (Allen Vorholt)
Elizabeth Weiss
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Eric Williams
Evolve Golf Motion Wool
Family Strategies Counseling Center
Finao Albums
FlexJet
Game Beyond the Game
Gecko Pest Services
Goat City (Jennifer Scully)
Greenbriar Outfitters
Greenlight Traffic Engineering
Greater Than I Ministries
Highlands United Church
Holistic Freedom Institute
Howard Jankowiak Photographer
Howard Air
Hyden Wood Working
i love reading
I Want That Door
Javelina Harmony Music School
Jamie Banh
Jennifer Rau Photography
John Reidy Photography
Joyful Heart Dance
Kapalua Resort & Maui Land & Pine
Kari Hansen Realtor
Kristi Gayton Photography
Kourtney Ness Realtor
Law Velocity (Paul Carlson)
Laurie Rhodes Photography
Leybelis Padilla, MD
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Marshmallows & Scotch
Masha Abaturova
Maureen Taylor (Photo Detective)
My Food Specials.com
Neon City Shepherds
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Prince of Fitness, Prince Daniels Jr
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Sealey Business Brokers
Selvan
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Your Journey (Patricia Reyes)
Your Reflection My Style
