Here at Studio 43, our number one goal can be defined in one word: integrity.

In 2012 I left my home in Battle Creek, Michigan to pursue a full-time career in Graphic Design in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. I wasn't expecting how much my life would change once I moved there.

 

I didn’t realize just how much of a hub city Indianapolis was until I began networking through full time work in graphic design, as well as in my off time traveling to different conventions near the city.

 

In 2014 I met Walter Emanuel Jones, the original Black Ranger on the hit children’s television series “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.” I had an idea for a vanity t-shirt that was based off of his character Zach that he could sell at different conventions. He liked my idea, so we met a few days after the show and collaborated on a design. He enjoyed my work so much that he started having me design social media flyers for his upcoming appearances. 

 

Just as my work with Walter was taking off, Austin St. John, the original Red Ranger in “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” was returning home to the United States from his time in the military overseas. With his recommendation from Walter, he and I started working together on social media promotions as well when he would appear as a guest at conventions. After working with both Walter and Austin, word spread through their agency, and I began working with more Ranger actors and other celebrities that I would meet in doing designs and assisting guests at their appearances. In doing so, I met a number of agents and actors in the business and learned everything I could about event planning, conventions, and marketing strategy to bring in attendees.

 

In 2015, I met a man at an event named Michael Buoni, who was the owner and founder of Rangerstop Convention in Orlando, Florida. He had just finished his second annual convention and had just started planning year three. I showed Michael some of my work and offered to do his website and social media promos for his convention, and he accepted, bringing me on staff as his convention designer.

 

Four years after I started working for Rangerstop Convention, I was asked by Michael how we could grow the show to new heights that would make us stand out from other conventions. I came up with an idea to bring in international guests from Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. by starting a fan sponsored program, where a select number of fans close to the show would pull funds together to make this happen. The result was greater than we expected, as we were able to bring seven guests from overseas to appear at our seventh annual convention in 2019.

 

One of the guests that we brought over was an actor by the name of John Tui. John and I got extremely close through the development of our seventh annual event, both on a professional and a personal level. In doing so, he asked me to be his appearance manager for the United States. I was apprehensive at first, simply because I had already been working with a number of agents and convention promoters solely as a designer, I had never even considered becoming a booking agent as well. But it was his confidence in me and how we worked together, mixed with the sponsorship program I had started, that I realized I had what it took to be both a graphic designer and a booking agent.

 

As a result of everything that has happened in the year 2020, it was apparent that I was needed as both a graphic designer and a booking agent. So here we are today - Studio 43 Production and Design. I want to be the best I can be and work with people in both design and with events. As I mentioned before, my number one goal in doing this is to have integrity. Being there for our clients is our first priority. We want them to be the ones in the spotlight. We want their company, their design idea, their event to be about them, and not about us. It also means working together and collaborating with other designers and booking agents to bring forth amazing events if needed be for attendees, or to simply have the best design a client could ask for. That is my promise and my vision for Studio 43. Doing what we can to come together as people, as opposed to working apart from one another.

 

- Brandon J. Benfield