cyclone press is now tiny thunder studio

In 2007, I started freelancing – throwing together a logo and having fun with any project that came my way.

But the work kept adding up, and after being laid off from my full time job in 2011, I decided to get serious. I chose to specialize in “branding for small businesses” and created the cyclone press brand (I was inspired by a haiku I had written about how I was a digital tornado).

I was very focused on design, and printing was a large part of that. The cyclone press icon is reminiscent of a cyclone symbol, but it was intended to represent paper coming off a printing press.

Soon clients were asking me to offer website design, which I was happy to do.

As I became more consumed by web development I learned what a minefield the web hosting world was for small business owners (I have two clients who, separately, begged me to get them away from the same terrible marketing company that was controlling their website. This still happens often).

I decided to host websites, and do it better. Since then it’s been a constant journey of adding, removing, adjusting, learning and growing. I’ve done a lot of different projects, and I know that e-commerce websites are something I’m simply not interested in doing, for example.

Websites became the bulk of what we do, and around 2020, I made the decision to nix print entirely and fully devote my work to being a web design, development, and hosting agency.

Going into 2025, I had a two primary goals:

1. Relaunch a more focused website at cyclonepress.com.
2. Start legitimately marketing the business instead of relying on word of mouth referrals.

While reworking the website, a page at a time, I realized I was thinking too small.

I was about to start investing time and money into marketing this brand?

I finally acknowledged the feeling I’d had for at least a year or two: it was time for a new name, a new brand.

This was not a happy realization… rebrands are a lot of work, and it’s worse when you’re a designer and have an eye more critical to your own projects (the cyclone press logo took at least 6 months before I was happy with it).

And picking a name? Oof. It’s just the worst. This is the 4th or 5th time I’ve been business naming in as many years. I’m tired.

Nevertheless, in March, I began the process of writing down 100+ names to figure this out…

In 2014 I had the fun experience of getting my arm caught by a rope swing on a river (I have the scar to prove it).

I was paranoid about losing my guitar skills as I healed, and my friend Bil Brown gave me his 3/4 scale Danelectro bass guitar and said, here, learn this – we need a bass player. As a result, I ended up learning and playing mediocre bass guitar for years, but on a full size guitar, which apparently stands out when you’re only 5′ 1.” Bil got me playing bass, but he’s also the one who nicknamed me Tiny Thunder as a result.

Another friend, Ray Eaton, is one of the few people in my life who has overlapped both my personal circle and my business circle. He’s a serial entrepreneur, a client, and a beloved friend. He also happens to know Bil, my nickname, and he’s the one who suggested I use it as the business name.

I didn’t take it seriously at first, because it felt a little weird. But I requested feedback from my target clients, and the feedback has been a resounding yes.

Tiny Thunder it is.

Many thanks to both Bil and Ray, for this and many other things over the years.

I also want to give a huge shoutout to Allie Page at The Lou Lab. Logo design has not been a passion for very long time, and after many sketches and rough drafts I was stuck and unmotivated. We had a conversation at exactly the right time – she took what I had, breathed new life into it, and got me excited again. She designed the cloud icon and created the rain pattern that I really did not want to do, so THANK YOU Allie. I plan to write up the full story of that process for anyone who’s interested in seeing what it looks like when a former brand designer calls a current brand designer for help.

On that note, if you’re interested in hearing more about rebrands, we have an episode coming up soon on the Founder Problems podcast about how I (and Lee) approach this.

This brand is less about a new direction, and more about a culmination. After nearly 2 decades of work I have a deep understanding of who I want to help most.

I’ve found that the intersection of my skills is perfect for designing, developing, and hosting websites for service businesses. I have discovered that not only do I love entrepreneurship, I love helping service professionals learn to get good at it.

Those target clients are solopreneurs. Individual founders with deep expertise who come to me because they need a website, and stay because I help them understand how to build a sales process and make technology work for them (process design is also a thing I do).

We – and they – have delightfully tiny teams that make a big impact on the clients they work with. You don’t need a fancy office and a huge team of full time employees to do great work. I believe entrepreneurship is the best way for many of us out-of-the-box thinkers to do that on our own terms.

Helping people feel supported and confident as new entrepreneurs is what I love more than anything. In many ways, the website part is arbitrary; I’m a designer/artist, love tech and development, and have intuitive branding and writing skills.

It turns out that when people hear the name ‘tiny thunder’ they think tiny team, big impact.

I help solo founders build a business that sustains the life they want to live, and I feel like this new brand does a much better job of communicating that.

So after months of squeezing this rebrand work in between client projects, a newsletter, and cohosting and producing a podcast, I am finally making it public. As of August 1, 2025, it’s official: cyclone press is now tiny thunder studio.

I still have so much work to. This website is definitely not 100% complete, I’m still squashing bugs, testing forms, and migrating accounts. Despite my best efforts to make a checklist I’m sure I’ll be finding cyclone press references for months (let me know what I miss!)

But I’m thrilled to have followed the founder journey with all its pivots and finally be in a place where I know exactly what our services and packages are, how our processes work, and who we want to help most. For those of you just starting out, know that it sometimes takes a decade to find your sweet spot. Don’t underestimate how hard it is, but it is absolutely worth the journey.

Thank you to our fantastic clients who have made all of this possible, especially those of you who have been with me for all of these 14 years.

I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Nothing will change about how things work around here (although I really hope I get better at delegating, ha). My focus is on sales, strategy, and shepherding projects by figuring out what problem the client is trying to solve, then mapping out how to do just that. I have a great team (I’m actively building) of talented folks who know exactly how to execute on that plan, and my hands are still involved in every project.