Editor’s note: Blackstrap Media rebranded as Kei in February 2025.
In the early days of Blackstrap Media, the full-service marketing agency operated out of the first floor of founder Kevin Chenault’s Jacobsville neighborhood home. Each morning, Chenault cleared away his children’s toys before Blackstrap’s employees arrived.
Perhaps that explains the clean lines and uncluttered, minimalist look of Blackstrap’s new office. Drawn by recessed lighting, soothing blues, and natural elements, the North Main Street workspace balances casual with precision.
“The office culture I wanted to instill in Blackstrap was one balancing a fun atmosphere that is focused on success,” says Chenault, who also serves as the company’s director of business development.
Chenault grew up nearby on Columbia Street, which factored into positioning his company in Jacobsville. All along, he’s sought a standalone office space with character.
Enter 417 N. Main St. The two-story brick structure was built in the 1950s as an office for IBM. When Randy Brown bought it in 2018 for his company CGM Technologies, he did a full remodel, leaving Suite D move-in ready for Blackstrap Media in 2023. The 500-square-foot second-floor landing, with its distinctive protruding glass façade, doubles as Blackstrap’s lobby.
Blackstrap occupies a nearly 2,000-square-foot office that once housed marketing firm KFS & Associates. Despite Blackstrap’s vividly colored branding, its office exudes calm. Eight employees, from account managers and graphic designers to digital marketing and social media strategists, settle into windowed cubicles offset by white walls and walnut trim, and outfitted with raised desks and copious houseplants. Here, they craft marketing solutions for accounts such as ECHO Community Healthcare, AmeriQual Foods, Building Blocks, Field & Main Bank, and Freedom Bank.
The company made a few tweaks to its space in the building’s atrium, raising a bar affixed to the wall to create elevated seating by the windows overlooking East Virginia Street. Employees, laptops in hand, have the option to utilize this space for a change of scenery, which includes a large world map based on Capt. James Cook’s 18th-century global expeditions.
Chenault’s wife, Emily, designed the built-out kitchen located in an old server room. Therein lies perhaps arguably the office’s most popular feature: a Rocket espresso machine in Cronometro R exterior with a Mozzafiato body style and Faustino coffee grinder.
Chenault and director of operations David Jones share a love of coffee — in fact, Jones previously owned Planters Café & Coffee Bar, which moved to Burkhardt Road in 2018 after operating for more than 20 years in Henderson, Kentucky. New Blackstrap Media employees learn to whip up custom drinks using beans from New Harmony’s Black Lodge Coffee Roasters as a way to engage with clients and each other.
“The espresso machine is not only a great icebreaker with clients, but it’s also a team building exercise, to get your brain thinking about things that are not just your job all the time,” Chenault says.
Blackstrap, which converted its prior office space on Maryland Street into a studio, feels more at home on North Main.
“This was the perfect mix of some privacy and the ability to engage with each other. Connectivity is really important. We’re trying to instill that more in this office than we had at the old office.”
