Paul's Original Logo Design, Circa 1980
I remember the date. I almost remember the exact time. It was Sunday, April 27, 1980. It was about 5:00 on a beautiful sunny afternoon. I was propelling a push mower with unusual vigor around the front lawn of my home near McKinley Park. The added horsepower was being fueled by a growing sense of dissatisfaction with my career in graphic design. While I enjoyed the people at my design studio job, the nature of the work and the way it was getting done just did not match my vision.
The choice was clear – either do something constructive or go through life with an overmown lawn. At that moment, I decided to launch my freelance career.
Notice was given the next day and, by May 1, 1980, I had my very first client. He was a freelance photographer named Paul Cyrus. I designed a business card for him. I have never seen him since.
You'd think that choosing my company name would be a no-brainer. After all, my last name is Page and I design pages. But I had this conceptual image of a newsboy shouting out the headlines and initially christened the fledgling business Page One Design. Within a few weeks, I learned that brevity was better and the name officially became Page Design. The newsboy stayed. And, after 30 years, I am still that newsboy delivering clients' messages.
At the beginning, I was pretty sure I knew it all. But I have learned so much since then. And today I would have to say that I know a whole lot less than I thought I knew back then. But one thing I have learned for certain is that I need teammates.
Once I made the decision to hire employees, friends told me "Now is when the real headaches start." Nothing could be further from the truth. Almost without exception, everyone who has ever signed on to be a Page Designer has been a blessing. Funny thing is, even though we are a relatively large design studio with 10 to 12 employees at any given time, I would venture to guess that we have only had about 30 total employees during our 30 years in existence. Some have stayed long enough to learn what the Page Design concept had to offer and have gone off to fashion successful design studios of their own. Others have gone on to raise families or pursue other interests. And a select few extremely special people have chosen to stay and make a career with Page Design. Ultimately, my proudest accomplishment is the fact that virtually every person who has wielded a t-square or a mouse in the studio has seen an improvement in their personal life while being employed here.
Likewise, it has been equally rewarding to watch Page Design's clients flourish. There is no design award on the planet as satisfying as the happy client who calls and says, "That worked out great. Let's do it again." And, much like there have been very few actual Page Designers, there have been a surprisingly small total number of clients. The above mentioned Mr. Cyrus was client No. 1. The first job we did for him was numbered 1-1, the first number being the client number and the second number being the number of jobs we have completed for that client. Recently, we signed the City of Vacaville Transit System as a client and they became client No. 471. Can a business really survive for 30 years with only 471 clients? Yes, because the secret is not in the first number, but in the second number. (The client shall remain nameless, but we are currently working on a job numbered 233-337!) Our clients stay with us for a long time as well. It is a fairly common occurrence that a certain 26-year veteran of the Page Design staff is working for a client who started with us before she did.
May 1st, 2010 will come and go as quickly as the entire 30-years have flown by. On May 2, we will commence with the most exciting endeavor to date: Our next project.
The future at Page Design will always be more exciting than the past. Tracy Titus and Eric Grotenhuis are the partners who will see to that. The self-indulgent "I" used in the above paragraphs has been replaced with an emphatic "we". Sherril, Maria, Kurt, Heather, Mark, Melisa and Sara are also a huge part of that "we". Page Design's projects, energy and talent are at an all-time high.
While we are spending our 30th anniversary celebrating the future, please watch for a new feature on our website, that will celebrate our past. In our portfolio section, we will introduce a Hall of Fame section featuring some of our favorite projects from the last 30. The launch of this section will be the subject of an upcoming blog.
