Gillian Skupa

On May 1st in 1978, Joy Doppler and Pat Haines sat together on Joy's porch and wrote three goals for our new communications firm. The Design Company was determined to "have fun, do good work, and make a profit" from day one. The odds, of course, were against the success of a women-owned small business, but 30 years have passed; thousands of projects have been successfully completed; hundreds of satisfied clients, valued vendors and wonderful friends have been added to our history. Even though for many of those years we achieved only the first two goals, we never lost sight of our original priorities.

As we move through our third decade, we continue to pride ourselves on creative problem solving and responsiveness to all of our customers. It is our hope that we will continue to have fun ... because you give us the opportunity to do what we enjoy; continue to do good work ... by listening carefully to you and by applying logic, simplicity and intelligence to problem solving; continue to make a profit ... by using a practical business philosophy based on ethics and integrity, thus enabling us to give back to our community in a variety of ways.