PlyMedia Selects Phinney Bischoff Design House as Creative Services Agency

Business Wire, Dec 12, 2000

Business Editors

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 12, 2000

PlyMedia, Inc., the world's leading component image provider, has selected Phinney Bischoff Design House (PBDH), a premier brand strategist and award-winning Northwest graphic design firm, as its creative services agency.

PBDH will develop integrated brand-building programs to support PlyMedia's national launch of component imaging products and technologies.

To meet the tremendous market demand for component images and tools, PlyMedia is activating aggressive marketing, sales, and product development programs to fuel its exponential growth. "As a first-to-market leader in the component imaging industry, it's critically important that we build a powerful brand quickly and effectively," said Gregory Mollner, PlyMedia president and CEO.

"We were drawn to Phinney Bischoff's strategic approach to integrated branding, and are impressed with their creative capabilities and responsiveness," Mollner continued. "Our customers are key players in the catalog retail and creative design communities, and the quality of our marketing programs will be a direct reflection of the quality of our component imaging technology. We're looking forward to working with Phinney Bischoff to develop outstanding creative and enhance our position of market leadership."

"The creative team at Phinney Bischoff is delighted with our new association with PlyMedia," said Karl Bischoff, vice president and director of interactive services for PBDH. "PlyMedia is definitely a company that's going places. We're excited to work with their team to showcase their offerings and help them reach customers throughout the world."

About www.plymedia.com

PlyMedia's image selection and fulfillment Web site (www.plymedia.com), enables customers to choose background images called "environments," such as exotic beaches or European city streets, and then match the lighting and camera angle characteristics of the "environment" when shooting their models or products in the photography studio. After selecting the background the creative team wants to use, the photographer shoots the model or subject against a solid color background (most often a blue screen), "layers" the alpha-channel masked subject image over PlyMedia's background environment, and adds modest shadowing effects. Customers can also use PlyMedia's "overlays" such as palm fronds, snowflakes, etc., to accentuate their photos, as well as PlyMedia's "subjects", such as models and animals. The result is a seamless composite photograph that looks as if it were shot on location.

In today's "image is everything" world, merchandise branding through imagery continues to be a fundamental aspect of almost every promotional strategy. With budget demands forcing creative professionals to produce location-based imagery "faster, better and cheaper", PlyMedia's products and technologies give designers the ability to create imagery that places their products or models anywhere in the world, without ever leaving the photography studio.

About PlyMedia, Inc.

Founded and based in Seattle, PlyMedia is the world's leading component image provider. With a mission to advance creativity and communication through imaging, PlyMedia enables graphic artists to save time and money producing component images that look like they were "shot on location". PlyMedia's photo library features background environments from some of the world's top modeling locations and incorporates patents-pending light matching and perspective matching technology. With a broader creative palette and increased creative control, PlyMedia users easily combine layers of digital foregrounds and backgrounds into seamless, high-quality images that enhance the marketing of the users' products and services. More information about the company's products and services can be found at www.plymedia.com.

About Phinney Bischoff Design House

Phinney Bischoff Design House has been a leading Northwest graphic design firm for the past two decades and has emerged as a premier interactive partner and brand strategist for many Northwest companies. PBDH continues to garner awards and accolades for a wide range of both print and interactive work that can be found on the Web at www.pbdh.com.