ThreeOneFive Design sees immediate growth

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Sep 29, 2006 by Acton, Ryann

ONONDAGA - ThreeOneFive Desigri, LLC has only been open two months, but partners Gregory Hedges, Stephen Masiclat, and Douglas Strahler are already considering hiring more people due to high demand. In fact, the need to hire another person was apparent after ThreeOneFive Design's first week in business.

The company designs Web sites, print marketing materials, and databases. Clients include several professors at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University (SU), the Maxwell School of Citizenship and- Publics Affairs at SU, and Steel City Tool Works in Pittsburgh. Currently, ThreeOneFive Design is also pitching its services to companies in Arkansas and Utah.

Steel City Tool Works hired ThreeOneFive Design to help launch its new tool line. Hedges and Strahler studied the tool manufacturer's product line to design a customerfriendly Web site. After seeing ThreeOneFive Design's initial work, Steel City Tool Works hired the design studio for future projects.

The firm adds many of its clients through referrals. The company hired a part-time freelancer to help keep up with the demand. Hedges and Strahler each work about 80 hours per week to meet client deadlines.

The company projects 2006 revenue of $125,000, Masiclat says. If demand continues, ThreeOneFive Design will have to hire another designer.

The three partners combined their experience to form the design studio.

Hedges, a Syracuse native, worked for Context Studio and King Features in New York City as a graphic designer. Masiclat, director of the new media master'sdegree program at Newhouse, previously owned Stephen Masiclat Design. Masiclat now works full, time at both Newhouse and ThreeOneFive Design.

Hedges and Strahler, who both graduated from Newhouse with a master's degree in new media, met Masiclat there. He was their program director. Hedges and Strahler collaborated on several class projects. Masiclat immediately noticed how well the two worked together.

"It seemed like the natural progression of things," Hedges says of forming ThreeOneFive Design.

Despite receiving outside offers and interest from design firms after graduating in June 2006, Hedges couldn't resist the lure of opening a design studio in Syracuse. Syracuse is an ideal place for a design studio because business is starting to revitalize, he says.

Masiclat and Strahler were both ideal partners, he adds. When he pitched the idea to Masiclat and Strahler, they both jumped at the chance. The chemistry was just right, Strahler says.

"As soon as he asked me, I said yes," Masiclat says.

Since the three partners work from their respective apartments at Nob Hill Apartments on LaFayette Road, start-up costs were minimal. The three invested about $10,000 of their own funds into computers and software, Masiclat says.

As the company grows, ThreeOneFive Design will acquire office space and more employees. The firm's business plan is based upon on-going work for clients that begins with a Web site and continues with future projects like print materials, Masiclat explains. This will create constant work for the firm. Therefore, more designers will have to be hired. Hedges hopes one day to grow to 25 to 40 designers.