Over the last few months we have been doing a lot of planning here at {e}. We have been talking about projects, ideas, business, marketing, and everything a company should be discussing when looking into the future. While doing all of this planning, I realized that it’s hard to think about where you are going without thinking about where you have been. So, let me share a little of the story behind how {e} house studio came to be.

IT’S ALL IN THE “e”

I can’t tell you how many times we have been asked what the “e” stands for in our name. Many people assume that the “e” refers to “electronic”, as in “e-mail” or “e-commerce”. Although these are some of the marketing and design services we provide our clients. The truth of it is that we scavenged the “e” from an old sign left for junk on the streets of Mexico City. I am sure at this point you are thinking, “Mexico City? Junk? What are you trying to say about your company?” Well keep reading, the story gets better and cleaner sounding. I promise.

This crazy ride that we call {e} house studio all started back in Mexico City when one of the original founders (We’ll refer to him as “Memo”), a talented designer that had worked with some of the top flash creators and developers at the time, found this large metal “e” and formed an attachment to it (Don’t ask us why).

As luck would have it, the company Memo was working for came to an close at the very tail end of the first Internet boom (web 1.0). Then one day as he joblessly (Yes, I did just make up that word) looked up at the metal “e” hanging on the wall in his house, a light bulb went off in his head that sparked his interest to start his own design firm. After finding a talented brain of a developer to join Memo, the two partners reached out to an old school friend who resided in the States.

Enter me, Aaron: I was living in Boulder, Colorado after graduating from the University of Colorado where I had studied art and business with a focus on entrepreneurship. I was also in a jobless state since I decided to make a career change right before 9/11. So the call from Mexico City with the idea of setting up a design firm here in the US sounded pretty good.

A LITTLE OFFICE ON PEARL STREET

Now that we had three partners and a name for our little venture, {e} house studio (based on Memo’s idea to start a design firm while dreamily starring at the “e” hanging in his house), the first step was to setup shop in a little office on the well known Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado. The next step was to develop a website.

As is the case with many startup companies, our office left a lot to be desired. But it functioned for our purposes which was mainly putting our noses to the grindstone and producing good work.

As time went on, some of the original partners left to pursue other interests. Memo had grown to miss his home town and decided to return to Mexico city, where he tried a new venture, producing theater shows. New partners joined to build the team (Enter: Chris, my now wife and {e} business partner). Through our hard work and commitment to our clients, we made a name for ourselves locally in Boulder. After working primarily as a design firm for many years, we seemed to be growing and maturing as a company. We started taking on more and more aspects of our clients’ projects including design, marketing, branding, and a bit of advertising.

HEY Y’ALL

Cut to a few years later (and plenty of mistakes and success made), when we were offered the opportunity to partner with a company in South Carolina called The Quinn Consulting Group. This coalition would allow us to combine our creative skills as a design and marketing firm with The Quinn Consulting Group’s experience in helping companies transform themselves to reach new levels of growth. They do this though strategic marketing, branding, and sales management and the integration and constancy of how they all work together. We thought it would be a great fit, so off to Charleston we went. In 2006 we packed the office up headed south. And, in Charleston is where you’ll find us now. We’ve added some great new talent to the team, as well as some fabulous new clients, and we’re happy as clams in our super cool office space on Cannon Street in downtown Charleston.

So, that’s our story. It ain’t too pretty, but it’s our own. Here’s what we learned from our experience:

Sometimes you find yourself eternally sitting around a table with paper, pens, whiteboards, a thesaurus, a dictionary, research, diagrams, and as much creative brain power you can muster…all with the goal of developing a name, product, or business idea. Or sometimes the idea simply finds you. Both roads are similar in that you have to have the creativity and openness to see that one item worth keeping in the midst of all the junk.