Companies on the move

Growth Strategies Profile: ASTRO Studios

Grabbing opportunity and taking risks

Brett Lovelady and Kyle Swen aren't afraid of a little risk, even if it means taking on a project that they've never tackled before. As founders of San Francisco-based ASTRO Studios, the pair have integrated risk taking into their business plan by meeting head-on the challenge of new, exciting projects for the likes of Nike, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola, and most recently, Microsoft’s next generation XBOX360.

"One thing that separates us from our competition is that we aren't scared to take risks, and that we've made that credo part of our firm's core culture," says Lovelady, company president. "That means we'll try it even if we haven't done it before, do the job well based on our principles and come out stronger as a result."

Put simply, words like routine and ordinary aren't acceptable at ASTRO Studios, a 20-employee firm that has been handling industrial design and art direction for large firms since Lovelady and Swen joined forces to start the company in 1994.

The accolades and big client names haven't always been easily attainable for ASTRO Studios. The company was started with a minimal investment from friends and family, then driven to success by its owners' ambition to create a sustainable firm that its employees want to work for, and that its business partners want to do business with. Early on, Lovelady says the firm relied on a small portfolio of successful projects and its founders' experience in the industrial design field to get a foot in the door.

"To secure clients like Nike, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft, we first needed to discover who we were in the marketplace and what our differentiation was," recalls Lovelady. "We then developed case studies and credibility from past work and our experience working for other companies."

Lucky for the budding entrepreneurs, graphics and hard-copy materials did the talking for them much of the time. "We're in a business that's heavy on tangible elements, visuals and eye candy for potential clients to review," says Lovelady. "It's a bit of an insurance policy for first-time clients, who assume that if you can do it for another company that you can do it for them too."

One such project in 1999 found ASTRO Studios helping Nike improve the sport of running. At the hub of new product creation, Lovelady and Swen set up brainstorm sessions to figure out which issues and agendas took priority. Acting as somewhat of an "end user's advocate," the ASTRO Studios team was charged with defining and designing an electronic product (Nike's first such product) that would transcend the consumers' expectations. The end result: the Triaxx Watch – a project that netted Nike over $200 million in new revenues.

Considered a small to midsize shop in its own industry, ASTRO Studios has helped a myriad of firms to reinvent and refresh their products. Much like the Nike project, Compaq once challenged the company to develop a "Palm killer" PDA for Microsoft's Pocket PC launch. The result is the industry-leading iPAQ and over $1 billion in revenue for Compaq.

To get such high-profile projects completed, ASTRO Studios relies on a team of experienced designers, engineers and marketing experts. Keeping that team intact has been one of Lovelady's primary business challenges, since creative types often yearn for new challenges and business environments.

"Hiring and retaining the right talent is one of the key aspects of our business," says Lovelady. "Our ultimate goal here is to create an environment where people produce good work, because everything we do feeds on that. We're getting close to reaching that goal, and there are times when I feel more successful than others, but I think we've done a good job of getting from our startup to adolescence and to our full, mature state."

Also on Lovelady's agenda is a need to stay fresh and relevant in the client's mind – something that's not always easy to do when those clients only need a company like ASTRO Studios on a per-project basis. Sometimes, he says client relationships can go "cold" and require reviving through email, direct mail or traditional sales contact.

"We want them for more than the first project; we want them for the second, third and fourth too," says Lovelady. "To get that business, we try to be proactive and second-guess what's coming around the next corner. Then, we use that information to help clients move forward with new projects with us at their sides."

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