About Us
DesignMissoula focuses on helping you make a connection with your customers through effective marketing. We like to think of it as uniting community and design. And while eye-catching graphics and traffic-driving web site optimization are fun and challenging projects, the passion behind it is for a greater good: helping serve our community. Our client roster includes small businesses, corporations, and various other organizations, but we like to balance that with pro-bono (that’s fancy talk for “free,” in case you haven’t watched any John Grisham movies lately) services for non-profit groups working in the trenches to make our community a better place for everyone. That’s why we offer free graphic or web design services to one non-profit each month. We devote our time and resources to promoting their services more effectively in order to reach the people in their communities they are striving to help.
DesignMissoula’s team consists of marketing professionals with experience in very specialized areas, including graphic design, web design, and search engine optimization.
Graphic Design:
Your mother always told you, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” It’s no wonder she had to repeat it so often. Humans are designed to make snap decisions based in great part on visual cues. That’s why advertising and marketing relies on trained professionals to create visually appealing materials. DesignMissoula specializes in powerful graphic design — not just pretty, but planned. There’s a reason we choose a specific font or set of colors. These seemingly subtle details have the power to create a subconscious reaction in your customers. We also love the challenge of combining your verbal message with the most effective design. Along with getting it al layed out, we’re pretty good at negotiating reasonable print prices, too.
View DesignMissoula’s portfolio.
Web Design:
Your web site can be a powerful connection tool for your customers — or it can be dead weight in your budget. DesignMissoula can help your web site be relevant and productive. We start by understanding current, effective web trends. Since those change on a shockingly regular basis, we do a lot of training and research to stay on top of our game. So if you are looking for a personal website or an ecommerce website DesignMissoula can help you.
View DesignMissoula’s portfolio.
Search Engine Optimization:
Remember Tic-Tac-Toe? For all its simplicity, it’s a strategy game. The person best able to predict an opponent’s next move wins. (Well, owning the center square also helps.) Web sites are kind of like that, only on two levels. First, you have to be able to predict how your customers search online. Second, you have to be able to predict what a search engine will focus on in your web content. The goal is to wind up number one in the search rankings. Sound complicated? DesignMissoula is really good at strategy games. We excel at identifying key search terms and strategically sprinkling them throughout the web page to boost your search rankings. Higher search rankings means more traffic to your web site. More traffic to your web site means more opportunities to connect with customers. Contact DesignMissoula to talk about how we can improve your web site performance.
Community Support:
DesignMissoula believes we have a duty to give back to the community that supports our business. For us, that takes the form of using our professional skills to further the causes of local non-profits. Every month, we choose one non-profit and donate time to help them get the word out about their services. Those services can range from assistance for domestic violence victims to making art accessible for the entire community. We’re proud to stand by these important organizations.
See Design for a Cause
Our Team
Bachelor of Science degree from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh launched her career in the graphic design and marketing fields. Over the past eleven years, she has gained extensive experience in traditional media design as well as marketing principles. She has created inserts, catalogs, brochures, direct mail campaigns, and more. She left Vann’s in September of 2009 with the dream of helping the community through design. She has done freelance work for Vann’s and other businesses like Western States Insurance. Her desire to contribute to the community led her to work as the graphic designer and Marketing Manager for the Zootown Arts Community Center. Her passion is in community, art, and design. Sara oversees the look and feel of every DesignMissoula project. As well as manages our team of PHP, CSS, and JavaScript developers, delivering a fully capable crew of web experts.
Donovan is now the Vice President of Curse.com and serves as our consultant when needed. He has spent the past 18 years successfully navigating the ever-changing waters in the web and marketing industries. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Business and Computers, he put his education to work with a variety of clients. He has managed mutli-million dollar development budgets, and he especially enjoys the unique challenges in start-up businesses. Donovan strives to work closely with clients from the beginning of the process to complete a website that works best for the business and ensures that the company will prosper from the start.
Debby Florence specializes in event and project development, fundraising, and public relations. With a BFA in English, she kicked off her copywriting and marketing career at vanns.com. She also helped establish the Zootown Arts Community Center, and founded the zany Slumgullion small press with its bicycle-powered bookmobile. Most recently, Debby was Program Director for the Missoula Cultural Council, where she developed new programming and marketing strategies, contributed to national economic impact studies and local cultural planning. She coordinated First Night Missoula, Germanfest, New Zealand Days, and the Missoula Cultural Awards. A creative writer and artist at heart, Debby enjoys helping people with problem-solving, idea generating, and making step-by-step goal-oriented strategies. She also really loves it when she gets to organize things in spreadsheets. Who knew? You can find more about debby at www.debbyflorence.com.
Lindsey T. Irish – DesignMissoula Intern - Lindsey T. Irish is a senior English major and Philosophy/Drama double minor at the University of Portland in Portland, Oregon. She is delighted to be working with DesignMissoula as an intern while she is at home in Florence, Montana this summer! She has presented scholarly writing on Chaucer, creative non-fiction on the education system, and a collection of poetry at the Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature throughout her undergraduate years. She has also had her poetry published in the most recent issue of Prompt Literary Magazine. While not reading, acting, exploring, and writing she spends most of her time pursuing her passion of riding and training horses.
Luke Regan – DesignMissoula Contractor – Received his BA in Media Arts from the University of Montana.
Graphic and motion designer. Luke views design as a relationship and hopes to impact people in a positive way through his design.
Apart from design Luke enjoys playing music, cooking and adventuring in the great outdoors whether its taking a hike or hopping on his mountain bike.