design : Innovation + Job News

Although Naiku didn't win the grand prize in the recent Minnesota Cup competition, just garnering the division win has been enough to raise the company's profile considerably. And after a summer of winning more clients, expect to hear even more about Naiku in the near future.
 
The education start-up offers an online education assessment platform that benefits both student and teacher, according to Corey Thompson, the company's co-founder and chief executive officer. (See The Line's previous coverage on the enterprise here.)
 
Since last March, the company has made impressive gains in traction. There are over 35,000 students signed up for the fall, representing a number of different school districts.
 
"We're establishing partnerships now, and I think the Minnesota Cup win was helpful as validation for what we're doing," Thompson says. "It just helps us as an early-stage company to get an audience with people in the schools."
 
Naiku has begun to turn the corner, from having to evangelize its technology to fielding calls from prospective clients. In other words, instead of knocking on doors, they're answering the phone.
 
"It's so nice to have people call because they've heard about what we do, instead of having to explain it all the time," Thompson notes.
 
Another big event in the past few months has been the development of a mobile device that can access Naiku's technology directly. Although the platform can be reached through an iPhone or iPad, not all students possess those, or can afford to buy them. The "clicker" developed by Naiku makes it more equitable for students and increases access to the technology.
 
With school just starting, and more and more customers calling, it seems that Naiku won't be a freshman company for long.
 
Source: Corey Thompson, Naiku
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

Pub Standards MN
Thursday, July 14, 6�8 p.m.
Psycho Suzie's
1900 Marshall Street NE, Minneapolis

Join in the monthly meet-up of Pub Standards MN to "drink, talk shit, complain, and commiserate" with other web professionals, as their website states.


Annual UEL Summer BBQ
Wednesday, July 20, 3�6:30 p.m.
University Enterprises Laboratories
1000 Westgate Drive, St. Paul
Free

Call 651-641-2804 or email [email protected] to rsvp for this annual gathering at the biosciences research center and early-stage company incubator.

Creativity in the Digital World � MIMA event
Wednesday, July 20, 5:15 p.m.
McNamara Alumni Center, U of M Campus
200 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis
Free to $45

Heath Rudduck, chief creative officer at Campbell Mithun, will present at this event from the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA). Registration and cash bar at 5:15 p.m.; presentation at 6 p.m.; networking, food & cash bar at 7 p.m. Pre-register for $40 (free for MIMA members and students) or walk in for $40�$45.


Hacks/Hackers Twin Cities
Hacked! - Why You Should Care about Privacy in Social Media
Thursday, July 21, 6 p.m.
Public Radio International
401 Second Ave. N., Suite 500, Minneapolis

Join the newly established Hacks/Hackers Twin Cities for a conversation about privacy and security in social media.


Bootstrappers Breakfast
Thursday, July 28, 7:30�9 a.m.
Wilde Roast
65 SE Main St., Minneapolis
$10
Early stage technology startups compare notes on operational, development, and business issues with peers who "eat problems for breakfast." Moderated by start-up lawyer Kevin Spreng.


CoCo/Project Skyway Grain Exchange opening party
Saturday, July 30
400 South Fourth Street
details TBA

The early news is that CoCo and Project Skyway will celebrate the opening of their Minneapolis space at the Grain Exchange on July 30. Watch for details on their websites.


Visit Tech.MN for a full listing of tech-related events.

Minneapolis-based children's book publisher Lerner Publishing Group has released its first iPad app, a visually rich and interactive digital version of the book Journey Into the Deep, which Lerner published in 2010.

Rebecca L. Johnson, who wrote the award-winning book, also developed the app for the Apple iPad, says Terri Reden, vice president of marketing and digital products for Lerner Publishing Group.

The book and app highlights the work and newly discovered aquatic life of the Census of Marine Life, an international effort conducted between 2000 and 2010. The app includes content not found in the book, says Reden, as well as photo slideshows, videos of sea creatures, links to websites, a discussion guide, and a video introduction with author Rebecca L. Johnson.

The inaugural app is a new aspect of Lerner's emerging digital catalog, which includes e-versions of its books, as well as more than 120 "interactive books" aimed at K�5 students who struggle with reading.

While those other offerings are aimed at Lerner's primary audience--schools and libraries--the iPad app is targeted more towards families, says Reden, specifically for 9�14-year-olds (although younger and older individuals may appreciate the app's colorful images and/or breadth of information).

Reden described the creation of the app as a sort of act of discovery, spurred by Johnson's own interest in creating the application. Lerner is not actively developing a next app, but the company is looking back at its catalog to see what other titles might work in the format.

The company continues to expand its other digital offerings, says Reden.

Source: Terri Reden, Lerner Publishing Group
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Kristina Halvorson is a self-described "leading advocate" (although not the definitive expert, she modestly claims) of an emerging discipline: content strategy.

"Even a year ago, I was able to track every article that was posted on content strategy," says Halvorson, president of content-strategy firm Brain Traffic, headquartered in Northeast Minneapolis' East Bank neighborhood. "Now it's way beyond anything I could ever keep up with."

That was the vision behind Brain Traffic, for Halvorson's 2009 book Content Strategy for the Web, and for the inaugural Confab conference, which Halvorson and Brain Traffic hosted earlier this month.

Attendees from all over the country and beyond converged on Downtown Minneapolis for the three-day event.

Halvorson cited three main objectives she hoped attendees would get out of the conference: to gain a broader understanding of the discipline, to begin to develop ideas about how to introduce or further integrate content strategy practices in their work, and to begin to identify and explore their own specific roles in the process.

While it was not the first content-focused conference, says Halvorson, Confab's focus went beyond the execution of content to treating it from a strategic standpoint, something that is "becoming more and more critical," she says.

Why? The cross-section of industries represented is one clue; attendees hailed from "just about every sector and sized company," says Halvorson: health care, entertainment, financial, higher education, nonprofits, "mega-global agencies; 1-, 2-, 3-person agencies, marketing folks, tech folks, design folks," she lists, trailing off.

"There were speakers under the same roof at this conference who had never, ever crossed paths before," she says.

That, too, was part of the vision. "All of these people need to be talking to each other within an organization, or between client and agency, about this larger issue of content and how it moves through an organization," Halvorson says.

Halvorson calls content "a gigantic challenge within organizations." While her book focuses on web content, it is just "one piece of the puzzle" that touches many others: print, social media, content management strategy. "There is a method to that madness," she says.

Kate Huebsch, president of St. Paul-based Highpoint Creative, understands this full well. A Confab sponsor, HighPoint's five-woman team provides marketing communication writing across media--and has been for 23 years.

"I don't think [the term content strategy] really lived the way that we're using it now until the last couple of years," Huebsch says. "There's always been something strategic about it, but now it's fun to see a whole discipline building around it.

"You can make things beautiful, you can make things work well, but until you cough up the content, you have nothing," says Huebsch, noting that "anything that's being communicated is content, "from websites to newsletters to call-center scripts."

The strategy is in asking, "Are you being consistent?" she says. "Are you being effective? Are you actually helping somebody with it? I think people, clients have thought of content as an after-thought, and now I think people are realizing it really needs to drive strategy. It really needs to be one of the first things you think about."

Others seem to agree: the conference sold out nine months in advance, and the 200-person waiting list had to be shut down, says Halvorson, who envisions future Confabs and other content-focused events.

"The payoff I have seen is that the conversation has taken off," she says.

Source: Kristina Halvorson, Brain Traffic
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

"I have long felt the future of journalism is about relationships with people," says Michael Skoler, vice president of interactive for Public Radio International (PRI)--between journalists and "the people we are meant to serve," he says.

Technology and the advance of new and social media are making that relationship more and more possible, and a new Twin Cities chapter of Hacks/Hackers aims to connect two sometimes disparate groups--journalists ("hacks") and technology professionals ("hackers")--whose realms are increasingly converging.

This Friday, PRI and the tech/entrepreneur organization Minne* spearhead the kickoff of the new chapter with a free event at PRI headquarters in Downtown Minneapolis. (Note: the event was full as of Monday, April 18.)

Hacks/Hackers is an international, multi-chapter grassroots movement "that is for hackers exploring technologies to filter and visualize information, and for journalists who use technology to find and tell stories," according to the Hacks/Hackers website.

Skoler and Minne*'s Ben Edwards and Luke Francl are the key organizers. At least 125 hacks and hackers will convene with food and drink to hear NPR's Matt Thompson speak about "data overload, the twilight of news brands" and more, according to the event notice.

The chapter's early work is to form a network and trade ideas--"get together and get inspired," says Skoler. Regular events, speakers and collaborations could follow; other established chapters have held project-based events like New York City's "Great Urban Hack,"  during which nerds and newshounds teamed up to turn public information into visual displays and community resources.

Skoler, now at PRI, launched Public Insight Media at Minnesota Public Radio in 2003 to engage the audience in the news process.

"I felt like the Twin Cities is a natural place for Hacks and Hackers," says Skoler, who approached Edwards and Francl earlier this year about the tech side of the partnership. PRI has been central in organizing, hosting and supporting the new endeavor, says Skoler.

The direction of the new chapter will largely be up to the network that grows out of it.

"To play in the new media world, you need to have deep contacts," says Skoler.

Source: Michael Skoler, PRI
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

A small Minneapolis design firm has been named winner of a big industry award.

Sevnthsin was selected last week as an honoree of the 15th annual Webby awards in the Mobile category of "Shopping--Tablets & All Other Devices" for the digital creative agency's iPhone, iPad, Android, and mobile internet applications for JCPenney.

Now 12 people strong, Sevnthsin began as a moonlighting freelance effort for owner and creative director Jamey  Erickson, who in June of 2006 quit his day job to form the firm as "literally just me and an intern," he says.

In 2007, Sevnthsin moved to its current Northeast Minneapolis location with six people and has experienced slow growth in the years since.

Among the firm's larger and national clients like JCPenney, Target, and Pabst BlueRibbon, some local favorites can be found, including hip-hop outfits Rhymesayers and Doomtree and local fashion designers.

"We still love to work with all of our small, hometown things that we care about," says Erickson.

Sevnthsin worked with The Nerdery Interactive Labs to develop JCPenney's Weekly Deals mobile applications.

Source: Jamey  Erickson, Sevnthsin
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

While web developers were burning the midnight oil, Overnight Challenge hosts The Nerdery were putting the finishing touches on an expansion that will more than double its Bloomington headquarters.

The 8-year-old web development firm is growing like crazy; the employee count stood at 205 last week, but don't blink.

"We're pretty much adding staff all the time," says Nerdery Communications Manager Mark Malmberg. "Almost every Monday new people are starting."

The buildout will bring the headquarters to 44,625 square feet, about half of which was being occupied in daily phases this week. The rest will be ready around the turn of the year, says Malmberg, likely just in time for the approximately 100 employees they expect to add by then.

New hires have mostly been developers, but The Nerdery has also seeing smaller departments expand--both its user experience and quality assurance departments have grown from a just one or two to 10 people. The company has also been adding account executives; two-thirds of its business is for more than 200 agencies in 30 states.

The expansion includes the addition of a 220-seat theater, in which the "big hive mind" will congregate on Friday late-afternoons for its weekly Bottlecap Talk, a "peer-to-peer with beer," as Malmberg puts it--a company tradition of sharing work from the week before.

The Nerdery will also let other organizations from the web development community, such as iPhone developers and PHP and Wordpress user groups, use the space, Malmberg says. "We like to be the hub for that sort of thing," he says.

The physical and staffing expansions reflect revenue growth, of course; The Nerdery "is tracking to $30 million" this year, says Malmberg.

Source: Mark Malmberg, The Nerdery
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

This isn't the first recession Bill Moran's Blinc Publishing has survived.

Founded in 1996, the Lowertown print shop and design studio rode out the "dot bomb" collapse (largely on the back of letterpress printing, fittingly), and Blinc has emerged from the recent economic woes well positioned, if not unscathed.

After a "precipitous drop-off in work from clients, we sort of stumbled through 2009 and 2010," says Blinc proprietor Moran, "and then round about August, September, it just kicked back in again."

Now, the four-person shop is booked through midyear with work for clients like new customer Blue Plate Restaurant Company. Blinc recently helped them launch Scusi at St. Clair and Fairview in St. Paul and is now branding their next endeavor, The Lowry, which Blue Plate plans to open this summer near 22nd and Hennepin in Uptown.

Blue Plate is just one of the large, regular customers Moran is focused on. Blinc also helped long-time customer Minnetronix with the identity branding of a new product in January. Moran also mentions a few not-yet-for-publication projects on the horizon.

That may be a good sign for more than just Blinc, which Moran agrees serves as a bellwether for larger corporate activity. "My business is, in some ways, a reflection of [our clients'] business," he says.

Customers dialed down and halted projects in 2009 and 2010. Now, stalled projects have started moving forward, and Moran finds himself in less of a reactive position in terms of marketing to clients--focusing on fewer, larger customers and bigger projects, and even passing on work he would not (or could not) have two years ago.

The turnaround has allowed him to rehire two longtime employees, and another is sustained as a freelancer.

Meanwhile, buzz is generating around the Hamilton Woodtype Museum in Wisconsin, of which Moran is artistic director and his brother Jim is museum director. A documentary about it is making the rounds at film festivals, and PBS will soon begin airing the film.

Work from the Hamilton Museum and Moran's studio will also be featured in a retail poster shop, part of an exciting multi-firm and multi-tenant-space entertainment and retail development planned for Downtown St. Paul. (Stay tuned for more on this soon.)

Source: Bill Moran, Blinc Publishing
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Everyone was a winner, and nothing was lost but sleep, quips The Nerdery of its fourth annual Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge, March 26�27, at which 175 web development professionals donated approximately a half million dollars worth of web design to help nonprofits further their missions.

Eighteen web design teams worked from 9 a.m. Saturday to 9 a.m. Sunday, after which the winner was announced: team TST Media, for their redesign of Bloomington United for Youth's (BUY) website.

(The new site was not yet live as of April 6, but you can see before and after snapshots on BUY's challenge page.)

Speaking with The Line, Nerdery Communications Manager Mark Malmberg reiterated that "it's a win" for each of the web teams to be chosen from the 46 that applied to donate their time. The number of teams has steadily increased each year, from 11 to this year's 18.

"What drives that number up is we keep getting qualified teams that want to do this, and it's hard to turn them away," says Mamlberg.

Through the event's four-year history, $1.5 million of pro bono services have been delivered to 57 Minnesota nonprofits, not including the hundreds of hours of follow-up support that web teams pledge before entering.

Like its signature event, The Nerdery has grown since its 2003 founding; the Bloomington-based web development company employs just shy of 200 people and consumes enough caffeine in a week to kill five adults, according to its website.

The Nerdery has a smaller, 12-employee office in Chicago, as well, where it plans to host a similar challenge in the early summer, says Malmberg.

Source: Mark Malmberg, The Nerdery
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

It's a good way to feed your head, 21st-century-style: through the rapid-fire delivery of ideas that will be Solutions Vol. 4.

Since its first gathering in 2007, Solutions Twin Cities has been packing houses (local theaters, to be precise) with audiences eager to hear about the work of "solutionists" from a broad range of disciplines, but with a common goal: to improve the world and the lives of the people who live in and on it.

The evening will include video, music, performance, and conversation on a broad range of ideas in a fast-paced, digestible format: "20 images x 20 seconds each = 6 minutes, 40 seconds."

Solutions Twin Cities is now a project of Works Progress, a West-Bank based "network of creative collaborators" that is behind a growing list of past and ongoing projects.

The event will take place on Friday, March 18 at 7 p.m. at the Capri Theater, 2027 W. Broadway Ave., in Minneapolis. A social hour follows at 9 p.m. Tickets are $8�16 ("pay what you can").

Organizations and individuals may also sponsor some of the 50�100 tickets that Works Progress has set aside for adults and teens in the community through the Northside Residents Redevelopment Council (NRRC), says co-founder Colin Kloecker.

This is Solutions' first foray into North Minneapolis. NRRC member Ariah Fine, whom Solutions Twin Cities co-founder Troy Gallas had met at a separate Works Progress event, was instrumental in bringing the forum to the North Side.

"The more we learned about him, and about the council, it just seemed like a natural fit to work with them," says Kloecker.

While this fourth volume is the first in two years, Kloecker says Works Progress would "like this to happen twice a year, all over the city, and in a new place every time." They hope to direct the content, as much as possible, toward the community into which it is held, he says.

Among the local presenters, for instance, Vol. 4 will feature North Minneapolis resident, educator, artist, organizer, and writer Amoke Kubat, author of Mothering Mothers and founder of the Yo Mama Institute.

Other "solutonists" will include:

Daniel Klein, producer, host and chef of The Perennial Plate, an online video series about "socially responsible and adventurous eating."

Laura Zabel, director of Springboard for the Arts, an economic development organization located in Lowertown St. Paul that connects independent artists "with the skills, information and services they need to make a living and a life."

Joseph Adamji and his students from the Kitty Anderson Youth Science Center, at the Science Museum of Minnesota, that "empowers young people to change their world through science."

Mirelle Zacharis, artist and co-curator of No Assumption, "a collaborative art exhibition that took place inside a foreclosed home in Northeast Minneapolis."

Matt Olson, co-founder of rosenlof/lucus, ro/lu, (ROLU), an independent design and art studio focusing on "landscape work, furniture design, relational architectural projects, urban planning and innovative collaborative public art."

Virajita Singh, senior research fellow at the Center for Sustainable Building Research, who is "working to raise funds for communities that need sustainable design services."

Hamilton Bell, project director of the Wilder Foundation's Saint Paul Promise Neighborhood, a "cradle-to-career" community-wide effort to ensure that children in St.Paul's Summit-University and Frogtown neighborhoods "succeed in school and life."

Scotty Reynolds, founder of Mixed Precipitation, a performance group that produces short-form projects "highlighting social engagement, and encouraging the exploration of public and private spaces, as well as collaboration across disciplines."

Source: Colin Kloecker, Works Progress
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Pentair expects water reuse systems like the one it installed at Target Field to be big business in certain fast-growing global markets.

Pentair CEO Randy Hogan spoke at a clean technology and renewable energy conference last week in New York, where he said the company forecasts that water reuse systems will become an $8.4 billion market by 2016.

Marketing drove the decision to install the water reuse system at Target Field, but in parts of India, China, and Latin America where clean water can be in short supply, economics will be the driver of demand.

Hogan compared on-site water treatment to wireless technology. Many newly developed countries skipped over wired infrastructure and focused instead on building wireless phone and internet infrastructure. Pentair predicts a similar trend is going to emerge around water supplies.

"They're going to go pipeless," Hogan said.

The economics of Target Field's water reuse system were good, says Hogan, but the math is far more compelling in places where population growth is outstripping (or already has outstripped) the supply of clean water.

The company is installing a graywater reuse system at a Ritz Carlton in Bangalore, India, that will be used for irrigation and sanitation. Meanwhile, Brazil is planning to incorporate water-reuse systems in seven new stadiums for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Hogan says Pentair hopes to win at least a few of those contracts.

Hogan also said Pentair doubled the number of new products it introduced in 2010, and it hopes to do the same in 2011. R&D grew to account for about 2.3 percent of the company's spending last year, and Hogan says they're on track to eventually increase that amount to 4 percent.

Source: Randy Hogan, Pentair
Writer: Dan Haugen

What would cause a person to pour their life savings into converting their suburban home into a jungle-themed tropical birdhouse?

That would be the entrepreneurial drive.

Rainforest Cafe founder Steven Schussler gave a pep talk to the Twin Cities entrepreneurial community last week, speaking at a MOJO/Minnesota event in downtown Minneapolis. His talk centered around stories and anecdotes that appear in his recent book, It's a Jungle in There: Inspiring Lessons, Hard-Won Insights, and Other Acts of Entrepreneurial Daring.

"Life has been very interesting to me," said the New York native, who's been in Minnesota for 27 years and now considers it home.

The three and a half years Schussler spent trying to sell investors on the Rainforest Cafe were both financially and emotionally draining. Unable to convey his vision in words, Schussler began building the concept in his St. Louis Park home.

First he painted the walls black. Then he covered them with greenery. His tropical bird collection grew from a few to a few dozen. He added a couple tortoises. Then a full-scale waterfall, which required punching a hole in the roof. Then lights and mechanical displays. Then generators in the back yard to keep his house from blacking out the entire neighborhood. All while neighbors, then eventually he himself, began to question his sanity.

Luck and persistence paid off, and Schussler eventually found his angel investor. The Rainforest Cafe opened in the Mall of America on Oct. 4, 1994, and expanded to 45 locations on three continents over the next seven years. Schussler sold the business in 2000 for $75 million.

Today, Schussler spends his time working as a creative consultant for the retail, restaurant, and entertainment industries. He employs eight full-time people at his creative laboratory in Golden Valley, where they've developed new restaurants and attractions for Disney World, among other partners.

Source: Steven Schussler, Schussler Creative
Writer: Dan Haugen

When the economy fell apart two years ago, tens of thousands of architects nationwide lost their jobs as the planning and financing of new projects ground to a halt.

Apartments have recently emerged as a source of hope for builders. Now, another bit of information to fuel tepid optimism: a local architecture firm tells us they've been adding employees again.

BWBR Architects in St. Paul hired about a dozen new employees in 2010 as maintenance and small remodeling projects started to trickle in again.

"We typically are not doing developer buildings where somebody builds the building and then flips it to someone else within three, four, five years. The clients of our buildings own their buildings and own them for 50 or 75 or 100 years," says Peter Smith, BWBR's vice president.

As a result of that longer-term focus, Smith says their clients are typically more interested in maintaining the quality of their buildings, and that means small but regular remodeling projects over the course of a building's life. He says BWBR has managed to maintain longer-term relationships with its clients.

Another fortunate factor: "We don't do retail. We don't do housing. Those things tend to have been hit much more severely over the last two years," says Smith. Instead, much of BWBR's work involves projects that require a higher level of sophistication, such as health care facilities, science and research buildings, and correctional facilities.

Completed projects include Maple Grove Hospital, the 3M Innovation Center, the Elmer L. Andersen Health and Human Services Building, and Lawson Commons. The 89-year-old firm is based in the Lawson Commons building in downtown St. Paul. It started 2010 with just under 100 employees and now has 111.

Source: Peter Smith, BWBR Architects
Writer: Dan Haugen

A Minneapolis product development shop is partnering with a British telecommunications research firm to come up with new wireless products that use both companies' technologies.

Logic PD announced the strategic partnership with Roke Manor Research last week. The arrangement also gives both companies new contacts for selling across the pond.

Scott Nelson, Logic PD's executive vice president and chief technology officer, says the two companies got to know each other while working on a project for a client they had in common.

"We both fairly quickly identified the ability to be more together," says Nelson.

Roke Manor Research is an engineering and technology company with strong expertise in miniaturized radio frequency antennas. Logic PD brings design and creative strengths, says Nelson. The two companies will collaborate on work for clients, and they also think they'll be able to develop new products faster and with more features by sharing expertise and technology.

Logic PD was founded by two industrial designers in the 1960s and in the decades since then it's expanded its expertise to include mechanical engineering, electrical, and software.

"An entrepreneur or any company can show up at our doorstep with their idea and we can help them get that product to market," says Scott Nelson, Logic PD's chief technology officer.

The company employs about 100 people at its product development center in downtown Minneapolis, and another 300 at a manufacturing site in Eden Prairie.

Source: Scott Nelson, Logic PD
Writer: Dan Haugen

Give, and you shall receive. That's a lesson learned for Minneapolis branding and design consultancy Imagehaus.

Creative Director Jay Miller started a giving program when he founded the company in 2000. Last month, the firm calculated that it's provided more than $2 million worth of services to nonprofits.

When Imagehaus saw its big-box retailer work shrink in recent years, it was able to fall back on some of those same nonprofits when they returned as paying customers, says Miller.

Twin Cities nonprofits are invited to apply for a grant on Imagehaus' website. The company chooses about one per quarter. Alumni can later get additional services at cost.

The four-person firm recently purchased an 1,800-square-foot commercial condo in the SOHO Lofts building and will be moving there from the other side of downtown early next spring.

As a branding firm, Imagehaus helps retailers come up with names, logos, and store concepts. Besides its nonprofit work, Miller says they benefit from having a mix of large and small clients.

"Our business model has always been very diversified," says Miller.

That's helped them in terms of stability, but also in a creative sense. They're able to take what they learn from working with big-box retailers and apply it to mom-and-pop stores, and vice versa.

"We learn from both--different things," says Miller. "When you have your smaller companies and smaller budgets, it challenges you to be creative in different ways."

Miller says he expects owning instead of renting will reduce the company's overhead and hopefully help it add employees in 2011.

Source: Jay Miller, Imagehaus
Writer: Dan Haugen