Crystal Peak 40: Climbing Upwards—Diversifying the Agency’s Craft

The mid-90s was a time of growth for Crystal Peak Design.

Their client list was expanding through Colorado and across the U.S., and the number of new projects was booming. Owner Susanne Arens saw the need to bring on more help. Bolstered with the addition of a new junior graphic designer and a print coordinator/specialist, they met the demands of their clientele. Remarkably, some of the client relationships Crystal Peak formed in these years lasted into the 2020s.

Crystal Peak's second logo (1990s)

Crystal Peak's third logo (1990s)

Crystal Peak's fourth logo (2001)

Packaging and labeling orders were at an all-time high during these years, but Crystal Peak recognized a need to diversify its client base.

The markets they tapped into include financial institutions, healthcare, hospitality and restaurants, engineering and manufacturing, pet retail, and education. During the late 90s and early 2000s, they entered the world of web site design and development based primarily in HTML. Also, there was an increase of projects that were purely digital, and not necessarily for print or traditional media.

Crystal Peak was honored with the first of many awards for their work, including the MAME Award, the Addy regional award, and the Print Imaging Association Award.

As Crystal Peak handled a more diverse array of projects and time expectations sped up, they invested in more powerful work stations and support equipment. Some examples of this are the Apple iMac G3 and G4, full color printers for proofing, and ZIP and JAZ drives for file storage and transfer.

Crystal Peak also formed relationships with more vendors such as commercial printers, typesetters, writers, photographers, web programmers and web hosts. More staff, including designers, web programmers, sales reps and admin, joined the in-house team through this decade.