The Emporia Gazette

February 13, 2012

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Without the Internet, an Emporia company wouldn’t be expanding into the global marketplace.

In fact, said Scott Bolley, who owns IM Design with Shawn Honea, the company wouldn’t exist without a cyber presence.

Honea and Bolley started IM Design at 610 Merchant St. about five years ago; Bolley also owns JavaCat-5 at the same location. Samples of their work dot the office building. Advertisements and posters on the walls were made for companies both local and national.

Bolley’s and Honea’s love for their job was evident Tuesday morning when they discussed what they do, passing jokes back and forth, and laughing and smiling as they spoke.

“We are a one-stop shop...” Honea said of IM Design.

That one-stop shop includes everything that a company needs to market its business or product. Services include graphic design, photography, video/editing, urban design, print design and Web design.

Honea said the company also offers help with television and radio spots as well as billboards. One glance around the studio shows the variety of work they do. In one day, the studio can see everything from paintings, dogs, people and various products.

“We have all kinds of weird things in here,” Honea said. “In one day we can do so many things. It’s a lot of fun.”

Bolley and Honea decided to start the company after they grew tired of working for somebody else. Today, they call themselves professional dreamers. They met when they were co-workers in the 1990s.

“We wanted to work for ourselves,” Bolley said. “We both had the background already and (had) been working for the man.”

Bolley first opened JavaCat-5 and about three months later, IM Design was born. There is one additional employee beside Bolley and Honey — Tracy Holroyd. All three are Emporia State University graduates. Every year interns with Emporia State University and the Flint Hills Technical College work with them, Bolley said.

Over the past few years, IM Design has grown from small jobs to large-scale ones with national clients. The company is working now with its first international client.

“Our clientele is changing from little, tiny $100 jobs to clients national and worldwide,” Honea said.

“We’re going worldwide baby!” Bolley added, with a grin.

IM Design works with a lot of local clients, too. Two prominent firms are Fanestil Meats and Lyon County State Bank. IM Design also works with Heartland Park in Topeka.

All advertisements that Heartland Park controls are done through IM Design, Honea said.

“That’s one of our funner clients,” he said.

IM Design tries to keep as much work local as possible, together with local printer Chester Press.

“We bring a lot of work in,” Bolley said.

“I think we’re helping the local economy by doing that,” Honea added.

The company’s international client is Erik Nording Pipes of Denmark. It sells and markets high-end handmade tobacco pipes. Bolley and Honea met Nording through another client.

Word of mouth, as well as their Web site, is crucial to IM Design. Honea said since they are a small company, they truly strive to do nearly everything presented to them.

“We’re our own sales people, artists and we even sweep our own floors,” he said. “We’re everything.”

All that hard work has paid off. IM Design won the Advocates of the Year award from Emporia Main Street and an Outstanding Image Development award from Kansas Main Street.