In May 1978, Joy Yoshikawa and Pat Hayes sat together on Joy's porch and wrote three goals for our new communications firm. The Design Company was determined to ... "have fun, do good work, and make a profit" from day one. The odds, of course, were against the success of a women-owned small business, but over 35 years have passed; thousands of projects have been successfully completed; hundreds of satisfied clients, valued vendors and wonderful friends have been added to our history. Even though for many of those years we achieved only the first two goals, we never lost sight of our original priorities.
It is our hope that we will continue to have fun ... because you give us the opportunity to do what we enjoy; continue to do good work ... by listening carefully to you and by applying logic, simplicity and intelligence to problem solving ...
While "Making a profit" is essential for staying viable, our mission has evolved to reflect what we have been doing for decades, "Paying it forward." By using sound, ethical business practices we can continue to provide thoughtful and affordable design service to meaningful causes and continue to give back to our community in a variety of ways.