Ingred Sidie & Michelle Sonderegger of Design Ranch

Owner/President: Ingred Sidie & Michelle Sonderegger
Company: Design Ranch
City/State/Zip: Kansas City, Mo. 64108
Phone: (816) 472-8668
Web site: www.design-ranch.com
Type of Business: Graphic design firm
Year Founded: 1998

    In 1998, after working together for nine years at another firm and finding we shared a common vision for design, we founded Kansas City's Design Ranch with the mission of offering unique, innovative and differentiating lifestyle brand design that always delivers on the brand promise. Design Ranch creates brand experiences that extend to all consumer touch points, including brand identities, packaging, store design, motion media and communication vehicles. Our work is audience-driven and thoughtfully integrated.

  We are hands-on creative directors who work as a team; collaborating with our group of talented graphic designers and with a wide network of nationally known artists, photographers and writers. Clients benefit from the clarity of this direct relationship.

      Collaboration is a word that describes all aspects of our business. We have found that we are able to achieve phenomenal results by working collaboratively with our staff, our clients and our community.

      Our goal is to be open to new ideas, new ways of thinking and working?to find the unique strengths in each person and bring those together. This allows us to harness a variety of perspectives, opens up our minds and enables us to grow as people and as a business. Most of all, it allows us to put all our energies together for the success of our clients. At the end of the day, if our clients are successful, our business is successful.

Personal Wealth
      Personal wealth goes beyond financial success. From the earliest days of our business, our goal was to establish us as a high-end design studio catering to large national clients. The initial impression from the local community, however, was that we were a couple of girls doing freelance projects, and many expected our clients, work and fees to reflect this status. Overcoming this perception took focus and planning.

      Today, our client base continues to grow, and on a national basis. We are judged by the quality of our work rather than the size or location of our firm. Although, we continue to face perception challenges with some of the larger corporations nearby?because we are considered "local" rather than from one of the coasts?we find personal wealth in the pride we have for what we do.
 
Social Wealth
      Our contribution to the Kansas City community is evident in the Corner Stone award for economic development we received in April 2006 from then Mayor Kay Barnes. More than eight years ago, we opened our business in a neighborhood that was not well established. As we grew and made plans to expand, we knew we wanted to continue in the community that gave us our start. We hired a local firm, 360 Architects, to design our new office building on the corner of 16th and Summit, overlooking the Kansas City skyline.

  We also make a point of taking on two to three entrepreneurial clients each year. Although their budgets are more limited, we know our brand development work can have a significant impact on the success of their business.

  In addition, we are both on university design boards, and we take on one or two pro-bono projects each year.
 
Financing
      We personally financed our business and have never taken out a loan. For three years we worked around the clock building the business. All the money that we made we put back into the business. 
 
Women in Business
      We are a certified woman-owned business, but we don't seek procurement opportunities. We want to be hired because of our strategy, experience and work, rather than because we fulfill an obligation. 
 
Accomplishments
     Our most significant accomplishment as business owners is what we have learned about the power of relationships. The quality of the creative work we do is important, but strong client relationships are what have enabled our business to flourish.

     When we started our firm, our emphasis was on the work itself?delivering the most creative ideas, design and strategy. We didn't fully understand the importance of building relationships with the top decision-makers, thinking a job well done was service enough.
  Focusing on developing client relationships has had a significant impact on the success of our firm.
 
Challenges 
      Our challenge is continuing to find clients that respect our knowledge of the industry and are the right fit for our firm.