“I am born.” So begins Charles Dickens’ classic novel, David Copperfield. And so too the Hile Design blog. But it might be better stated, “We are born,” since all our staff will be commenting on advertising, design, culture, and anything else that is currently stimulating our gray matter. We’ll also be interviewing other people in a wide variety of fields, from product designers to photographers and other creative people from around the world! Our intent is to stay active bloggers—several entries a week. We’ll keep our comments bite-sized, informal, and (hopefully) interesting. But blogging is a two-way street, so please feel free to let us know what you think.

Since my theme is “Birth,” I thought I’d kick off our debut entry by giving a history of the beginnings and growth of Hile Design over the years. So here goes:

1984 BC (Before Computers): Hile Illustration is founded by Dave Hile as a studio supplying advertising artwork and photographic retouching for creative firms and book publishers nationwide. Office space is shared with an advertising agency. (Dave also got married that year so a lot of credit goes to his trusting bride, Claudia.)

1986: After working with freelance graphic designers, the first full-time designer is hired. Company name is changed to Hile Illustration and Design, to reflect expanded services.

1991: Moved into our own office on Stadium Blvd in Ann Arbor. Three staffers.

1995: More hirings. Hey, it’s starting to get crowded! Designed new company logo.

2000: All staff (now numbering seven) are exceedingly relieved to move into a brand new office on Jackson Road, roughly doubling our square footage. An office administrator comes aboard.

2001: Tired of holding client meetings on our lunch table, we knock out a wall, add a conference room and a work area for our office administrator, affording her a comfortable distance from the “Creatives.”

2004: Feeling that Hile Illustration and Design sounds too much like a freelance business, we change our name to Hile Design LLC. Redesign the logo to its current incarnation.

2006: We knock out two more walls and add more design space as well as a digital photo studio.

2008: Staff of ten, all is right with the world and we love our office. Stop by for a visit.

2009: It’s our 25th anniversary!

Tags: Hile History, Hile Illustration

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 10:23 am and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.