Freeform CEO Aaron Fekete, left, Julie and Gary Crisp of Crisp Imaging, and Brian Ingersol, Freeform’s chief sales officer.
By Ed Avis
Many people feel reprographics is a slowing industry. Gary Crisp is not one of those people.
Crisp, president of APDSP member firm Crisp Imaging in Costa Mesa, California, is
bullish on his business’ future. He sees growth not only in new market areas, but also new geographic areas.
“This is a terrific industry, we see enormous opportunity,” says Crisp, whose company was called C2 Imaging until a name change last July. “It’s a rapidly changing industry. In many cases, you see less printing in reprographics, but you see more use of technology, and the equipment is more advanced and more precise. And the large format color market is definitely growing. We’re very optimistic about the industry and our place within it.”
Crisp’s optimism is reinforced by the company’s latest moves. It greatly expanded its capabilities in large and grand-format color in January by acquiring Freeform, a visual marketing communications business in San Diego, and it is opening its first Crisp Imaging location in the Bay Area in February. The location in the Bay Area will be Crisp’s 10th location, an impressive number for a company founded just 16 years ago. (Click here to read a profile of C2 Imaging that details the company’s early years.)
Adding Freeform
Freeform, founded in 2003, produces point-of-purchase visuals, event graphics, tradeshow exhibits, giant outdoor banners, and other such large color projects. Crisp Imaging also has the ability to design these projects, but Freeform elevates Crisp’s level of technology and expertise in the large and grand color format space. In addition, Freeform has deep customer relationships in retail, hospitality, sports, entertainment, and other areas beyond Crisp’s traditional core market of AEC.
“Fundamentally what’s great about this merger is that it brings us to a whole new level
of grand and wide-format printing,” Crisp says. “Freeform has equipment that we don’t have, such as the large Vutek printers and a whole host of specialty equipment that’s geared toward creating, printing, cutting, mounting, sewing and producing grand-format projects.”
The services of Freeform, which is being marketed as Freeform, a Crisp Company, will be available through all Crisp Imaging locations. This means Crisp’s traditional customer base – architects, engineers, construction companies, etc. – will have easy access to these new expanded offerings.
“Many architecture firms do interiors work, and Freeform allows us to do more of this work,” Crisp explains. “One plus one equals three.”
Crisp says that even though Crisp Imaging and Freeform are centered in Southern California, eventually he envisions serving markets throughout the country. The combined companies’ revenue should reach upwards of $22 million in 2018, he adds.
Moving North
The other big change at Crisp Imaging is that they are opening an office in Oakland. Crisp says they decided to make the move north to the Bay Area because of customer needs.
“We recently won a large on-site services client based in Southern California who has an Oakland presence,” he says. “We also realized we have 30 other local customers who are based in Oakland. Since a lot of our customers in the reprographics space have a presence in the Bay Area, that’s a market we’re expanding into.”
Crisp’s Oakland location is on a corner across the street from the Golden State Warriors practice facility in West Oakland.
“It’s an emerging, beautiful part of Oakland, with lots of retail and restaurants,” Crisp says. “It’s very exciting for us to expand out of Southern California.”
The addition of Freeform and the move north reflect Crisp’s feelings about the imaging business overall: “I’m very optimistic,” he says.