History

Our Story So Far

Along life’s journey, experiences shape values and define character. The same is true in business. As Duarte has grown and shifted, we’ve learned valuable lessons along the way. We’ve come to expect the unexpected.

Random Discovery

Originally we had no plans to start a business. In 1987, Mark schlepped furniture to save enough to buy a MacPlus. He’d originally bought it for writing papers, yet, his latent design skills resurfaced as he dsicovered the possibilies of digital art and typography. So he started doing freelance jobs tooting around in a car with no air conditioning. Thank God for sombreros.

Big Dilemma

About a year later, at the end of a semester, he was driving down Highway 17, trying to decide whether to continue in school and go further into debt-- or break away to pursue this new business opportunity, make some money, and give his wife a break. She was having a baby. (Was that really a break…?)

Leap of Faith

The scripture came to Mark’s mind that “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” So he decided that whatever was going to take more faith to pursue was the thing he would do. Faith is believing you can do something that’s never been done before.

Doing the Work

So, in 1988, Duarte Design launches itself into the corporate cosmos, powered by one man, one Mac, and one mission. The company is housed in a one-bedroom apartment in Mountain View, CA, where Mark’s computer sits on a sewing table and he picks up work from school districts and produces some company newsletters.

Selling the Service

By 1990, Nancy was pregnant with her second child, and not very excited about this new venture (ok, she was enraged but we don’t want you to think she’s lacks vision). She even sent out Mark’s resume and insisted he “get a real job". He begged her to read a MacWorld magazine (literally on his knees begging). Intrigued by the technology she said “if I can sell it, you can keep it”. In one afternoon she sold his services into two public companies, Apple and NASA.

Defining Moment

She stopped harassing Mark and joined his vision -- never going back to “a real job” herself. Side by side, they begin to build a new industry, sustaining late night shifts by listening to Letterman and taking turns changing diapers. All was well except for the disturbing "don’t mix sex and work incident." (aka the client-sits-on-a-baby-bottle incident.)

Getting Big Clients

Mark answered a small 2-line ad in the local paper that turned into a coup. The gal who placed the ad had a tiny agency that produced most of Apple’s work. After freelancing for her for just over a year, she wanted to pursue aromatherapy and happily handed over the Apple account to the Duartes.

Adding Heads

In 1992, our first employee’s task is to figure out how to hire himself. He does, along with three other employees, to make six in all. We start to look and feel more like a real business (except for the pool in the backyard) and it quickly becomes apparent that we need real office space.

Pulling All Nighters

In 1993 we are working as a tight team. As newbies to a deadline business we work through the night a few times each month. One employee learns how to sleep sitting up and moving his mouse making us all think he was working. A skill that has yet to be duplicated. We made personal sacrifices so our clients could be rock stars on stage. We learned early on that the show must go on.

A Break in Disguise

Work slows to a crawl in 1994 when Apple eliminates its Large Business Marketing department—one of Duarte’s largest clients. However, within a few months, former Apple marketers begin to land at other companies and re-establish ties with Duarte. At the same time desktop projectors become the rage. This is the birthplace of our referral pool and our business attains new heights.

Real Offices

The flywheel really began spinning in 1995, as the fellowship grows to 13 and Duarte settles into a 1,300 square foot office above a Starbucks in Mountain View. Real office space means we start using a network, accounting stops handling A/P from a shoebox and we minimize armchair ballet competitions due to potential liability.

Accepting the Challenge

We pick up the Cisco account and change our organizational structure to dedicated teams because they are scaling fast and need specialists to work on each account. By the time we celebrate our 10-year anniversary the company has exploded to 21 employees, has an official server room, e-mail addresses with our own company domain and a phone system with extensions at each desk.

Gaining Credibility

At the turn of the millennium, with the bubble still floating, Duarte employs 39 and has a contractor base of 30. We became strong print and web designers and transition from a production-oriented shop to a solid design studio in the Valley. We learn the power and pain of internal critiques.

Learning to Say No

Growing rapidly, we need to expand. But the prices in the Bay Area are in the stratosphere. Instead, we open an office in Chico. A wide area network and video conferencing accommodate our new satellite office. Our server racks almost touch the ceiling. We learn to turn down business and take on the work that makes us the happiest. We have our first sexual harassment training course. Yep, we giggled through it ‘cuz we didn’t have a “real” HR person yet.

Pop!

Suddenly, the dot com bubble bursts. Like a scene from a B-movie, Nancy hunts down a CEO who shafted her. They called security to protect him from her, she chose to forgive the 6-figure debt and asked him to pay it forward some day. After years of having the phone ring off the hook, it falls silent.

There’s Still a Pulse

We do sustain a nice stream of requests for presentation work. We read Jim Collin’s Good to Great and decide to focus solely on presentations because it’s what we are passionate about and can be exceptional at producing. The economy forced us to cut some expenses and reorganize -- a dark day that we have yet to repeat. Debt-free and with cash in hand, we have the reserves to endure with our core intact.

New Aspirations

When the market bounces back, we are leaner, smarter, and laser-focused on presentations. We set out to be best in the world at them. Apple launches Keynote and there is great rejoicing.

Solidly Positioned

As the economy begins to fire back up, the first thing organizations need is great visual stories to communicate their strategy. We begin to rebuild and move uptown into Class A office space, buy everyone slick flat-panel monitors, and begin our snow-globe collection.

Getting Sophisticated

In 2004, we win the world’s largest biotech company as a client and develop a custom process to meet the regulatory demands because they are picky, picky picky. In 2005, we add multimedia to our deliverables and begin to win awards (sadly there are no award categories for presentation). We also start to pass the giraffe (if you worked here, you’d get it).

Legitimized by the Climate Crisis

Al Gore begins to work with us. When Gore’s slide show becomes the movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”, new doors open for Duarte. When we used to tell people that we create presentations their response was “oh, I’m so sorry…I guess someone has to do that”. Now we can say “yeah, did you see An Inconvenient Truth? That’s what we do.”

Letting Go

It’s hard to pioneer and oversee a firm that’s growing exponentially and Nancy needed help! One of her most defining moments was to bring on Dan Post as President of Duarte. Dan is uniquely qualified to help run the firm. He has managed several large Advertising and PR firms during all stages of development which gives him strategic insight to run things. Dan has a rare balance that brings value to the creative side and the business. His strong communication skills, balanced with patience and diplomacy, are what every creative firm needs so the staff feels safe and warm. The perfect environment to incubate great ideas.

Who would have thought?

By 2007 we’d outgrown our downtown digs and moved into a custom space abandoned by a dot com company. Tall ceilings and sky blue walls make the 19,000 SF office feel like oxygen. We even have space for a video/photo studio, training center, billiards, basketball hoops, ping pong…oh, and yes workstations.

Defining an Industry

With Dan in place, Nancy is freed up to assess the global environment, identify the competitive ecosystem, create long-range strategies  -- and to write her first book slide:ology.

Contrarian Performance

The timing couldn’t have been better. The book released September 2008 at the exact same time the economy took another hit. In a down economy, organizations still need to tell their visual stories especially clear and the book flew off the shelves and clients lined up for our services. This kept our heads well above water, which was uncommon for agencies in this perilous economic season. No sooner would we make a list of the coolest companies to work for, that they were calling us with projects.

New Opportunities

The book won awards and spawned a training division at Duarte. Large organizations began calling and asking to have their people and culture transformed into visual storytellers. Good thing too because have you seen how bad most presentations are? We hired so many new people that we have to host cubicle parties so people get to know each other.

The Art of the Story

Nancy’s second book, Resonate, the much-anticipated prequel to slide:ology is published by John Wiley & Sons. but she wishes she didn’t switch to them ‘cuz they are stupid.  Just kidding Dan.  We’re hoping to revive storytelling and sing more kumbayah around here.

Undisputed Leadership

Presentations are the most powerful persuasive communication tool available and we’re proud to play a role in shaping this industry. Since 1988, we’ve created close to a quarter of a million presentations for the best brands and thought leaders in the world. But who would have dreamed that from one Mac and one vision you could find discover such a well-defined sense of purpose…