The History of Blue Dozen Design, LLC

In the Trenches of Asheville Since 1999

Blue Dozen Design started in 1999, in a basement in West Asheville. James (our fearless leader) had spent years in corporate America, designing products, packaging and sales materials for a multi-million dollar business. That business changed ownership, and wanted James to move to Florida. Having a young family and having spent enough time in Florida to realize that Asheville was home, he refused, bought an iMac (Blueberry!) and started doing freelance design work.

He named the company Independent Studios, and the goal was – and is – to deliver excellent design to everyone. For the next 17+ years, that’s exactly what has been going on. The office has moved from attics to basements to bedrooms to coffee shops to assorted places around Asheville. The name has changed a couple of times (and so has the domain name,) the team has grown, but the results have always been the same. Good, custom design and marketing solutions based on real thinking, real experience and real ability.

Today, we have a wonderful office in West Asheville, and there’s usually 4 of us sitting around in there having entirely too much fun and drinking too much coffee. There’s a couple more that work remotely, and there’s a good chance you’ll catch any one of us working from a fortress of solitude, the middle of the wilderness or the coffee shop around the corner from you. We’ve figured out how to work completely independently as a tight-knit team.

Being in the industry as long as we have, we’ve developed associations with printers, programmers, movers and shakers – and we put those contacts to work for you.

Whether it’s a web site, promotional items, hand-rendered fine art, print design or a turn-key graphic solution, Blue Dozen Design has the ability, the experience and the contacts to make it happen for you – and the talent to make it the very best. Plus, we can guarantee having a whole helluva lot of fun on the way.

Our Site Has Changed a Bit…

Blue Dozen Design - Independent Studios - 2009-ish
Independent Studios/Blue Dozen Design - Circa 2002
Independent Studios/Blue Dozen Design - Circa 2003
Independent Studios/Blue Dozen Design - Circa 2006
Independent Studios/Blue Dozen Design - Circa 2011