Independent Studios is Dead! Long Live Blue Dozen Design!

As you’ve probably gathered – we’ve rebranded, relaunched and recajiggered our site and our selves. We had several reasons. But, really, the main one is that this identity will better match what we’re doing here. DesignAVL.com didn’t really match the name of our company, and Independent Studios had gotten a little stale. We’re not independent. We’re very much dependent – on several things. You, each other, our families. We might have separate offices, we might lead separate lives – but, we depend on each other. We wanted to ditch the Independent part – which would leave us with just Studios – and who wants to see that?

So – welcome to Blue Dozen Design.

What is Blue Dozen? According to James, our intrepid leader:

Blue Dozen was spawned from really considering what this business is, and why I do what I do with it and through it. I’m a married man with 5 children. They are why I work the way I do. They’re my “raison d’etre,” the reason I get up in the morning and do the work. They’re six beautiful, amazing, brilliant individuals. They all have blue eyes. Do the math. They’re dependent upon me to bring home the bacon, and I’m dependent upon them to keep me breathing and growing and stretching and striving. When I started Independent Studios waaaaaaaay back in 1999, I chose the name “Independent” as a way of thumbing my nose at the rest of the world that (at that time,) thought that it would be impossible to go it alone as a designer in Asheville. That was wrong, really. It’s never good to start something with a negative mindset. Blue Dozen is a fresh start, a new ethos, and an impetus to kickstart the business and design culture that I really want to see out of this business and this group. Blue Dozen is about my love, my dedication – and, just as importantly, my support system. I love my family. They come first – without excuses. I love design, I love the team here, I love our clients, and I love this business. But – without those 12 blue eyes, those 6 stars, I would really just be an independent weirdo, fiddling my way through life.

We’re still the same group of designers, artists, programmers, social media freaks and geeks that you have come to expect out of DesignAVL/Independent Studios. But – we’re reinventing the design wheel. Still too much caffeine, still plenty of joking around – just a fresh, new focus.

Plus – heck – it’s a catchy name and one that we can market a lot easier. Domain names are important (we’ve got a blog post about that coming soon…) and we dig the color blue.

Nice to meet you. Again.