Magazine profiles local graphic designer

SYRACUSE - When Marc Stress started getting e-mails from the publication Graphic Design USA about its "People to Watch" issue, he thought it was just looking for nominations.

Turns out that Stress was going to get his own page in the January 2008 issue.

Marc Stress is the president and

"My first reaction was surprise," say Stress. "Before that, I really didn't believe when I was getting the e-mails requesting information that it was directed to me."

Stress is among 43 designers nationwide to get a full-page profile. The industry-specific magazine selects designers it considers as those embodying the spirit of the creative community.

Stress says the whole process was done by e-mail. Profile subjects get asked the same questions, and the format has been the same since the issue first published over 40 years ago.

"There are some serious questions - serious as they can be about the design industry and about the business of design, but then there's also the fun and personality questions like 'what's your favorite movie' and 'what TV shows you like' and those kinds of things."

Stressdesign currently occupies a 4,000-square-foot space inside Rockwest Center at 1001 West Fayette St. in Syracuse. The firm has four employees, including the owner. Stress says his revenue for 2007 surpassed $350,000, and he is hoping for $500,000 this year.

Stress says his inclusion in the "People to Watch" issue lends credibility to what his firm is trying to accomplish.

"I also think - that because this is a national publication - it gives us national exposure and will make what we're doing here that much more familiar to somebody we contact."

Stress believes there were a lot of factors that went into him being selected - including the work of his firm and the effort that's gone into expanding his business. But most of all, Stress credits the public-relations help he's had in the past 18 months, releasing in-formation to both national and local outlets.

Stress is the current president of the Upstate Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and feels his involvement with AIGA has also helped to spread the word about his business.

"I haven't just been in Syracuse doing this," says Stress. "I've been talking to a larger national audience through AIGA and I think all of those things add up to kind of showing up on the radar of Graphic Design USA and getting selected."Stressdesign says it has has created award-winning work for Syracuse University, Ingersoll Rand, Welch-Allyn, Kahle Manufacturing, and Clayscapes Pottery. The firm is also working with clients from Denver, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

Stress figures his design firm now has perhaps as many as 150 clients.

"We could have 20 to 30 different projects, different clients with maybe twice that many projects in house at any one time in various stages of production."

After attending Mohawk Valley Community College and SUNY Fredonia, Stress began his career working at Syracuse University and ChaseDesign, a Skaneateles firm. Stress then fulfilled a lifelong goal of owning his own design fnn when he found-ed Stressdesign in 2000. He started working in his home, then moved the business to Rockwest Center in 2002. Stressdesign later moved into a bigger, 3,000-square-foot space in 2006.

Stress says he's optimistic about the future of graphic design and believes it's a very competitive market. Unlike bigger cities like Providence, Boston, Pittsburgh, or Rochester, Stress says Syracuse doesn't have many graphic-design firms with fewer than 15 employees. He felt it was the type of niche service that would fit in well against some of the bigger ad agencies in Syracuse.

"I think that's what makes us unique."