Heims Open Design Office

DAYTON - Anyone who has picked up a copy of the Blue Mountain News has seen her work. Anyone who has laid eyes on the new Liberty Theater Gazette has seen his.

Delicious Country Cupboard pastries and ice cream, Rawhide Bar & Grill fun, whimsical retro Liberty Theater cinema promotions: what you see is what you get from Vanessa and Josh Heim.

Together, the couple provides the attractive "look and feel" of the ads in these and other publications, often doing content design as well, including covers. Many readers so appreciate their graphics that some have told the Heims they "read" the ads as much as they read the articles.

That creative reputation has generated a growing demand for their services, from poster designs to website creation.

"They (Heims) seem really committed to helping local businesses become more attractive (to local customers and visitors)," said Reggie Mace, owner of Mace Mead Works in Dayton and a board member of the Touchet Val- ley Arts Council.

"Josh and Vanessa have the big picture approach to graphics design," said Mace, who is the council's link with the Heims on the Liberty Theater Gazette and had Josh design the "presentation" for his new Main Street "experimental fermentation company."

"They want to know what are the goals for the organization, its strengths and how do we improve its weaknesses," he said. "A lot of that can be done through communication. He (Josh) has really helped me refine my message."

So much has the Heims' business expanded in recent months that they decided it was time to move it out of her parents' house and into a store front in downtown Dayton.

"We really don't have the work space at home," said Vanessa, 25, explaining that the young couple also has a 10-month-old. "It's been tough to put in the hours we need. We also wanted a place where we could meet clients."

Early next month, the couple's graphic design firm will become the downtown area's newest business, filling the space next to Ray's Barber Shop behind State Farm Insurance on First.

From that space, the Heims will offer design, copying and print brokering. Sensitive to many of their clients' commuting schedules, the couple plans to be open before and after they're at work: 8 am - 6:30 pm.

In their line of work, it's easy to have a store front offi ce and stay busy, either with customers or with computerbased design activities. The space, once Wildberries restaurant, has comfortable seating area for client meetings.

And son Xander? Well, he'll just have to stay with grandma Saldivar (Vanessa's parents' name).

It's a big step for a small startup business like the Heims, but a lot of smaller steps led to this moment in time.

For the first step, you have to go back to high school, where both got interested in the graphic design field.

For Vanessa, who graduated from Dayton High School in 2004, it was the graphics and desktop publishing she did as a member of Future Business Leaders of America. After graduation, she went to Washington State University, where she took a part time job in the graphic arts department of the Daily Evergreen student newspaper.

The experience there made her decide to switch her major from Architecture to Digital Technology & Culture.

Josh Heim, 27, attended Pullman High School, where he did a graphics project in his senior year. He too started out as an Architecture major, but changed direction after he worked at the college's "Image" Shop, making banners, stickers, fliers and posters for various student groups on campus.

"One year, I designed a Tshirt for fans of the Cougars basketball team," he said. "It was great to walk into the arena and see several thousand spectators wearing a T-shirt with my design."

The Heims graduated in different years because Josh took two years off after high school for mission work on behalf of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Vanessa was done with college two years ahead of her husband in 2008 and they didn't actually get acquainted until they were introduced by mutual friends on Facebook and began dating .

Vanessa had moved back to Dayton, where she thought she might be for a short while to get her feet on the ground after college. She didn't expect to find any meaningful work in her field until she learned that Blue Mountain News publisher Ken Graham was looking for help on his monthly.

"I didn't think I was going to stay here that long," she said. "You know the reputation recent graduates have. Someone predicted I'd last no more than 10 months."

Her design work for the Blue Mountain News, which included the recent collaboration with the Times on the Touchet River Valley visitors guide, is now going on three years.

The couple was married in March last year and Xander arrived shortly after. They soon discovered that there was plenty of business for both of them in the Dayton area, particularly since their hourly rates ($35) are almost half of the going rate in Walla Walla ($65).

"I was surprised by all the things needing done around here," Vanessa said about such clients as Scott Underwood's PC Solutions, Mace Mead Works, the new Coppei Coffee shop in Waitsburg, the Sustainable Living Center in Walla Walla, Liberty Theater and others.

"People around here have lots of ideas," she said.

Josh agreed.

"It's definitely a full-time job," he said. "It's been fun to see it (enterprises in the area) growing. This is a good hub for us."

Being in a small town, it's important for the community to be behind you, they said, and it was with the Chamber and their new landlord, Bette Lou Crothers, being very supportive of the couple's first storefront venture as entrepreneurs.

" When we let people know we needed a real offi ce, everyone was willing to help," Vanessa said.