May was a special month for all of us at n-tara. Our company turned 10 on May 11th.
No big celebration, no hoopla, not really any pause to reflect on a decade in business. I guess we're all too busy to look back - we're only looking ahead at possibilities. The fact that I'm just now writing about an event almost a month ago is telling: we're all doing what we always do - head down, moving forward, strategizing, creating, and designing the next solution for our incredible customers. Not much time to think about our story while we're imagining your story.
A BRIEF LOOK BACK
It all started in 1994, when Neil Owen and Jeff Morris, two professors at Purdue University, settled in Johnson City, Tennessee to help create a visualization program at East Tennessee State University which would quickly become one of the top programs of its kind not only in the US, but in the world.
Neil Owen and Jeff Morris at the AVL in 1996
|
With $14.6M in software funding from Alias-Wavefront and Silicon Graphics, Neil and Jeff built a program and curriculum that quickly got the attention of West Coast game design firms and movie studios, hungry for animation design talent. Entire classes of students were suddenly being recruited by these firms, creating a noticeable 'brain drain' in the region.
Jeff and Neil realized that many of their students wanted to stay in the area to practice their craft, but not surprisingly, jobs for animators and interactive designers were scarce. They also took note that these animation technologies would have unlimited application for business and industry, which was woefully underserved by new and burgeoning rich media technologies. If movie companies and game makers could create alternate worlds and animated escapism, it seemed logical that B2B and B2C brands could bring their products and services to life using animated storytelling.
So in 1999, with some angel investment and 3 business partners, Jeff and Neil founded n-tara, with a mission to utilize local talent and an unwavering focus to leverage animation and interactive technologies for the business community. The company's mantra: 'high-tech visual storytelling.'
A DECADE OF THANKS
We wouldn't be here 10 years later if it weren't for our customers, present and past. To you, we owe a heartfelt THANK YOU.
Thanks for trusting in the little digital agency in the Appalachian Mountains to create marketing and sales solutions for your businesses. Thank you for realizing that your agency partner doesn't have to be in a major market or owned by a giant holding company to have world-class talent on its payroll. And thank you for helping us grow by allowing us to learn from you, some of the most brilliant marketing minds anywhere.
n-tara started with a vision: to bring uncompromising design and advanced visualization to the corporate community. Though our positioning has changed, our offerings have expanded, and our stage has become much more crowded, we've never wavered from delivering on that vision - on time, on budget, and exceeding expectations.
FUN STUFF
The
Wayback Machine doesn't have our earliest website indexed, but for fun, you can still take a look at what we were saying on our site
back in 2001.
Interesting happenings, circa 1999:
--Y2K was on everyone's mind
--Intel released the Pentium III processor
--Dot com's spent $1 billion in advertising....on radio, print, and TV
--Internet Explorer 5 released
--Apple Computer releases the first iBook
--The first version of MSN Messenger released by Microsoft
--Windows 98 (SE) released
--Gas hits $1.22
For another look back at what's changed (at least in the past 7 years), read an interview with VP of Business Development David Siepert.