The Eighties

On this day, VSA Partners, Inc. opened its doors in a small loft on South Dearborn Street in the heart of Chicago’s Printers Row, just south of the city’s Loop. Initially founded as Communication Design Group, Inc. by legendary Chicago design veteran Robert Vogele, the firm hit the ground running, with decades of broad design experience in its pocket and a new viewpoint on how design should contribute to contemporary business. Within three years, the firm and its philosophy — a belief in design as a competitive asset, not merely a visual treatment of a printed artifact — attracted a growing roster of clients, added two new partners (Ted Stoik and Dana Arnett) and simplified its name to VSA Partners.

 

Two client relationships established in the late 1980s, Harley-Davidson and Chicago Board of Trade, produced annual reports that greatly expanded VSA’s visibility and extended its reputation as a source of convention-shattering corporate design. The firm’s client list, originally drawn from the Midwest, began to shift to organizations of national prominence, many of which saw VSA as a strategic and creative source for more than annual reports. As the firm’s scope and staff grew, VSA moved across the street in 1987 to offices at 542 S. Dearborn St., where it would eventually occupy the entire second floor.

The Nineties

By 1997, the firm was riding an unprecedented wave of growth, driven by traditional print design and emerging Web-based assignments. Later that year, with more than 30 employees and dozens of projects spilling into hallways, VSA left its space on Printers Row and opened a new chapter in its history.

Eight blocks south, at 1347 S. State St., VSA took over an 11,000-square-foot auto-detailing shop that some 80 years earlier had originally housed an automobile parts assembly plant.

 

The open space — made possible by its bow-truss roof structure — was converted but kept undivided to retain the dynamic, collaborative working environment VSA had established on a smaller scale. The additional space was quickly consumed by new employees and capabilities, including dedicated interactive design resources. The following year, IBM engaged VSA to create its annual report, and the firm opened its New York office to help service the burgeoning account and others that would follow.

The 2000s

Faced with the choice in the early 2000s of whether to bet its business on the future of the Internet or to maintain a balance of traditional communications and new media, VSA chose the latter course. As a result, the firm weathered the dot-com crash with only moderate damage — and then resumed its trajectory as clients engaged VSA to shift their communications agenda, reasserting the integrity of their organizations and the transparency of their financial reporting.

In 2003 and 2005, respectively, VSA added its St. Louis and Minneapolis offices to expand its geographic presence, add new talent and deepen relationships with clients in those locations.

 

Today, VSA remains one of the few independent agencies of its size and kind in the world. Its offices employ more than 80 people, and the firm maintains an extensive network of creative and strategic partners worldwide. In the course of more than 20 years of crafting the voice and vision for organizations and their brands, VSA has worked in more than 33 industry sectors and has been engaged by 23 of the top Fortune 100 companies or their international equivalents. The firm’s work is seen annually by nearly 12 million investors and corporate audiences, and has been recognized internationally for creative excellence by peers, the media and awards competitions.