Ogden Blue Makes Changes to 'Look Good, Be Seen'

For years, Ogden Blue was known for its art supplies, blueprinting, products and general printing. But in 2013, it found itself needing to make some changes to meet the demands of the community and the ever-growing internet buying world.

“People could buy their supplies on the internet,” said Richard Scott, Director of Sales at Ogden Blue. But what their customers needed was bigger printing and advertising needs, so Ogden Blue changed locations, off of 25^th Street to 1435 Wall Avenue, and started to work with SBR Technologies out of Salt Lake City. “They had their eye on us for quite some time. They knew of our reputation and wanted to expand to this area. The time was right for both of us,” Scott said of the change.

Now Ogden Blue is powered by Vision Graphics and is part of a larger business with SBR Technologies. They have a huge printing warehouse in Salt Lake City where many large-scale jobs are completed for Ogden Blue clients. But Ogden Blue still produces many products in house too. “I can see stacks of invitations, brochures and mailers from my desk right now,” Scott said in a recent interview.

One thing Scott has enjoyed about the change is the fact that SBR Technologies takes care of all of the bookkeeping and Scott can take care of the sales in the growing “environmental graphics” industry. To that end, the company motto: “Look Good and Be Seen” has really come into its own in recent months as big local projects such as large scale signs for Wadman Corporation construction projects, IHC banners, a big beautiful Brixton’s Potato ad and a series of window-size ads for Deseret Book have put Ogden Blue and SBR Technologies on the map in Northern Utah.

But when things started to change, it was vitally important that the name Ogden Blue was in place. The art store has been a stable of the community for over 70 years. “We did not want to lose that name recognition and lose our loyal customers,” Scott noted.

Scott said people have seen the work of SBR Technologies throughout the state, most especially at Vivint Home Arena where they huge window signs are every present. But because of their work with SBR, Scott has really been able to grow the business in the Northern Utah market. “They are kind of like the new parent and I am free to be out in the sales force,” Scott said.

“The change has been good for us because it creates a stability and we have access to equipment that we don’t have to buy. We’ve been able to cut down on overhead,” he said.

And because there is a design team they can create whatever customers want, or produce something a customer comes up with on their own. Scott loves the fact that the client can tell them exactly what message they want to convey and it can be produced in a quick and efficient manner. “I really love to take people to the Salt Lake facility. It’s as big as a Smith’s grocery store,” he said. “But we are part of the team and we produce things here too,” he added.

Projects can be churned in a couple of days or a couple of weeks depending on the scope and size.  For Scott, it’s been satisfying to see what customers want come to life. One of his recent clients – the Deseret Book in Ogden – used Ogden Blue to create a story of their history on their windows. “It was tricky because they wanted to hide some of their book shelves,” he said. But they were so pleased with the end result that now Ogden Blue will be doing work for two of their other stores.

He is proud of the work. He encourages business to include this new environmental advertising in their marketing plans, that way it is affordable when the time comes for the advertising and he has seen the effectiveness as well.

For example, their recent work with the newly-opened Mercedes Benz in Centerville has been highly successful because the marketing was budgeted for and they were able to roll out some great looking pieces. “One way to be seen is to tell people who you are and that’s what they have done,” he said.

Scott said he likes to help customers come up with ideas when they would like or if the ideas are already completed that works too. “It’s one way to market that seems to be really effective,” Scott said of the environmental advertising.

Walk-in customers are still welcome and Scott said they always want to meet the needs of any size project.