Fair Oaks Design Group Exhibited in San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Sugarman Design Group, a Fair Oaks' business, started out as a two-person operation based out of owner Paula Sugarman's home in 1999 and has continually evolved. This year a wine label designed by the group will be exhibited in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The label, hanging on the wall of the museum, was made for GrapeCraft Wine's 2005 CheapSkate Surly Chenin Blanc, designed by Sugarman Design employee Jennifer Hill. 

Hill, who has a degree in illustration, said she never expected this wine label to achieve particular recognition.

"I really enjoyed working on the label and it is amongst my favorites but there are many others I am proud of," Hill said. "This wine label was very conceptual and I believe it is being exhibited because it fit into the designers' grand scheme of things."

Sugarman said the group was not given much notice on the exhibit.

"Clark Smith, the wine maker behind CheapSkate, simply Cc'd us on the email from the designers of the exhibit, which asked for two of his bottles of wine - our label included," she said. "We were completely surprised."

Within the past year with this honor included, Sugarman said she has begun to realize just how well her business is thriving and withstanding the recession.

"Over the course of the last three years - most recently, last year, I realized that I'm still here and a lot of people aren't. We're still thriving - we actually grew last year, which is why we're adding an extra designer on to the staff. All I can say to that is, 'Wow, we're really lucky.'"

Sugarman Design Group specializes in designing "identities" for many different kinds of businesses. These identities are developed by the graphic design team and help to represent a specific brand.

"People don't really know what's inside the package unless they make it their business to do the research," Sugarman said. "Our job is to tell a story somehow and that's why we're important because we need to differentiate that product from the rest."

Hill, who has previously designed for Java City, said she enjoys working at Sugarman Design because of the atmosphere it offers.

"The great thing about Paula is rather than just doing all our work on the computer she encourages us to take out sketch paper and develop ideas that way. Then the ideas tend to have more life to them rather than if we just did it on the computer," Hill said. "Not all graphic designers do that anymore."

Sugarman has been in the graphic design industry for more than 20 years. 

"I was very interested in art from a very young age," Sugarman said. "After I graduated from high school I kept being asked to design friends' wedding invitations and restaurant menus and I was starting to get work from Sutter and Mercy Health Care."

Although the work seemed to be available for Sugarman in graphic design, she said she also considered architecture school and interior design before settling.

"I was still trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life, but the work for graphic design just kept coming and finding me," she said. "So I had a small studio above Paragary's downtown from about 1977 to 1980. But I decided I wasn't doing the level of work I wanted. At that point all of my work was based off artistic talent - I didn't have any real skills developed yet. So, I went to design school."

Sugarman graduated from the Art Center College of Design located in Pasadena, CA in 1984 with a degree in graphic design and marketing. After graduation she was hired on at Page Design as their third employee and worked with the company for almost 15 years.

During her time with Page Design she became friends with fellow employee Linda Pucilowski. Together the two started Sugarman Design Group.

"It was a good place to start. Working out of home - and it was a really good blend because she liked the production side of it and I liked the creative side," Sugarman said.

After a few years, the two parted ways and Sugarman established her business in Fair Oaks.

"I came from an entrepreneurial family and I thought, 'I've gotta try this.' I just have to try it, because I will always wonder if I could do it on my own," she said. "Growing up with business being discussed in the household all the time - it just seemed fitting."

There are currently four full-time employees with Sugarman Design Group. 

"We have other part-time people like production, bookkeepers, accountants, etc," Sugarman said. "But our basic four are Jodi Keer and Jennifer Hill who work in design and Kelly Tanner who manages us all."

Sugarman said much of the work done in her business is based off creativity, but sometimes that is not enough.

"We are kind of problem-solvers for companies, so I look for people who have that kind of inclination as well. I'm usually looking for another reason for a specific person to be here besides their graphic design degree and background in packaging - that really sets them apart," she said.

Working within a studio of other designers has always been Sugarman's "sweet spot."

"I always knew when I hung out my shingle that it was going to have to be a business with employees that needed to grow. My goal has always been to have about six designers. We haven't gotten there yet but we're working on it," she said.

Dan Marca, owner of Dancin' Vineyard, is currently working with Sugarman Design. Marca said he first heard of Sugarman Design last year through some articles in trade magazines.

"We interviewed a few different graphic design businesses but Sugarman seemed to be the best fit," Marca said. "We wanted something that was classy and elegant but yet still cool. We wanted to be edgy but not too edgy. We found that some of the others we interviewed were really one or the other and Sugarman seemed to have the best blend of them all."