PPB October 2017

Dus t C i t y Des i gns O ut of the dust at one of the world’s most inventive music and art festivals has risen a company determined to make custom stickers more sustainable. Dust City Designs (PPAI 678997) in Denver, Colorado, manufactures wood stickers frommaple and cherry, laser- cutting intricate designs to create memorable gifts and giveaways for a variety of promotional applications. “People often refer to the Burning Man festival as the ‘Dust City,’” says CEO and Founder Josh Glisan, referring to the annual multi-day cultural festival in Nevada. “Most everyone who works here has been to ‘the Burn’ or one of the regional events [hence the company name]; we have an extremely creative and expressive team here.” While there is no nationally recognized training or certification for the type of work done by Dust City employees, Glisan says his team undergoes rigorous training on the equipment. “It does take quite a bit of training to learn to operate our machines. We work with extremely tight tolerances on our stickers and it takes quite a bit of practice to be able to correctly align wood tiles in our machines,” he says. Glisan says his company is founded on principles of “creating a work environment that makes everyone want to come to work, and creating a product that leaves our earth better than we found it. Our favorite tag line is ‘Keep vinyl stickers out of our waterway.’” Dust City initially launched its products in the gift and souvenir industry, and quickly saw demand rise. “The product took off at a speed that shocked us. The reorders were constantly coming in,” says Glisan. “As we saw more and more distribution in gift shops across the world, we started getting more inquiries from companies who wanted their logos turned into stickers.” The sheer volume of orders led Glisan to seek out opportunities to work with distributors, who he says have helped by taking the work of responding to branding inquiries off the supplier’s plate. “The distributors have really helped to make life easier for us,” he says. Handling promotional orders wasn’t the first or only hurdle to Dust City’s success. Glisan says the material itself created production challenges for his crew. “We are doing things with wood that have never been done before. Wood veneer is not meant to be flexed around items with small circumferences, like water bottles,” he explains. “So, we spent a lot of time working with our veneer suppliers to get some of themost flexible veneer we can. Our stickers are so flexible that you can wrap themaround a pencil!” The next task was to find a way to protect the stickers from water and UV rays. “There isn’t a clear coat in the world that is meant to be flexible … no clear coats worked without breaking and cracking, so we spent several months working with a manufacturer to create a protective coating for our stickers Dust City Designs puts an eco‑friendly spin on custom stickers by Jen Alexander Burning Desire Glisan says his company is founded on principles of “creating a work environment that makes everyone want to come to work, and creating a product that leaves our earth better than we found it.” 92 | OCTOBER 2017 | CONNECT