Big Behr Design Co

Since 1994, this small design studio in eastern Iowa has produced advertising, marketing and promotional pieces for companies that need to launch, rebrand or grow. Its base is Marion, next to Cedar Rapids, and its work spans print, digital and web.

Print, digital and web under one roof

The studio frames its job as helping a company reach a business goal: raising awareness of a new product or service, or building a responsive website that displays well on computers, tablets and phones and makes the company look like an authority in its field. Its own wording is that it has spent more than thirty years creating tools that engage prospects, build brands and increase sales.

Clients from many industries

Where many design firms concentrate on a single industry, this one says it deliberately does not. Its client history includes manufacturing, finance, technology, medical, data services, electrical and mechanical contracting, funeral services, insurance, higher education, construction, telephony, plumbing, healthcare, real estate, dentistry, software, transportation, restaurants, a brewery, translation and more. The studio says this variety keeps its work fresh, and that many clients have stayed for decades, including regional employers, colleges, a mall and a medical center.

The designer's background

The business was founded by a designer who earned a graphic design degree at Iowa State University and then worked at agencies and a communications firm before moving to a software company. As creative director there he led a team of ten across copywriting, design and production for direct mail, catalogs, packaging, retail displays, magazine and newspaper advertising and television commercials. For twenty-one years the studio kept an office in a historic bank building in uptown Marion. Since 2016 it has operated as a freelance practice from a condo in the same city. The studio reports local advertising awards, among them several Best of Show and Best of Category honors for magazine, outdoor and direct marketing work.

Big Behr Design Co is an advertising, marketing and design studio serving Cedar Rapids, Marion and the wider eastern Iowa area. Founder Randy Behr set it up in 1994 and, since 2016, has run it as a freelance designer working from Marion. The studio produces the promotional tools companies need to launch, rebrand or grow.

What Big Behr Design Co offers

• Advertising: magazine, outdoor and direct marketing pieces.
• Branding and logos: identity work for new and established companies.
• Web design: responsive websites that work on computers, tablets and phones.
• Print and digital material: promotional pieces across print and digital media.
• Product and service launches: campaigns to raise awareness of something new.

Customers and markets

Clients span manufacturing, finance, technology, healthcare, education, construction, insurance, restaurants and many other fields, and many have stayed for decades. Current and former clients include Alliant Energy, Mercy Medical Center, Cornell College, CRST and The University of Iowa.

Key facts

• Based in: Marion, Iowa
• Founded: 1994
• Founder: Randy Behr, a graphic design graduate of Iowa State University and former creative director at Parsons Technology
• Recognition: several American Advertising Federation awards in Cedar Rapids-Iowa City