BonnerSprings.com

According to an old adage, good things come in small packages. In the case of Infusion Design, one of Bonner Springs' newest companies, big business thrives in a small space.

"We are an industrial design firm. We do product development for a lot of companies, primarily transportation based companies. For example, we do interiors for airplanes, boats and motor homes," said Sean Elsner, the firm's owner and president. "Our focus is on consumer products from designing the product itself to developing the retail display."

Much of the company's business is in the aviation industry, where Elsner, a native of Phillipsburg, began his career upon earning his degree at the University of Kansas. After three years at Learjet in Wichita, Elsner transferred to Tucson, Ariz., where he was in charge of design for the business aviation division of Bombardier.

Elsner, however, had never planned to stay with a big company and had even promised himself that he would have his own business and be established as a design consultant by the time he reached 30. True to his word, Elsner left Bombardier Learjet when he was 29 and with his wife and two children moved back to Kansas City metro area.

After settling in Stillwell, Elsner set about developing his company, occasionally driving to small towns in search of a building to house his enterprise.

One day he drove through Bonner Springs, saw a for-sale sign in a window, and soon was the new owner of a building.

"I had been driving around looking for an environment that had a lot of potential for us. This location is good for us. To have a similar arrangement in Overland Park, for example, would have been cost prohibitive," he said. "We saw downtown as an area for potential development and we wanted to be the first ones in."

"Also, when you consider where our employees live, this is sort of the geographic center. We have people in Lawrence, Stillwell and KC," he said. "Plus, it's easy to get to downtown KC and the airport," he added.

As the company begins occupying its new location at 200 Oak St., the young entrepreneur received the gratitude of area residents by refurbishing one of downtown's oldest buildings.

Built in the early 1900s by Dr. Fred Candler, the building first housed Candler's office on the first floor with other office space and apartments on the second level. In later years, it was the site of Commercial State Bank, the post office and Western Auto.

"It's always nice when a company or business comes into the established part of the community." City Manager Weldon Padgett said. "The fact that it is essentially a high-tech firm using an infrastructure that is historic illustrates that our old buildings can serve today's businesses."

Now, Elsner and his co-workers plan to use these accommodations to expand their growing business. One of the company's goals this year is to increase regional business.

"We hope to penetrate the KC market as well as expand our business in Wichita," said Dave Starr, whose background includes a combination of advertising, marketing and product development and who is vice president of business development.

The designers also have recently opened an office in Wichita, where Dana Richardson serves as vice president of interior design. One of their goals is to grow not only in the aviation business in Wichita, but also in product development

"Up here, we will focus primarily on industrial design, which is developing what products look like and feel like and how they function," Elsner said. "In Wichita, we will concentrate on interior design which deals more with treatments and materials and graphics, things that are more two-dimensional.

The company uses both offices independently, but will also trade work. The designers may manage a project out of Wichita, but all the work is done in Bonner Springs. That way the company can service its customers on site, Starr said.

The firm generates worldwide business, with less than four per-cent of its business in the state of Kansas.

" We work coast to coast and border to border," Elsner said.

Elsner usually makes the contacts with potential clients and oversees the business details, but Starr assists Elsner on the retail side and Richardson on the aviation side.

In the front room downstairs of the new offices, the owner is developing a reception area and behind those walls envisions a workshop for designers because there is street access through a garage door.

"We can get an airplane fuselage through that door and get it into the shop back there where we can create prototypes," Starr said.

"There's also no basement to this building. Other old buildings with basements and wood floors could never support enough weight for us to do what we do," added Elsner.

When designing an airplane interior they deal with everything seats, cabinets, cockpits, shelves, lights, etc. They must frequently deal with the Federal Aviation Administration to incorporate all safety regulations into their designs.

"We work with companies that actually build the airplanes and determine details such as the length of the cabin, where the windows should go, etc.," Elsner said.

Everyone in the Bonner Springs office is an industrial designer, but the firm does have interior designers in other offices.

Elsner maintains an unstructured environment so that ideas can flow freely. Employees have flexible hours and are motivated by the assurance that they are financially rewarded according to what they put into the company.

Even though there is no established hierarchy once a project begins, Elsner, Starr and Richardson generate the business and deal with the clients.

Once a project starts, however, they work as a team.

Although Infusion Design is a small firm, it competes with larger companies that consist of hundreds of people.

"A lot of times, people respect us because we are small and fast and very knowledgeable and thorough about what we do," said Elsner. "There's a lot of work we have turned down, and we could grow faster than we do and be bigger than we are. But we want our firm to be a small, personal environment."

Both Elsner and Starr want to focus on design and want to be part of an environment where they can control their own destinies.

Each brought some clients with them from prior companies, Elsner with some Bombardier clients and Starr with Hagar.

"This gave us the boost to get started. Both of those names in their respective industries are well thought of, so that gives us something to talk about when we meet with prospective clients," Starr said.

Currently they are working on a client's plane that had attracted the attention of the top firms in the country, but Infusion got the contract based on their reputation.

"Purely on word of mouth and reputation, we got the project which had been bid on by the top two or three firms in the country," said Elsner.

The designers also develop displays for Eagle Creek, a travel gear company out of California. In this case, they work only with product presentation, not product development.

Another client is Thompson Murray out of Fayetteville, Ark., a company that handles all of Proctor & Gamble's products that are distributed through Wal-Mart.

"This means that everything P & G sells at Wal-Mart has been touched by us in some way," said Starr. "We work with them to configure the store and the way the products are displayed on the racks."

"Each square foot of shelf space is rated in terms of dollars. One square foot could literally mean two million dollars a year for a company. Therefore what that shelf space should look like becomes critical, so we offer them our expertise to ensure that they have the best chance of success," Elsner said.