The following is an informal, and by no means complete, history of the company from 1983 to today, and is intended to give those who are curious some insight into the evolution of the company over time. For more detailed specifics on projects, successes, and background of staff, use the links at right.

1983-1987: S.U. Graphics

The company was legally established in 1983 by the multi-disciplined artist Christopher Simmons in Redondo Beach, California, as S.U. Graphics. Initially the company offered freelance photography, copy writing/editing, direct mail, and marketing services. During this period, Mr. Simmons also served as principal creative and general manager at PhotoVentures Advertising (PVA), a Long Beach, CA-based advertising agency and printing company specializing in the real estate industry.

S.U. Graphics services were designed not to compete with PVA, but to provide solutions which were outside the scope of PVA's offerings (such as photography and media kits for rock bands, and bulk mailing services for recording studios).

1987-1992: Mindset   top

In 1987 Mr. Simmons left PVA to work full-time on his own business, and S.U. Graphics legally became Mindset, moving from Redondo Beach to Manhattan Beach, CA. The new incarnation of the company was envisioned as an affordable alternative to traditional high-priced advertising/design companies on the West Coast, and Southern California in particular.

From 1987 to 1992 the company offered in-house 2-color offset printing (on a Multilith 1250N offset press), darkroom services, graphic design, commercial photography, plain-paper PostScript typesetting, copy-writing/editing, advertising and marketing consulting services. Because PVA shut down within a year of Mr. Simmons' leaving, Mindset ultimately recovered many of PVA's customers in the real estate industry in Long Beach and the South Bay (South Los Angeles county).

Mindset also published numerous "small press" publications, including Galaxy Class, under the imprint "Mindset Press" (no relation to any company with a similar name outside of Redondo Beach, CA). During this period, Mindset president Christopher Simmons also provided theme music for two cable-TV productions of the Long Beach Museum of Art, namely Viewpoints on Video, and the award-winning VidKidCo.

In 1989/90 the company moved to Paramount, CA to be closer to major client accounts, and became a virtual office company, with no full-time or part-time employees. Sub-contractors and freelancers were used on an as-needed basis, per project, and this became the primary business model for the company. In 1991 the company moved to Long Beach, CA.

1992-1996: Mindset   top

During this period, Mindset was a scaled-back consulting operation, abandoning the in-house printing services, plain-paper typesetting, and real estate industry solutions of prior years. Still, Mindset offered print brokering, photography, copy writing/editing, graphic design and other core services to many clients on a part-time basis.

In 1993/94 Mindset published one of the first e-book/e-magazines using Common Ground software (which later lost the market to Adobe's Acrobat software). The publication, Nu*Real, saw two issues, which were distributed via e-mail and on AOL. Nu*Real concentrated on speculative fiction as well as the nascent growth of the online phenomenon leading to the birth of the World Wide Web.

Starting in 1995 Mindset began offering services for the World Wide Web, forseeing it as the next major content delivery environment and advertising/marketing medium. Mindset principal Christopher Simmons participated in the design and architecture of one of the first online computer stores launched in Fall of 1995, before e-commerce became a mainstream buzzword.

In 1996, Mindset began offering Web hosting services as an adjunct to its growing capability in Web design and development services.

1996-2001: Mindset   top

After relocating the company to a beach-front high-rise in Long Beach at the end of 1995, Mindset focused its service offerings in order to more clearly provide specific solutions based on core competencies.

Expanding on the former implementation of a "virtual agency," Mindset built a team of talented logo designers, catalog and publication design specialists, copy writers, photographers, Web programmers, and video editing professionals.

This group of team members ("team Mindset") —some local, some as far away as Canada — could be brought together on a project basis, where specific talents were needed. Projects were managed via modern methods like e-mail and a secure Web site for group project management. This innovative (at the time) approach allowed Mindset to compete for projects and quote rates up to one fifth that of traditional agencies offering Web services and print design.

Separate Mindset Web sites were developed with the help of the creative team to provide information about company services online: Web hosting (ga-ga.com/mindset/hosting, and later mindsethosting.com), affordable press release writing and distribution (send2press.com and mindsetnetwire.com), Website promotion and keyword marketing (dotcommojo.com), audio/video and streaming media (mindsetmedia.com), and virtual agency services (mindsetcommunications.com).

Mindset began serving business clients around the world, versus simply within the state of California, due to the "unbounded" nature of doing business via the Internet.

1996-2001: Neotrope (entertainment)   top

Neotrope began as the entertainment division of Mindset in 1996. It was launched to publish printed books, e-books, software, and music CDs (neotroperecords.com), and potentially independent films. The division was started due to the fact that we had never trademarked the name "Mindset" in 1986/87 and had found others using a registered trademark in the music and software categories (one of the reasons we never owned the mindset.com domain name).

Neo means "new," and the American Heritage dictionary defines trope as, "The figurative use of a word or an expression, as metaphor or hyperbole." Thus, loosely translated, Neotrope means "new hyperbole."

In 1999/2000 we began pursuing trademark and service mark applications for Neotrope under multiple categories related to the arts, publishing, music, film, clothing, entertainment, and consulting/marketing (to name a few). A trademark application has also been filed for our "><" icon.

2001—today: Neotrope   top

The company known as Mindset legally became Neotrope on July 1, 2001. Rather than try to fight the other Mindset trademark holders to recover our brand identity — although we could prove first use — we decided to bring all Mindset services and Neotrope entertainment ventures "under one roof" as it were, and the company would henceforth be known only as Neotrope.

We kept the Mindset "digital guru" icon which has evolved over the years to its current state. We also kept the service mark, "creative thinking in communication arts." Although it was developed to complement the prior company name — it's still very appropriate for what we do today. The name has changed, but not the commmitment to affordable, effective business solutions.

Pre-existing Mindset Web sites including MindsetCommunications.com, MindsetHosting.com, MindsetMedia.com, and MindsetNetwire.com will continue to exist on the Web in order to forward clients to our new Neotrope sites through the end of 2004. However, as of January 1, 2002, we have relinquished a large number of less critical Mindset domains, including MindsetDesign.com which is now owned by a company with no relation to us.

Neotrope offers the same core services that Mindset focused on beginning in 1996: print design and corporate identity, Web design and hosting (including e-commerce), public relations (including press release writing and distribution), Web marketing, traditional brand advertising and marketing services. Neotrope has 20 years of proven experience, successes, and satisfied clients for these solutions.

Additionally, Neotrope has benefited from over seven years of working knowledge during the growth of the World Wide Web. Experience has given Neotrope a decided advantage in providing the type of services most desired by small to medium companies seeking an online business presence.

As of 2002, the company still has the same post office box in Redondo Beach, CA, opened in 1983, the same California Resale Certificate as when launched in 1983, as well as continuing to maintain business bank accounts at the same branch office of Union Bank of California, as it did in 1983.

The company formerly held memberships with the Graphic Artists Guild (GAG), the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

Neotrope is a current member of: the Uniform Code Council (UCC), which administers barcodes; is listed with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for ISRC codes; is listed with Bowkers for ISBN numbers; is a member of the International Webmasters Association (IWA); is a member of the Thawte Official Hosting Partner Program (for SSL certs); and is a member of the American Society of Composers and Producers (ASCAP).

Want to know more?

You can continue to learn about the company, its solutions, its staff, and even view our company "scrapbook" through the following links:

> who we are
> team neotrope
> studio tour
> scrapbook
> client testimonials
> what's new
> press releases