Strong Teams, Growing Companies: Image 4

Image 4 of Manchester is one of the most-requested contractors in the exhibit industry.

Image 4 designs and fabricates trade show booths, pop-up stores, corporate environments—even ferry interiors—for clients such as the National Football League; Lids in Indianapolis, IN.;  Lindt & Sprüngli in Stratham; Cirtronics of Milford; Wells Fargo Bank; and Meggitt Aerospace in Simi Valley, CA.

The company has achieved success by transforming its clients’ business environments into pictures of success. Its annual sales are closing in on $4 million.

That wasn’t always the case.

Image 4 began life in 1987 as a commercial photography lab. Much of its work was used in trade shows, museum exhibits and corporate environments, and the business grew at a steady pace.

Then came 9/11. Trade show business tanked, along with the entire travel industry. “On Sept. 12, we lost $1 million in sales in one day,” said company CEO Jeff Baker, describing Image 4’s fax machine clogged with cancelled orders.

Thankfully, Image 4 had other clients, such as banks and financial institutions, which remained solid and helped keep the company afloat.

Not long after, Baker’s customers began asking for a one-stop experience, one that included not only graphics but entire built environments.

“We chose to respond,” said Baker. “Our designs got more client-sensitive,” as he and his employees transformed the company from a commercial photo lab to a manufacturer.

“Today, we really have become a turn-key, design-build firm from the walls in,” said Baker.

The company’s most-recent success is the creation of the entire nonstructural interior for the newly launched, 1,250-passenger Nova Star ferry, the overnight ferry between Portland, ME. and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

The adaptability of Image 4’s talented staff, along with some foresight, served Image 4 well when the collapse of the financial sector triggered the recession of the late-2000s.

“In June 2009, I smelled this (the recession) coming” and put in cost controls, Baker said. “We factored in a loss in sales of 30 percent. We came close, but didn’t hit that.”

Of the many abilities of Image 4’s team, creativity and reliability are givens—you don’t make it to the Super Bowl (where Baker and his staff created a pop-up store for Lids) without them. But Image 4 has built a reputation for sustainability as well.

From recycling photo-developing chemicals and recapturing heat from commercial dryers in the early days, to thoughtful material-sourcing and energy-efficiency practices today, Image 4 is hailed as a pioneer in “green” trade show and interior decor practices.

The company was named “World’s Greenest Trade Show Exhibit Producer” in 2007 by Inc. Magazine for, among other projects, designing and installing environmentally sensitive, low-impact signs and exhibits at the NEXUS Green Building Resource Center in Boston.

A number of Image 4’s employees are LEED-accredited Professionals (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), and Baker is a Green Advantage Certified Practitioner, a sustainability certification for construction personnel.

“It’s not only good for us as a company, but also good for our community and the world,” Baker said.

Baker said success has taught him many things. Most importantly, that “it is completely possible to build your dream.”

And not just his dream, but the dreams of his clients as well.

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