It was around the time of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles that Gary Robert Baker decided that he wanted to start his own design business. After putting himself through design school, he started up Baker Design Associates and has since established a client list that includes Hollywood Park Inc., Fluor Corp. and Xylan Corp. He was interviewed by Julie Sable.

In 1984, I began my firm in a one-room studio apartment in Larchmont Village. The camera equipment was in the bathroom, and anytime the facilities needed to be used, the camera had to be moved. All of my files took the place of the Murphy bed.

In 1990, the firm had grown to six employees and I leased a 3,000-square-foot studio on 20th Street in Santa Monica. My employees and I looked around and wondered how we would fill that space.

Now, we wonder how we survived in such a small space. Our business expanded beyond our wildest dreams over the past seven years.

We are moving to a building that I purchased, a former family-owned printing company that was built in 1955 with a “recent” addition in 1978. The 7,500-square-foot studio on Seventh Street in Santa Monica will house our team of designers, project managers, administrators and staff.

The firm’s growth has been easy to track in terms of size of staff and studios, but there was always a constant challenge. That challenge was, how to manage this growth while maintaining the high quality and creativity that serves as the fuel for our design work.

We have cranked out nearly two dozen annual reports this past season alone, for clients such as Hilton Hotels Corp., CWM Mortgage Holdings Inc. and K2 Inc. Our clients are in some of the region’s most important industries including hospitality, medical, financial, entertainment, recreation and high tech. This means that we need to stay current on trends, developments, people and relationships in all of these areas.

And sometimes it’s more than just creative work. To solve complex business problems in a way that is understandable for readers, whether they are shareholders or an average reader with casual interest in a firm, the design piece has to work. For instance, this year’s Unocal annual report explains the company’s transformation from a domestic focus to an international focus.

Making this process work means attracting people who have the talent, who work well in a team environment and who are willing to serve our clients’ needs by bringing them the extra effort it takes in this competitive market. If our growth is any indication, I think that we’re succeeding.