Archive                           December 2008

Museum exhibits

Taylor Studios surpasses $4 million in revenue, hopes to break $10 million by 2012

By Elyse Russo
CIB staff writer
Published: Dec. 2008

Artists and business people tend to process and understand things differently. So when business people and artists work together, the end result is not always a good one. But for Taylor Studios in Rantoul, the union between art and business has been strong and successful.

For 17 years, company president Betty Brennan and her team of 40 employees have worked to build a reputable design and fabrication firm that specializes in all sorts of museum fodder, from murals to models to immersion environments. The purchase of a larger location and surpassing $4 million in revenue speaks to the company's ever-growing success.

Brennan, a native of Streeter, Ill., always knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur. It was just finding the right business that would allow her the opportunity. When she was in college at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, she met her now ex-husband Joe Taylor, who ultimately would bring his artistic skill set to Taylor Studios.

"[Taylor] worked for a taxidermist at the time, and the taxidermist started making trees for museums, and we thought, 'Wow, people do this for a living?'" Brennan said.

And with that, Brennan and Taylor laid a foundation for a company that would incorporate everything they enjoyed: the outdoors, nature and history. They started a fossil and artifact reproduction mail order business, which eventually blossomed into Taylor Studios. And during this time, Brennan held various jobs while working nights and weekends to get Taylor Studios off the ground.

"In 1994, we got our first big break," Brennan said. "But it took me a good two to three years making all those phone calls and making those sales and surviving on nothing to build that up."

That "big break" was a $100,000 deal with the Northern Indiana Historical Society. Taylor Studios built two immersion environments for the historical society involving canoe and dredge boat usage in the 1800s - they created surround murals, plant life and animals that would have been present in Northern Indiana at that time.

Since then, Taylor started his own business, Sleepy Creek Vineyards, but he still does occasional work for Taylor Studios.

In the past several years, Taylor Studios has done work for museums and businesses across the country, and about 54 percent of their projects are done in the Midwest. In central Illinois, they've done work for the Anita Purvis Nature Center in Urbana, the Paxton Historical Society, the Spurlock Museum in Urbana and the Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington.

"I highly recommend [Taylor Studios] to any of my peers who ask me about the good exhibits," said John Tobias, superintendent of the Miller Park Zoo. "They're professional, they're enthusiastic, they have a lot of ideas. If the opportunity presents itself, I'd definitely work with them again."

Tobias said Taylor Studios worked on three main projects for the Miller Park Zoo, with the most recent being a rain forest immersion environment replete with trees, waterfalls and a bird aviary, which allows exotic birds to fly freely throughout the exhibit.

"I would definitely say that we're known in the industry for our quality," said Jason Cox, art director of Taylor Studios. "We're known for building relationships and standing behind our work." Cox has worked at the studio for 10 years, and he has been the art director for three years. Brennan said Taylor Studios is one of the only firms in the industry that has a five year warranty on all of its work.

Brennan has always worked hard to grow the business. In fact, Taylor Studios has expanded internationally, working on projects that will travel to Aruba and Bermuda.

"It ultimately has long-term potential for the company," Brennan said in regards to international projects.

Working up to its current fiscal stability and international presence, Taylor Studios has accomplished many of its goals along the way. In 2000, the company made Inc. magazine's top 500 list of 5,000 selected fastest-growing private companies. And the company's recent move to the 65,000 square-foot old Wal-Mart building in Rantoul could be its biggest accomplishment. Brennan said the company bought the building last year, and it is currently only being used for fabrication. The business people, or "carpet-dwellers," as Brennen refers to herself and her business staff, plan to move to the new building by the end of next year.

Brennan also has many plans for the future, including reaching $10 million in revenue by 2012; most likely closing around $4.8 million this year, Taylor Studios is right on track, she said. Additionally, she plans on diversifying revenue streams by looking into new opportunities such as residential theming, themed children's hospitals and even some strange ventures, like themed caskets and tombstones.

"I always want a couple new markets in the pipeline," Brennan said. "I expect many of them to fail, but hopefully we'll fail fast and fail cheap, and then we move on to the next one. So that will help us with growth and keep our revenue diversified and still do what we love to do."

And working with artists? That's no problem for Brennan, whose background in marketing and her photography hobby help her relate to and communicate with her artist employees.

"We couldn't build what we build without the staff," Brennan said.

Privacy Policy

Part of The News-Gazette, Inc. community of websites:
News-Gazette  |  IlliniHQ  |  Business Directory  |  WDWS  |  WHMS  |  idomagazine