Featured Work: Top 1 Oil: Top Notch Family Affair!
Sometimes the many and various elements that go into a project just come together in the most satisfying way. A harmonious yet exciting blending of Client, Designer, and Contractor, other Vendors, subject matter and space can be so gratifying to work with. When everyone respects and supports each other’s process, both creative and business, a project just flows, and is a joy.
Thus it was with the logo painting project for the new Top 1 Oil office building in San Mateo, Ca. I was brought in and worked in concert with Interior Designer Kelly Berg of Arte Styling, a boutique interior design firm also based in San Mateo.
Kelly and I both enjoyed our work with Top 1 Oil, so much so, that I wrote an article about it as one of my monthly columns for the Bay Area Women’s Journal, and Kelly wrote a post about it on her popular Arte Styling Blog. From the responses we received, it seemed that our readers got a kick out of the project as well, and were intrigued with how we “took the company branding to the wall” !
Top 1 Oil, "Taking the Branding to the Wall"!
A significant aspect of working with Top 1 Oil was the experience of working with a family-run company. As I understand it, at least three generations of the Ryan family contribute their skills to Top 1 Oil, in areas ranging from finance to sales to publicity to reception, and more!
Though I loved working with siblings Mary and Frank, meeting Therese, and interacting with Bridget, I think it was Kate Ryan, pictured below, who really charmed me. Wife of the founder, and mother to many of the Ryans working at the company, Kate is a mainstay of Top 1, and I am sure exerts her charm on everyone who has the pleasure of encountering her at her upstairs office reception post. It was inspiring to meet such a vital lady, who presides not only over the company offices, but also over a multi-generational family of talented participants in Top 1 Oil.
Kate Ryan IS Reception for Top 1 Oil
Although Top 1 does a great deal of business with clients in Asia and Latin America, in my view, they retain an essential “Americana” approach: hard work, commitment to excellence, and core family values. These are talked about a lot these days, but the Ryans, and Top 1 Oil, actually seem to embody them.
Top 1 Oil produces its product ON shore
Thank you Kate, Top 1, and the Ryan family, for gifting Kelly and myself, and I am sure, all of your other vendors, associates, colleagues and business partners, with a rewarding, authentic, and gratifying experience of committed and creative work. You really are TOPS!
Top 1 Oil: a Top Notch experience
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Lovely re-cap, Debra! Thanks for summing it all up so nicely. Was a great pleasure working with Top 1 and…YOU! Looking forward to our next project…
Thank you Kelly (of the popular Arte Styling blog!). I wanted to share that photo of Kate, and present a bit more about the family nature of the company. They are so special, and deserve the plaudits, in my opinion, and I am sure in yours!
Here’s looking forward to to the next…