Image Studios celebrates 60 years as full-service media catalyst

Sue Grossardt

Contributor

February 24, 2025

APPLETON – Image Studios (1100 S. Lynndale Drive) has been in the business of providing full-service media services for six decades. 

Donna Gehl, president/CEO of Image Studios, said she has observed many changes in the industry since she began her journey with Image Studios in 1989.

“We’ve seen the company through a recession, we emerged from a pandemic and we have had our challenges,” she said.

Humble beginnings

Gehl said Image Studios was established by Curt Knoke and Ron Bricco as a commercial photography studio in 1965 when they purchased Walter Winski Photography, which was located in the Zuelke Building in downtown Appleton.

“As is the case with many successful businesses, they had humble beginnings that grew fast,” Gehl said. “One of their first customers was a dentist. They quickly connected with creative groups in Appleton when they started doing photography. It didn’t take long before they acquired accounts like Neenah Paper, Kimberly Clark and Krueger Furniture (KI).”

Gehl said the company soon outgrew the space in the Zuelke Building and relocated to its current location on Lynndale Drive. 

“Our studio today has been expanded four or five times over the years as we have grown from the two founders, a bookkeeper and additional photographers to our current team of 18,” she said. “We saw tremendous growth, particularly in the late ’80s and early ’90s.”

Gehl said the company has also seen an evolution in technology from analog to digital photography.

Today, computer-generated imagery (CGI), motion graphics, animation, video production, aerial drone photography, editing, producing and directing, she said, are also part of a long list of services available to clients. 

Image Studios, Gehl said, offers services for advertising, corporate publication, catalog, annual report and website use – with its capabilities running from small-scale photo productions to nationally broadcast video productions.

From concept to delivery, Gehl said Image Studios’ in-house team of talented creatives can handle the full production process.

Long-standing relationships

Gehl said numerous factors have contributed to Image Studios’ success over the past 60 years.

“Our greatest success in business is our ability to scale projects, whether it’s a small product shoot or a large-scale video production. (We have the ability to) serve those clients with all sorts of budgets. Our success has always been the success of our customers.”

Business relationships, built for the long haul, Gehl said, have also contributed to Image Studios’ success.

“We’ve watched some companies, like Oshkosh and Kohler, grow from start-ups to very successful companies today,” she said. “We were with them from their beginnings and are partners in business with them today. I will tell people that our success has everything to do with the long-term relationships (we have created and maintained).”

Gehl said it’s gratifying to know Image Studios has grown with some companies from their inception.

“Take Miller Electric, for example,” she said. “That was one of the first customers of the studio. Today, they’re one of our bigger customers.”

Gehl said the studio serves nonprofit entities as well.

“Our scope goes beyond the for-profit businesses,” she said. “There are many not-for-profit businesses and organizations for whom we are there to support in our community, like the community foundation and the United Way. They are pillars in the area, and we get to be a part of someone’s mission to do great things for our community.”

Social media marketing and the power of storytelling, Gehl said, has provided a framework for growth for the company – particularly in video production, which is its largest segment of business.

“An increasing number of companies today recognize the power of storytelling,” she said. “As a result, companies are needing more video content for both social media and internal communication. We’re working on a retirement video, which will be an internal piece that builds morale, supports recruitment and retention and builds employee appreciation.”

The increased demand for branded video, testimonials, product videos and recruitment videos, Gehl said are all tools that clients are placing more value in.

“Therefore, they want it to be more dynamic, too,” she said. “It’s great to see so many companies have the need for that strategy and in their social media marketing, and we are a big part of it.”

The Image Studios team, Gehl said, coaches customers by asking key questions as they build content – and using video is an effective tool in the process.

“We work through some basic questions like: ‘What do you want to say? How do you want to say it, and what’s your goal? What’s the end game, and what’s the call-to-action? Who do you want to talk to your employees?’” she said.

Gehl said there is a motto Image Studios upholds and has engraved in stone by its front door – “It feels like family.”

“It was created by the partners that came before me,” she said. “(But today) when I’m hiring a new employee, I look for a great attitude over skill any day. It’s so important that we have a team, and we refer to ourselves and each other as a team. We have to listen and respect each other, and we realize it’s never one person who puts their name on a job. It’s always teamwork. That’s when we do our best work.”

Gehl said many members of the team have grown up with Image Studios with decades of employment history and commitment.

“Many of us have been here for decades,” she said. “I grew up here. I’ve been here more than half of my life. We are all fine to jump in on a project last minute. We are happy to celebrate our milestones, both personal and professional, which extends into how we take care of our clients for the long haul.”

When Image Studios partners with a company on a project, Gehl said the plan is never to have it be a “one-and-done-type project.”

“Everyone we work with, we hope that we can continue to work on the relationship with them and continue to help them grow their business and build long-lasting partnership,” she said.

The value of being nice

Gehl said one of the greatest compliments she receives from customers is “when they tell me, ‘you’ve got really great people.’”

“Our values reflect this,” she said. “It’s about just being nice to each other and nice to our customers. You can ask anybody on our team – it’s never about what you’re shooting. It’s about who you get to work with and the relationship that you have.”

Image Studios’ customer base, Gehl said, ranges from manufacturing to education and from fine jewelry to plumbing – all within a worldwide geographic reach.

“We work with clients regionally and nationally, and our work has taken us internationally as well,” she said. “Some of our photographers have traveled abroad to both Africa and Europe offering their time and talent, along with their own passion projects producing photography and video for profit and nonprofit organizations. Our work requires us to travel creating business opportunities in each state in the U.S. over the years.”

Industry nod

Over the years, Gehl said Image Studios has been recognized locally, regionally and nationally for its work – including a total of five awards from the American Advertising Awards in 2023.

The recognitions the company has received, she said, is the ultimate affirmation to team work.

Working her way up

Gehl said her tenure with Image Studios spans almost four decades, which began in the role of photo stylist and production assistance.

“That’s how I learned the business,” she said. “I had many roles, from doing hair and makeup to wardrobe to location scouting – jumping in wherever they needed me.”

Gehl said she then stepped into the role of sales executive.

“It was easy to go out and sell the work, showing portfolios – it gave me the opportunity and the freedom to reach out to businesses, like John Deere and Weather Shield Windows, that I thought would be a good fit for our company,” she said.

Gehl said she bought into the company in 2004, and today co-owns with Image Studios Vice-President and Director of Photography Scott Ehlers.

Looking down the road

Gehl said the future is very bright for Image Studios as it continues to push the business’s edge.

“That demand for high-quality content continues to increase, so the expectations continue to increase,” she said. “We’re always looking to see how we can do things better, faster, with greater innovation and creativity. We’re always refining our workflows and our strategic investments and investing in our team. We have an incredible retention rate here.”

Gehl said the goal of Image Studios has always been to stay ahead of industry trends and “adapt to the new opportunities that continue to keep us the leader in our industry.”

Gehl said she would describe Image Studios as living on the edge of creativity.

“I think it’s just who we are,” she said. “We drive each other. We’re all passionate. We take steps to best understand one another through personality assessments of the entire staff. We want to understand what motivates us and what our motivators are.”

Gehl said she thinks everyone at Image Studios “just really loves what they do.”

“Even when they’re traveling, they’re still capturing photos and always finding the beauty in what they see,” she said. “It’s just how we look at the world.”

This year, Gehl said, has started out “incredibly well for us” – especially as the team anxiously awaits the NFL Draft in April.

“The NFL source program has selected us to partner with them along with 88 other local businesses that will partner with them for the draft,” she said. “We are excited to see what evolves.”

For more information, visit imagestudios.com.