Visio Guy

Well today, I just couldn't resist serving up a little Leap Friday fun.

As winter winds down, and we're all slacking before the weekend, a little period-piece about the one-time Visio Corporation seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.Yesterday, an old colleague's name popped up in my Inbox with a link to a photo of my very first marketing endeavor.

The year was 1996 or 1997. As age takes its toll, and our memories start to fail, none of us is really sure any more. Near the end of January, a substantial amount of snow fell on the Seattle area. I.e.: 3 inches, which brought the city to a crawl.

At that time, having a browser installed on your PC was just coming into the norm, and we were still having trouble remembering how to say and type: "http-colon-forward-slash-forward-slash-double-u-double-u-double-u"

Anyway, the nearly-empty Visio Corp. offices and a nearly-empty downtown Seattle parking lots combined to provide the perfect circumstances for a bunch of young Visio employees with time on their hands. We took bull-by-the-horns and did a little promotion, and this was the result:

I remember that we actually received e-mails from the surrounding office buildings! Ah the days of Web 1.0!

You can read Troy Sandal's account here: Visio Logo in the Snow

If you're a history buff, you can find out more about Visio's 15-year history on John Marshall's excellent History of Visio page.