Our History

What began as a hobby and fun fascination literally turned into a way of life for Dwight Cummings and his two partners when they founded Arscentia as Wy’east Color in 1971. 

The company derived its original name from the legendary Native American name for Oregon's Mt. Hood. The name was symbolic for strength and at the time, Portland was the largest per capita city for printing in the country.

Wy’east’s early days were busy ones. Companies like Blue Ribbon Sports (the precursor to Nike), Fred Meyer, Meier & Frank and Payless Drug Stores sought out the company’s prepress services for their printing needs. Four-color film separation was a very labor-intensive technique that Wy'east's skilled craftsman excelled at but still resulted in painfully slow turnaround times.

The inefficiencies of such approaches prompted Wy’east to become early adopters of digital imaging technologies that helped differentiate the company early on.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, the company’s customer base began to grow, with a roster that boasted household names like Kenworth, Boeing, Adidas, Nintendo, as well as many of the Northwest’s top advertising agencies including The Evans Group, Livingston and McCann Erickson. Wy’east was the first prepress and photo lab to have a digital scanner on the west coast—and clients took notice. To keep up with demand, Wy’east expanded its operations. Dwight and his company opened facilities in Vancouver, B.C., San Francisco, and, in 1986, its Bellevue, Washington location, which today serves as company headquarters.

Wy’east continued to establish itself as an innovator in the field, forging ahead with the implementation of additional technologies like digital pagination of pages, digital proofing and digital archiving of images.

When the company got its start in 1971, clients’ communication needs were simple, mostly limited to traditional mediums of print advertisements, brochures, television, radio, catalogs and packaging.

The advent of the Internet shifted these needs. Conveying a company’s brand came to involve a much broader and integrated scope of communication vehicles: including web sites, web banners and e-mail blasts, vehicle and tradeshow graphics, and guerrilla marketing.  

In 1997, Wy’east established its commercial photography studio to streamline its services and answer corporate America’s evolving marketing needs. The company’s photography services included (and still include) product, lifestyle, on-location, food, and figure photography, as well as set design and construction. With complete digital capabilities, Wy’east was now able to offer both the final printed output of creative concepts, and also play a hand in bringing those concepts to life.

The company began offering graphic design services in 2000, rounding out its integrated marketing offerings. Now the company could provide printing and photography services, as well as brand strategy, brand development and identity, corporate and business collateral, packaging and promotion, web and interactive design, advertising and direct marketing, publications and catalogs, and environmental graphics.

While the early 2000s witnessed the broadening of Wy’east’s capabilities, it also saw the sale of its satellite offices, including the original site in Portland. Wanting tighter control of operations to preserve the integrity of the company’s name and reputation, the decision was made to move all operations to the Puget Sound area. Corporate headquarters—including the design studio and all digital production—are housed in Bellevue, while the company’s state-of-the-art photography studio remains in Seattle.

In 2001, Wy’east exercised one of its own core competencies by undergoing a rebrand of its business and ultimately its name. With a list of services unrivaled by any other like-agency in town, the company needed to revamp its brand to better reflect its personality and capabilities. Hence Arscentia was born—a name that is the combination of the Latin words for art and science. And it is the perfect amalgamation of art and science that is the secret to Arscentia’s success and the company’s contribution to the success of its clients.

As the 25 person-strong company readies itself for its next 35 years of business, it keeps the legacy of Dwight Cummings, which is the principle that Arscentia is not simply in the business of marketing. Rather it is in the business of selling a promise: the promise of delivering something of value to its clients. With this at the company’s core, Arscentia’s new leaders not only value where the company comes from; but they know where it is going. 

Arscentia’s leaders today, Grant and Lisa Cummings (Principals), Leonard Lutes (CEO), John Nettleton (Creative director) and Steve Roumas (Digital Production Manager), believe in that promise and are committed to that strong legacy Dwight founded back in 1971.