spence photo design

Astoria, Oregon and Long Beach, Washington, is a graphic design and photography company that focuses on branding, graphic design, photography, fine art and printing.

We believe that good photography & design have an impact on your target market and thus your bottom line. We have been successfully serving clients, big and small, for the past 25 years, by tailoring graphics that get results. Using our collective skills and experience we started Spence Photo Design in 2005 after moving here from Florida to be closer to family.

Some of our customers are small business-owners like us, but we also do work for mid-size businesses and non-profits such as Columbia Memorial Hospital, for which we did 18 museumlike mural installations. We also have larger clients – we are now a “preferred vendor” for Nike, for example.

chris spence

I am a Florida native, and have photographed from South Beach, FL to Long Beach, WA. I have traveled a lot and even lived in the Middle East where I managed custom color photo labs specializing in large format archival photographs and learned that art happens in the darkroom as well as behind the camera.

I operated a commercial photo studio, Spence Photography, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for 20 years – shooting everything from food to corporate jets. It was great.

Commercial photography gave me the background to focus in on fine art photography. Currently, I exhibit my fine art photography at the Silver Heron Gallery, Depoe Bay and Bridgewater Bistro, Astoria. The need to print my own work exactly as I wanted lead to aquiring a giclee press (12-color, high-quality ink jet printer). Now, I offer high end printing to fine artists. Every printing is custom, so our artist clients get great service and the product they want!

susan spence

My focus is on graphic design with an expertise in company image and branding, and print design. My background after graduating in Visual Communications from WWU, was in museum /tradeshow design, PR agiencies, and in-house graphics. That broad range of design experience allows for a one-stop shop for our clients.

Consistency in business image is critical for effective marketing, so I take the time to get to know a business, its goals and “personality” in order to develop a visual brand and image for the client that will grab its potential customer. That image and “look” is the basis for all marketing materials – thus the client gets that consistency – and a better return on their marketing and advertising dollars.

The plus-side for me is that I have a lot of fun helping clients “discover” their image – and my clients tell us they have fun, too!

helping out

We enjoy a broad range of community involvement, which has really helped us to feel connected to our community. Our volunteer activities include committee work for Columbia Memorial Hospital; the Water Music Festival Board, a fundraiser to support music education in the local schools; Master Gardeners, and Doggie Olympics, which, by the way, is a hoot!