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By Brent Long

The team behind the scenes

In waxing nostalgic lately about Fusion’s 30 years, and the many memories and people that have been a part of our three decades, it’s a bit overwhelming. In the beginning it was Lance and Norm, and then I joined. And it was the three of us for a while. All of us designing. That seems like a lifetime ago. I guess it was. These days I’m always up front that the team does all of the amazing work, and I just do lunches. LOL! But back in the day, I did my share of the creative design work.

As I’ve mentioned, Lance left early on, Norm was the first full time “employee”, and I was his assistant, helping on evenings and weekends after finishing my day job. But when Norm got too busy, I left my day job and came on board full time, and we moved to a townhouse that served as our living and working space. Soon after moving, we needed to hire our first employee, and Kendra, given the title of “Princess Layout” came on board. She was amazing, both super talented and tolerant, working alongside two older guys in a house where they also lived. Having an “office” and an employee really highlighted that this was no longer “for fun”, and although we could never be considered “serious”, the business was definitely making some leaps forward.

Having an “office” and an employee really highlighted that this was no longer “for fun”, and although we could never be considered “serious”, the business was definitely making some leaps forward.

After a pre-planned two-years in the townhouse, we moved to an actual office space at 99 Atlantic in Liberty Village. Soon after, several new hires were brought on to our team, including Louise, who had been a client. However, soon after, things took a turn, and we had to lay all of our staff off or force going under. This was the first truly devastating business decision that we had to face as owners. Our accountants helped us through it, but it was incredibly awful to sit across from employees that we considered friends, and tell them that they were being let go. But if we hadn’t done so, Fusion wouldn’t exist today.

It was back to just Norm and I for a while. And then one day this girl comes in the door to help with a freelance illustration project. She was in her last year of high school and came as a referral from a past employee. And she never left. That girl was Sarah McMacken (now Prouse). Sarah came on over the summer to “answer phones”, but she was so bad at that that we asked her to stop and help with some design projects. She was a quick learner, a great creative, and lots of fun, and she helped out over the next few years part-time while she was going through the York Sheridan graphic design program. When she was done, we hired her full-time.

Now there were three of us designing, and we needed help with the phones and admin duties. One day on a visit to the accountants office in North York, their receptionist, also named Sarah, mentioned that she had put in her notice to leave and didn’t really have a plan for what was next, but she knew it had to be more downtown because that’s where she was living. What a coincidence! I asked her if she’d be interested in coming to meet (the other) Sarah and Norm at our office to see if it would be a good fit. A few weeks later, Sarah Lowther (now Falzon) joined our team.

Those two Sarahs are still with me after all these years. And I’ll be completely honest, I don’t see them as employees. Both of them are much more like sisters. It feels weird even using the word “employee” in relation to them, as their relationship to Fusion, and to me, is so much more. I trust them completely. They are family.

There have been so many other amazing people that have been part of Fusion, that have come and gone for a variety of reasons. And this blog post would quickly become a novel if I tried to recount all of them, and how they came to be part of our team. It’s great to think about the past, but what’s most important is the here and now. And the team that we have right now is the best it’s ever been. We may not have the most people we’ve ever had, but they are definitely the most amazing, both creatively and as people I can call friends, and enjoy spending time with.

Our team has always taken time to go out to celebrate special days, whether it be birthdays, holidays, life milestones, or just Wine Wednesdays. We have been more diligent about doing this since COVID, as our team has remained fully remote, and we cherish the time we do spend together. Recently, the team planned a birthday for me. For those that know me, this is no easy task. I am the biggest “princess” there is, and am very picky about restaurants (and their wine list). So I usually do all of the planning (this is also true in my personal life). They say practice makes perfect, and I practice a lot. So, I think the team would say that they have benefited from this skillset of mine. But I digress… Everything was organized by the team, keeping it all a secret from me. We arrived at the restaurant for lunch at 11:30am. And we left at 5:30pm. It was wonderful. Everything about it was perfect. I can’t say enough about these people that make Fusion what it is. But I can tell you that spending six hours with them went by like it was six minutes.

And this is just one of the many memorable moments from the last 30 years of Fusion. Speaking of stories…