Timeline
2000
Dave Miller is handed a letter of employment termination and a cardboard box. He vows, “never again,” and starts a website design business. Together with his wife, Sandy, the couple begin building websites in their den that looks out over the back forty. This view gives the company its name.
2001
Back40 Design lands their first big project. Dave and Sandy are contracted to redesign the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. The project is a success and the museum wins an award for Best Website at the Governor’s Council on Tourism.
2002
Dave and Sandy move their home-based business to an office in nearby Shawnee, OK. They hire their first full-time employees and expand their services to include logo and print design for local businesses.
2003
Back40 Design expands into monthly magazine publishing. Local web and print clients underwrite the first issue of the Shawnee Shopper (which eventually is renamed the Shawnee Outlook). Website projects continue to increase as we hire our first full-time PHP programmer.
2004
Trips from our Shawnee, OK office to Oklahoma City increase to meet with new website clients. Back40 Design’s staff now numbers 6 full-time employees. Dave and Sandy finally take a real vacation.
2005
Back40 Design opens an office in Edmond, OK (just north of Oklahoma City, OK). Dave and Sandy launch a second monthly magazine called Edmond Outlook. We hire our first official web project manager. Work begins on what is to become the proprietary hosted content management system, Javelin CMS.
2006
Back40 Design closes their Shawnee office and moves all operations to the Edmond, OK office. We lease additional office space and hire additional web staff to meet the growing demand for our web design services. The web team continues development on our proprietary content management system, Javelin CMS.
2007
Dave and Sandy sell the Shawnee Outlook magazine (Shawnee Outlook is still published monthly). An early version of Javelin CMS is released to their clients.
2008
An increase in the number of clients; Back40 wins awards and publishes magazines. Also marking this year is the release of a full version of JavelinCMS.
2009
Back40 Design moves to new offices in North Oklahoma City. We now have a conference room that doesn’t face a restroom. We hire our first dedicated account executive for the web department. The company finally purchases an official “Back40 Design” sign and real office furniture. We migrate our growing hosting services to a data center in Texas. Website hosting clients top 200.
2010
Back40 Design continues to gain local and regional web development clients. Our programmers and developers continue improvements to JavelinCMS as website hosting clients top 300. We also launch a new and improved support website for our Javelin CMS.
2011
Back40 Design adds a second full-time web designer, project manager, and programmer to the production team. Website hosting clients top 400. The Edmond Outlook magazine enters it 6th year as a second full-time advertising account executive is added.
2012
A new Back40 Design website is launched and we pick up some Addy Awards. Jon Fields, a programming alumni from 2006, rejoins Back40 Design.
2013
We move into our new studio space at 80 East 5th Street in Edmond, OK. Our new space has 30% more floor space, 2 conference rooms and is conveniently located next to Hideaway Pizza. We eat lots of pizza.
2014
A year of growth. We won 10 Addy Awards and we brought on a third developer, a third project manager, a second programmer and a third account executive.
2015
A year of partnerships, awards, and milestones. Back40 turned 15, Outlook turned 10. We won Edmond Chamber Small Business of the Year, 11 Addy Awards and Best of Show: Interactive Award. Back40 partnered with Google, Cloudflare, Premier Parks, and Funeral Directors Resources.
2016
It was a year of growth and a time of sadness. February 24th marked the passing of Sandy Miller, one of Back40's founders. We will always remember Sandy's smile and spirit.