Lee and Judy Barrett were both working in various aspects of the medical industry in early 2007 when they decided to purchase a wide format printer to allow them to start printing banners and posters at home for several commercial projects in the area. They were hoping to eventually augment their retirement. They made the decision to open up a store front in Clearfield that offered full service digital printing services, along with their wide format printing. Their first store was located at the corner of 300 N 1000 W, Clearfield, in the old Maverik Building which they opened in 2007. Lee kept working in the medical equipment field while Judy became the manager for this new business they called AccuColor Digital Printing.
They chose new digital printers that had recently come into the marketplace for their shop. These digital printers have excellent quality and allowed for short runs that are much less expensive to set up than traditional ink presses.
The horrific “Great Recession” soon hit the economy in December 2007, four months after Accucolor opened, making it even more difficult for this new print shop to survive. However, due to wonderful employees, loyal customers, hard work, much faith, inspiration, and miracles, they were able to weather the storm. It was a good way to start, Judy says, since it made them tighten their belts and figure out how to accomplish the impossible many times over. Judy says it was one of the most challenging, nerve-racking yet spiritual experiences of her life. When the way seemed darkest, not knowing how they were going to move forward, something would happen, or a way would be shown as to how to proceed. One idea was a big hit that helped them survive and still lives on today: using certain days for discount pricing—Tuesdays for color and Fridays for black and white prints.
Judy and her crew at AccuColor stayed in Clearfield for five years, learning the ropes, growing the business, meeting many wonderful customers and vendors. However, in 2012 they decided to make a major move to Syracuse, UT, into the Syracuse City Hall building. They opened business in Syracuse in July 2012 and weathered another storm of sorts. Many of their Clearfield customers didn’t know where they had gone and the Syracuse customers didn’t yet know they were there! So the way was rocky yet again for a while.
Judy loves what she is doing because it’s so creative. She has graphic designers on staff that can take a concept written on a napkin and turn it into a full-blown advertising piece. They enjoy producing genealogy projects, having made numerous family history books and the pictures are of the best quality. They specialize in business advertising, wedding invitations, banners and posters, and are getting into some wedding décor with photo enlargements, pennant banners, personalized quotations for display, chalkboards, and the like.
Lee Barrett currently works as a Vice President of Fresenius Medical and Judy continues to run the print shop. The AccuColor staff includes Megan Sawyer, the full-time graphic designer; and Jolene Goff, Alora Miller, Brittany Thompson, and Dylan Barbieri are all part-time customer service reps, printers, as well as graphic designers in their own right. Their mantra is “Printed Perfection.” Their goal is to be a top notch printing company with reasonable rates, providing the best value for printing in the area.
Lee and Judy have 4 sons and 1 daughter with 10 grandchildren. Most live in the area, but one son and his family live in Oklahoma City and another son and his family live in Phoenix.