Design firm focuses on Perspective

This year's Las Vegas Perspective, a demographic-centered annual report is, as usual, all about numbers.

Five people compiled and designed the 24th installment of the 104-page report, chronicling Las Vegans' lives in 2003 through numbers and percentages. About 350 contributors submitted data, and in the end, 15,000 copies were printed. Approximately 900 of those were given to business-minded types who attended the release event for the Las Vegas Perspective at the Orleans Arena on April 27.

The numbers real estate agents, out-of-state corporate executives and salesman were interested in were in between the pages.

They wanted to see six pages of profiles from every zip code in the city.

They flipped through the books, looking up the number of newcomers who came to Las Vegas last year (61,187); the percent of females living in the city in relation to males (53.2 percent) and the median home sales price ($199,926).

Full-color charts and pie graphs, averages and percentages made one thing clear -- Las Vegas is growing.

There are 619 places to worship in Las Vegas; most of them (83) are nondenominational. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is second with 66.

There are 59 golf courses in the Las Vegas vicinity. A few pages down the line, comparative real estate taxes for the metropolitan area shows Las Vegas, at $271,235, is higher than Reno, but beats Salt Lake City, Phoenix, San Diego, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco and a host of other Southwestern cities.

One number that stands out is five. It's not in the book. It's the number of people who put it together.

Blazic Design is an advertising and design firm owned by Roger and Theresa Blazic. They employ their neighbor, Diana Colombo, to help with paperwork. They hired Dave Smith to take the photos and Bob Burch to help complete the design.

And they did it all from their home office.

"People think you're a home-based business and you're a nobody," Roger Blazic said. "We look more professional than 90 percent of the advertising agencies in town, and we're out of a house. We work out of our house, but we don't walk, talk or look like it."

"We built offices in the house. You can come and go," Theresa Blazic said. "The commute to work is just down the hallway. We get more productivity by being here. Our business materials, the software, the things that we use. You wouldn't know any different unless you knew the geographical address."

The Blazics designed the book for two years leading up to the 2003 edition. After bidding for the project, they won the right to put together the 24th book. The business has been located in-house for the last 3 1/2 years.

Blazic Design represents Southwest Gas, Bank of Nevada, Memphis Championship Barbecue and others. They maintained their clients while working on the Las Vegas Perspective. Doing double duty had its challenges, Roger Blazic said.

"We have a thriving business anyway," he said. "We do what an ad agency does on a day-to-day basis. For the first three months, you just work a lot of hours. You're up late nights and working a lot of weekends trying to get it together."

On April 2, Theresa Blazic was involved in a car accident, during which she hurt her knee. She spent four days in bed, with a credit card machine and an ice pack, making sure tickets were ordered for the launch event and book sales were paid in full.

At the time of the accident, her biggest concern was whether or not the impact caused the extra tickets and pamphlets to be strewn all over the desert.

"Thank God I wasn't hurt too bad," Theresa Blazic said. "I had just delivered the tickets, everything I needed to do. So it was all done. It worked out great."

A handful of numbers that will change the book in the future was included in this year's edition. Next year, a Spanish survey will be added. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas Business and Economical Research department mails surveys to residents in zip codes around the valley.

"I think it's going to be a broader thing for next year, where we can present it in Spanish," Theresa Blazic said. "We've been thinking about the Spanish survey, which is a cost factor."

The Blazics agreed the number that grabbed them the most in this year's report concerned the percentage of Hispanic elementary school students in the Clark County School District.

Of the Las Vegas population, 23.1 percent are Hispanic, but 33 percent make up the school district population.

"I thought that was huge," Theresa Blazic said.

"We're going to have cultural challenges, language issues," Roger Blazic added. "There's going to be things going on there."

Another number that surprised them was the number of newcomers moving to the Las Vegas Valley.

It was 19.9 percent fewer from 2002. In 2003, 61,187 newcomers came to the valley, whereas in 2002, 76,442 newcomers settled here.

"You hear things across the country about Las Vegas being the largest growing city in the world," Theresa Blazic said. "The real estate market right now being a seller's market, is huge. Maybe that had something to do with the newcomers. I don't know."

The Blazics have the Las Vegas Perspective contract for another year and plan to make the best of it.

Days after the launch event, Theresa Blazic was already talking about next year, the silver anniversary of the Las Vegas Perspective.

"They're going to get the dry stuff from the book. Maybe people don't want to reiterate that," she said concerning changes to next year's launch event. "We have to make choices on what speakers we can line up to liven it up. That all starts now.

"Now that we've gotten our feet wet, and we have the knowledge, I want to make it easier next year and the next."

Those interested in a copy of the Las Vegas Perspective can call the Nevada Development Authority at 791-1000. Other inquiries can be made to Blazic Design, 256-1564.


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