Spokane-based Seven2 Inc. and 14Four Inc., sister companies that provide digital and Web-based design services, say they are experiencing strong growth developing online and mobile application projects, including for such national clients as Disney, Expedia.com, and AT&T.

Other big projects on which the companies have worked are linked to such well-known brand names as Nickelodeon, Bravo TV, Nintendo, Toyota, and MTV.

Both companies, founded by co-owners Tyler Lafferty and Nick Murto, operate in an 18,000-square-foot downtown building, at 244 W. Main. Since 2010, Seven2 and 14Four have roughly doubled employment, growing from 25 to 30 people to 70 combined now, Lafferty says. New hiring is expected to add almost 10 more in coming months, with most of those positions at Seven2, he adds.

The companies mainly employ Web designers, programmers, creative content writers, and account project managers. Seven2 has 45 employees, while 14Four employs 26 people.

The business partners say much of the two concerns' recent growth has been tied to garnering work with more national companies, but also from gaining multiple projects among divisions of companies for which they've completed past projects in recent years, such as for Disney and AT&T.

As for revenue growth, the partners say that some years showed about a 10 percent increase, but more recently, growth has been significantly higher. "Now, we're seeing bigger growth, 40 or 50 percent," year over year, Lafferty says.

"We had a vision of creating a digital agency based in Spokane that helps national companies," Lafferty says. "Thankfully, we've been able to do that. Around mid-2010 is when we started to have a lot of that growth, and we went from about 25 or 30 employees to what we have today."

Adds Murto, "We never really tried to grow. It happened naturally."

Seven2 works directly with many national companies to create online advertising campaigns, mobile applications, and games found on client companies' websites, such as for some Disney characters. Seven2's name is based on an old computer monitor screen's 72 dots-per-inch resolution. The 14Four name plays off the original Seven2 moniker but isn't tied to a specific computer concept.

Meanwhile, 14Four typically is a subcontractor for traditional advertising agencies that creates interactive digital campaigns. It has worked on campaigns for companies such as Toyota and Carl's Jr.

The partners recently started two other business ventures here. One of them is Passenger Pets LLC, which produces vinyl cling-on images of dogs or cats that go on windows of cars and buildings. The other is Method Juice Cafe, located in 1,000 square feet of space at 718 W. Riverside.

The cafe sells organic food, juices, smoothies, and a new product Murto developed called Good Oats, organic oats with natural flavors in a 2.45-ounce container to which a consumer adds hot water. For each Good Oats container purchase, Method Juice donates a second one to the Second Harvest Food Bank.

In 2004, Lafferty and Murto started Seven2 with just the two of them, after working together at the former WhiteRunkle Associates advertising agency here, which now does business as Miller WhiteRunkle Inc. as a Spokane branch of the Seattle-based agency SMITH Corp.

By late 2006, Lafferty and Murto saw a need to create 14Four as a separate company providing digital design services for campaigns developed by advertising agencies. Today, 14Four's president Jeff Oswalt manages that company's day-to-day operations, while Lafferty and Murto oversee Seven2.

However, Lafferty says Seven2 and 14Four do similar work, which boils down to helping national companies market their brands and products through digital and online media.

"We do marketing; we help brands market themselves through websites," he says. "We create videos for the websites of different clients. We do online games that kids are playing, like on Nickelodeon, Disney, Nick Jr. What they (the clients) are doing is trying to extend that brand, and we're helping them extend the brands of their characters."

He adds, "We also do mobile phone apps and banner advertising, helping companies sell more."

Lafferty says interactive games developed by Seven2 for websites have involved the characters of SpongeBob SquarePants, Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Power Rangers, and Dora the Explorer.

"We get to interact with the show creators," Lafferty says. "They have to look at our work and approve it."

Another example of Seven2's work includes a mobile phone app for Bravo TV. "It's a Top Chef game we developed as an iPhone and iPad app," Lafferty says. Murto adds that the game allows for displaying show clips and interacting with some people on the show through Twitter feeds.

Seven2 recently won an Inland Northwest Addy Awards' best-of-show award in the electronics category, for its interactive Expedia Beachgoer Facebook app. The regional award competition is the first level of the American Advertising Federation Addy Awards national competition.

Some of 14Four's work has included projects with Los Angeles-based Saatchi & Saatchi LA to develop Toyota banner ads, and with the San Francisco office of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to create a Cheetos Facebook app. It also collaborated with the New York City office of Mekanism Creative Advertising Agency to create a Pepsi Super Bowl halftime website.

Many of the companies' national clients continue to send them new projects, Murto says.

"We're a project-based shop, and we're constantly working on new projects," he says. "We've done AT&T work for almost nine years. We've worked with Nickelodeon six to seven years, and they're giving us more of their work."

Lafferty adds, "We get involved working with a client and we grow wide. For Disney, we'd do a project for a department, and then get a contract at a different department. We have about 40 different contacts there we check in with. We have four or five projects with Disney at any time."

As the companies grow in size, Lafferty and Murto say they seek to balance that with maintaining a fun, positive work environment for employees.

The two Spokane companies do all of their work here in the downtown building, where Seven2 occupies the top level and 14Four is located on the main level. Lafferty, Murto, Oswalt, and account managers travel when needed to meet with clients. Most of the companies' clients are based in Seattle, Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles, Lafferty says.

"We have a high travel budget," he adds. "We love Spokane and its quality of life. It's what you have to do if we want the national clientele."

Lafferty and Murto also share a passion for fitness, which they've incorporated into the workplace by building a full-sized gym on the basement level for Seven2 and 14Four employees' use. The basement includes a locker room with showers and a commercial-grade kitchen for employee use.

All new employees receive a pair of new running shoes and a fitness-based watch to track their fitness regimes, Lafferty says. Both he and Murto enjoy running among other fitness activities.

"We really emphasis a fitness culture in our workplace; Nick and I live it ourselves," Lafferty says. "We care about our employees, and we feel that healthier people are better employees."

Murto says Spokane offers enough talent, including recent graduates with computer science majors from Whitworth University and Eastern Washington University, that the companies don't need to recruit from large metro areas such as Seattle. The average age of employees at the two companies is 35, they say.

Seven2 employees in team meetings can give what the company calls a "shout-out" of appreciation to recognize another employee's work. Lafferty says 14Four has a separate recognition of employees.

"We have super shout-outs where we give $50 gift cards to Apple or P.F. Chang's for employees who go above and beyond," Lafferty says. Each employee only can nominate a co-worker for the super shout-out reward once a month, but a person can be a recipient more than once.

He adds, "We want people still to feel good about working here and feel challenged in their work. If we can keep employees happy and challenged, then we know we can keep our clients happy."

When starting out, Lafferty and Murto shared space with another advertising agency here, Magner Sanborn Inc. By 2005, Lafferty and Murto moved their business operations to 7 S. Howard, until Seven2 and 14Four moved in February 2010 to their current building on Main Street.