Celebrating 20 years of ImageX

Mar 09 2021

We are excited to announce that ImageX is turning 20 years old!

To celebrate how far we’ve come, we've interviewed CEO, Glenn Hilton, looking back at the milestones we’ve created along the way, from the organization's origins to being known as the #1 agency for Drupal website development.

CEO & Founder, Glenn during the early days of ImageX

Where did it all begin?

Glenn began by sharing the origins of the organization, “Our story began back in 2001, with a video-based educational product called Quest. The organization, known as ImageX Media, was created to commercialize the enterprise. In the very early days, the team funded a lot of the product work by undertaking corporate video, graphic design, and eventually some web design for local businesses. Getting involved in the ever-growing landscape of the web was an exciting new realm so we decided to focus our energy there and chose to specialize in open-source CMS space. Drupal embodied what it meant to be a community, and still does today; competitors all helping one another by sharing insights and industry secrets and contributing back to the products they were building… It was the way I always thought business should be! We jumped in with two feet and it was one of the best business decisions we’ve ever made.”

The ImageX studio when our HQ was in South Surrey

That pivotal decision happened in December of 2005. Most companies at the time didn’t have the ability to control their own websites so they had to use content management systems like Drupal to help them gain that control and give them the freedom to grow their businesses online. “It’s been very rewarding over the years to be able to provide such powerful tools to our customers and being one of the firms that have helped innovate in the development of these highly flexible and powerful solutions. One comment I’ve never forgotten came during an onsite training session with a client after we’d completed their site and they said ‘I feel like I had a go-cart before and now you just built me a Ferrari!’”

The team when the ImageX HQ was based in Burnaby

Slicing The Cake With Drupal

ImageX is not the only organization turning 20 this year - sharing a 20th birthday with Drupal has been rewarding as we reflect on the routes we’ve traveled together and the community to which our team contributes back regularly, with hundreds of code contributions in the past 12 months alone.

Drupal’s solidified itself as a leading CMS with 2.4% of all websites and its usage continues to grow in correlation with how heavily trafficked a site is. “Drupal is clearly in the top echelon of CMS’s today for enterprise organizations whether it be proprietary or open-source. It's been great to watch the adoption that’s been happening over the years and be a part of such a talented team at ImageX that’s invested so much to help in the growth of the movement.“

ImageX team members participating in DrupalCon Europe in Amsterdam, 2019.

A Forest Grown From Seeds

“In recent years we use the slogan “our people make the difference” and we truly believe this. One of our biggest lessons learned was really taking our time to hire the best people for the job. Jim Collins in his book and article, Good to Great, talks about getting the right people on the bus and though there are many talented and skilled individuals, not all are always the right fit. Additionally, Tony Hsieh in his book, Delivering Happiness, inspired us in sharing the Zappos core values so our leadership got together and defined 5 of our own core values to use as the blueprint for all future hires. Alignment with our core values has allowed us to identify the glass-half-full kind of people who are ignited by the constant change that's a part of the service agency world. It’s also helped us to significantly improve project delivery, increase customer and employee retention, and greatly improve the bottom line.”

The results of building a strong team with a values-led approach include ranking within the top 2 Drupal agencies worldwide since 2016 on Clutch.co based on independent customer ratings, becoming certified as a Great Place to Work, listing as one of The Globe & Mails top 400 growing companies in Canada in 2020 and being recognized by multiple awarding bodies including the Webby Awards, DotComm Awards, Indigo Design Awards, the CSS Design Awards, and the Web Awards.

ImageX team from our Kyiv Ukraine office at DrupalCamp Kyiv, 2019 which we enjoy helping to organize.

Here’s to Another 20 Years and Many More

“One of our core values is ‘succeeding together’ and we plan to continue to help our clients innovate and pave the way in the ever-changing digital landscape using the best open source tools available to help them continue to grow and succeed. Every day you're faced with new challenges when you work for a service agency and to truly thrive in this space you need to have that mentality that when you get out of bed in the morning, it's like, ‘What do you have for me today?.. Bring it on!!’

Solution Architect Bjorn and his alter ego on our ‘Superhero’ portrait wall in our present-day Gastown HQ

Thank you to our loyal clients and the many former and present members of our team that have helped build this great company over the past 20 years; we’re starting the next 20 years off strong and we’re excited to see where the journey takes us.