On an isolated farm near Lecompton, Bob and Carey Treanor think they’ve found the right environment where they can mix work, pleasure and everyday living.

Working at desks, tables and computers inside a two-story, 150-year-old stone house, the couple design promotional and informational material for what they call social marketing projects as diversified as school bond issues and healthy living.

Outside only a few yards away is a field where native Kansas prairie grass and wildflowers grow. Next to the house are sturdy black walnut trees and a small swimming pool surrounded by rocks brought up from a creek bed.

The Treanors moved to their farm in 1998 where they not only work in the stone house but also live in it and its modern attached addition.

“I think we’ve gained energy and some sort of creative strength from the nature that’s here,” Bob Treanor said. “There’s a lot of inspiration that’s come from this rural-based lifestyle.”

The Treanors, who once operated a larger business in Lawrence called Art & Sign, now focus on their social marketing niche under the business name of Tallgrass Studios.

“Social marketing is about changing behavior in communities, making communities healthier,” Carey Treanor said. “I see it almost as a parallel with taking care of the land out here.”

Bob and Carey Treanor operate Tallgrass Studios out of their home, a 150-year-old stone house near Lecompton. The couple design promotional and informational material for what they call social marketing projects. The Treanors picked up 11 ADDY awards in January for their work.

That combination of lifestyle and work and its results have attracted the attention of the regional advertising community. During the Topeka Advertising Federation’s annual ADDY awards presentation in January, the Treanors picked up 11 awards. They also received the Judges Citation Award, the most prestigious award of the night for its “Everything Parents Know” campaign for the Safe Schools Healthy Students program and Lawrence public schools.

The campaign included the use of a DVD, Web site, billboards, posters and bookmarks.

“We thought, ‘Wow, we’re going to have to get up and talk,'” Bob Treanor said, laughing as he recalled the awards ceremony.

‘Wild and crazy’

Bob Treanor, 57, started his art and design career in the early 1970s in Lawrence. He drew or painted signs and logos on storefronts for Lawrence businesses.

“The art community was kind of the original hippie community in Lawrence, trying to make a voice for itself,” Bob Treanor said.

In the summer of 1969, Bob Treanor and a few friends packed up and moved to the San Francisco area, where he was a frequent visitor to the Haight Ashbury district noted for its hippies and music venues that attracted the likes of Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison.

It was all a little much for Treanor, who at the end of the summer decided to return to Lawrence and finish his degree in commercial art.

“It was wild and crazy,” he said. “It was quite an education. I was glad for the experience of that summer.”

Bob Treanor started Art & Sign after graduating from KU and continued to build the business into a 25-employee operation in a 20,000-square-foot building.

A way of life

Carey Treanor, 42, began her art and design career in Wichita and worked in Kansas City, Mo., where she lived near the Plaza. She worked on projects for The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and 20th Century Investments, among others. Also a KU graduate, she was lured back to Lawrence with a job at Art & Sign. The Treanors were married in 1992. Art & Sign was sold in 2000. Two years later, Carey Treanor launched Tallgrass with her husband.

“He always stays pretty positive; I always stay chaotic,” she said with a laugh. “We balance each other out.”

The Treanors have handled social marketing campaigns for KU as well as public schools and Hospice Care of Kansas. They also have created logos for businesses such as Blue Heron, 921 Mass., and the Community Mercantile, 901 Iowa.

The Treanors have no plans to move or change anything about their business.

“This is how we wanted to live,” Bob Treanor said. “It’s nice to have a business this way.”