Creation Station Design Studio: Branson attraction celebrates opening of new 76 Strip location | Entertainment

With the new opening along the 76 Strip of Branson, a local business that has incorporated a creative element into its attraction is now more easily accessible. 

Creation Station Design Studio celebrated their Grand Re-Opening on Saturday May 20, welcoming members of the Branson community as well as those who were visiting Branson for the very first time to its new location in The Branson Height Shopping Center next to Fuddruckers. The event included free popcorn and cotton candy for all guests, as well as a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Crumrine has also designed scratch-off tickets for the store where you can win special discounts or prizes.  

Tony Crumrine & Ken Moss owned a design studio in Branson’s Falls Shopping Center that they had opened up during the pandemic. But the two have worked together in business for over 13 years. They started out with a small vinyl sign and graphic shop at their home.

“We came down here and we visited the area all of the time. When I came up with this concept I was going through graphic design school,” Crumrine said. “It made the most sense to me in Branson. Because yeah, you’re going to get some business in Springfield, but people that are going to want that one design they came up with on the spur of the moment, I just felt that creativity was while you’re on vacation where you’re free to think of things like that; so it just made the most sense in Branson.”

Customers are attracted to the company by the various attractions they have. Stationed throughout the studio, guests will find t-shirt shaped kiosks called ‘T-OSK’s,’ where they can create their very own design to then be saved and printed in the studio.

“Here you come up with an idea, you change the colors and you make it fit whatever color shirt you’re putting it on. You can change the size of it, so even our stock prints, if you go up the street and pick off of their wall and it’s already printed, they’re just going to heat press it onto a shirt for you,” Crumrine said. “Ours, we can make that same design fit on a toddler shirt or we can blow it up to a 5XL or even all the way up to a 7XL. The current maximum size of our design is currently 13″ wide by 15 1/2″ tall. That is our constraints as far as printing on this direct to garment that’s the same day print.”     

Crumrine explained the T-OSK’s and the other fun elements found inside the studio, such as the make-your-own ‘Tie Dye Shirt Saturday’ and their custom Rhinestone Station, have all been uniquely inspired.

“Ken and I are both in a bunch of different rollercoaster clubs and we travel literally internationally now, because we went to Germany once for a rollercoaster trip,” Crumrine said. We’ve seen a lot of attraction theme park kind of things and we’ve pulled that experience in too. Colors, activities and music must all be vibrant to keep people interested. It’s important to consider everything. So you have to make it a fun place and that’s what we’re going for. It’s an experience where people leave and they don’t just talk about that ‘I got my t-shirt at that shop, but it was so fun while we were there.’ So we’re making an experience out of it too.”

In the Creation Station studio, visitors can not only create their designs but also choose to print them on one item, just a few, or a dozen.  

“We can do the photo shirt with the single picture on it. If you have a business and you’re not even sure what you want on your shirt, but you know you want your logo on something, we can do one or two, see what you like and then if you want a bigger run for cheaper shirts we can set that same artwork up on the screen printer,” Crumrine said. “It’s really great, especially for small businesses, people who aren’t sure what they want or people who want real small quantities and they want it fast. Most of our stuff, as you’ve seen today, we’re printing it right here as they order it. The can design the shirt. The last guy that was just here just designed that shirt, we printed it and he’s already gone while you were in the store.”

While there are companies who will only sell products in mass quantities, Crumrine said their way of doing business gives them the opportunity to provide a service to those who don’t need hundreds or thousands of the same product.

“I’m very frugal, so when I look at something I want to put a price tag on it that I would want to pay for it. I don’t like people to have sticker shock…Sometimes a screen print shop will tell you a price per shirt based on how much they’re going to charge you for each shirt, but then they have charges at the end such as your screen charges, your setup fees and all that,” Crumrine said. “Say you’re going to do 50 shirts and they said $2 a shirt and you think $100 here you go. Next thing you know your price is two or three times that price because they didn’t figure those extra fees in. That’s terrible. I think that is as bad as your shady car salesman or something…I don’t like surprise fees and I want to make sure the stuff I’m selling would be a price I would pay for it.”

When customers first walk into the design studio, it’s likely their eyes will automatically notice the variety of t-shirts featuring many of the pre-created, but editable, designs on display. However, Crumrine shared they’re also able to print designs on cups, clocks, mouse pads, game pads, placemats, metal signs and more. 

“If somebody comes in they’re almost tentative, ‘Can you put a picture on…?’ and yeah I can do it. In addition to that I am able to make the picture better by using software. So, if you’ve got someone that was in your background that photobombed you and you’re like, ‘This is an annoying picture, but it’s great of us. I just wish that idiot wasn’t there.’ Well, I can cut that idiot out, and we can actually put a new background in and we can add texture to it and we can spruce that up. We can add a special saying to it or something,” Crumrine said. “I rarely have someone come in with an idea that I feel like they left feeling like, ‘I’m settling for that.’ Typically it’s, they come up with an idea and they leave and it’s, ‘I didn’t expect that.’ And that’s what makes me feel good about what we do.”

With the opening of the new facility, which is not only in a different location in Branson with better visibility, but also in a bigger space, Crumrine said they’ve declared 2023 as the “Our Year” year for the business and themselves.

“This is going to be our breakout year. We want to be able help. Right now, I’m working 11 hour days, six days a week by myself. Ken (who has a separate full-time job) does come in on the evenings and the weekends, but for the most part that’s a long day; especially if it’s a slow day. We would like to have some help so that we could keep these hours. Right now we’re closed on Sundays,” Crumrine said. “Getting that extra help, so we can maintain these extra hours or even expand these hours. It would be great to have the ability to operate from nine o’clock until midnight. It would be awesome, because then you’d get the early risers and you’d get the people who are out in Branson, this is their vacation and a lot of things have closed, they’ve ridden go-karts and now it’s ‘What’s next?’ This would be something they could do in the evening hours.”

Crumrine encouraged people to watch for their new product releases as they adjust to their new venue. The Electro Luminescence T Shirt Panels are one of the latest products that Crumrine has released.

“They’re something we saw in Vegas and we’ve not seen those in Branson. I’ve actually even custom designed two personal Branson designs. There are things that no one else has. That’s something else that we offer. They’re just really cool little panels. They can either go through a regular sequence or they can flash to music or they can flash on and off,” Crumrine said. “Branson’s often been compared to Vegas. They can actually pin to a shirt, so you don’t have to buy one of our shirts. The panel can be purchased separately. They can go onto a backpack, a shirt, a blouse or anything you’re wearing it just pins on.”

Crumrine hopes that in the future, he will be able to add radio-controlled boats to his studio. 

“They’re actually a pretty good hobby grade radio control boat, up to some very expensive ones. I’ve actually got one in the shop that I can actually manufacture,” Crumrine said. “I’ve got one that’s actually too big to even fit in my shop that I’ll probably use as a sign once I get those in, because it’s going to attract a lot of attention. These are also made by me. That may be something else I sell, but we’re talking about a jet-ski size radio control boat.”

The Creation Station Design Studio, located at 1615 W. 76 Country Boulevard in Branson, is open Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. Suite B is located in Branson.  

For additional information call 417-812-5122 or visit creationstationds.com.