Est. 2000 · Southern Indiana, USA · Interactive Special Forces

Built First.
Still Leading.

The agencies the world hires called us when they ran out of time. Twenty-six years, 300+ projects, from Paul McCartney, Sony, and the Emmys to the local HVAC shop and dance studio across town.

Our Story

The Rolling Stones
of Multimedia.

"We've been called the Rolling Stones of multimedia because it's sorta true. Fusion New Media has been rocking the interactive web since 2000. Starting with analog and now to digital synthesis, we are engineering the AI future today."

Founded at the turn of the millennium, Fusion has a set list that runs from the Grand Ole Opry to Paul McCartney, from Sony and Microsoft to the sheet-metal shop on the other side of town. In the early days the world's biggest agencies, such as, Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, among many others, called us in at the eleventh hour to knock out overnight what their armies couldn't. They had dozens of people in the room. We had two or three, one $ number, one delivery date, and we hit it, every time. "Interactive Special Forces" wasn't a tagline. It was the job.

We did all of it — the Emmys, Sony, the Gaylord ticketing engine (built in a single week) as almost exclusively three men. One attic, two houses, zero conference rooms. We were a virtual agency two decades before the world learned the word. "We can do that!" has been the battle cry for over a quarter century. It still is.

Est. 2000 · Southern Indiana, USA 300+ projects 26 years, still headlining And one Beatle
Since 2000 — receipts included

Twenty-Six Years, Marked by Our Own Sites.

Few agencies can show their own 26-year evolution. We can at every era captured, every redesign a snapshot of what we were building at the time. Proof of survival is proof of quality.

FU.V2.1K splash, 2005
Wayback capture
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2000 – 2005 · FU.V2.1K
The Launch

Forged in '99, launched in 2000. National entertainment and label work while the web was still dial-up such as the Opry's 75th Anniversary broadcast, Opry.com, the Ryman, the Wildhorse, WSM Radio. The Gaylord ticketing engine that ran every venue in Nashville, Dr. Troy built in a single week. And Backstage Pass, our own CMS that let clients edit their sites years before WordPress made it ordinary.

Interactive Special Forces homepage, 2006
Wayback capture
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2006 · Interactive Special Forces
The Badge Wall

The era that named the mission. Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi and many others calling for eleventh-hour, overnight rescues their armies couldn't deliver. Sony VAIO, Microsoft, Compaq, Time Warner, the 51st Emmys graphics. Two chairs, one number, one delivery date that and we hit it, every time.

FNM-era homepage, 2015
Wayback capture
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2015 · FNM
Lean and Lethal as Two

Our backend architect Dr. Troy had left in 2006 to eventually become a university president; that's the caliber this band was built from and Fusion ran on as two main players. Eli Lilly (Ceclor; the Lorabid CD-ROMs and DVDs), Mead Johnson, Major League Baseball, Old National Bank's sites and in-store kiosks. The full roster, consolidated.

Today's homepage
today's homepage
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Today · The AI Era
Same Wizards, Same Handshake

Six software platforms of our own, several AI-native, including ZBinder-AI, Belief Metrics, ZenFinch, EffinghamAI, and more. Every industry site covered, author empires, and AI opera (OPERAI) in between. Same overnight fire when you need it.

The Set List

These Guys Built for Giants.

Grand Ole Opry
Ryman Auditorium
Wildhorse Saloon
Eli Lilly & Company
Paul McCartney · The Emmys · Major League Baseball · Microsoft · Sony · Mead Johnson · Time Warner · Live Aid · Compaq · Michelin · Belo Corporation · Old National Bank · Distinctive Assets · WSM Radio — and 300+ projects since 2000, from network television and Fortune 500 companies to Main Street. And one Beatle. —
The Agencies' Agency

Called in at the eleventh hour as silent partners by Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, and others to deliver overnight what their armies couldn't complete in months.

On the Web · Recent

Still Shipping.

Past as proof, present as product. A slice of current work from national media to local Main Street.

The Software Lineage

We Were a Product Company Before That Was a Thing.

Shipping our own software isn't a new trick, it's a quarter-century habit. The wizards have always built their own instruments.

c. 2001

Backstage Pass CMS

Our own content-management system let clients edit their own websites, years before WordPress landed in every dentist's office. Its DNA runs straight into ZBinder-AI today.

Nashville

The Ticketing Engine

Built in one week (Dr. Troy), it ran The Grand Ole Opry in house ticketing system that replaced the all powerful monolithic ticket distribution company. In-house, no middleman.

2001

Belo's 150 Laptops

150 custom-coded, navigation-locked demo machines for regional conference teams with live demos without the open internet coming along. Device management, twenty years early. Troy shoots and scores again.

Evansville

Old National Kiosks

Websites and public-facing in-store kiosk systems for the largest bank headquartered in Indiana. Built and coded in-house. (Dave with some whiz bang)!

Platforms of Our Own

We Don't Just Build for Clients. We Build Products.

Created, launched, and operated by our team and used by other companies and working professionals today. Very few agencies of any size ship their own software.

The Principals

Two Careers. Six Decades. One Handshake.

Two careers, six decades of combined experience, and a shared belief that the best digital work comes from people who refused to stay in one lane. When you hire Fusion, these are the names on your project.

Ric Epley
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Ric Epley

Founder · President · Account Management
B.S., Psychology · University of Southern Indiana
M.A., Interactive Design · Lindsey Wilson College
"I've been fortunate enough to live several different lives; I'm humbled by all of them and very grateful for each...Fusion is still the one that continues to be the most rewarding."— Modernzine.com

Ric's professional life has never fit a single category. Maybe that's always been the point. Before founding Fusion in 2000 he worked across advertising, media, and photography, building command of every dimension of agency life: sales, account management, creative direction, and the administrative discipline it takes to run a shop that actually delivers. At Fusion he built and stewarded relationships with the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, WSM Radio, Eli Lilly, Belo Interactive, and Sony, among many others, effortlessly understanding the client's business as well as they do, then communicating that to "the wizards" that build something that outlasts the brief.

He's an internationally exhibited abstract fine artist whose debut sold out at the Stutz Gallery in Indianapolis in 2003. Art reviewers have his called his work alive. Photography isn't a sideline but a foundational lens, mostly editorial, commercial, and portraiture that ends up on walls as often as on websites. Before any of it, he modeled across Europe and the US, competed professionally in basketball in France and Sweden, and did research at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

Notable clients
Grand Ole OpryRyman AuditoriumWSM RadioEli LillyBelo InteractiveSonyChicago BlackhawksCoca-ColaWWE
Disciplines
Agency LeadershipAccount ManagementCreative DirectionBrand StrategyPhotographyAbstract Fine Art
David Edwin Meyers
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David Edwin Meyers

Principal · Creative Director · UX & Interactive Design · SCAD Senior Professor
Art Academy of Cincinnati · Certificate, Ringling School of Art & Design
M.F.A., Illustration · Syracuse University, 1989
"The Godfather of Multimedia in the Midwest."— Evansville Courier

David's digital work predates the commercial web itself. His illustrations ran in the first issues of MacWorld in 1985, when digital illustration was the domain of a handful of experimenters; by the early 1990s he'd founded some of the first commercial web studios in the Midwest. The Courier's "Godfather of Multimedia" wasn't hyperbole, it was an accurate accounting of what he built, the developers he taught that came after him, and how he has always been at the tip of the spear.

His agency work spans creative direction, UX strategy, and account leadership for Paul McCartney, The Emmys, the Grand Ole Opry, Microsoft, HP, Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Sony. He authored and launched UX and interactive design programs at SCAD and Lindsey Wilson College and now serves as Senior Professor at SCADpro — SCAD's elite innovation studio — leading live projects for Ford, Samsung, Deloitte, and Capital One. He's a Crystal Heart Award–winning filmmaker with 50+ international festival selections. David is also a celebrated fine artist in the areas of drawing, painting, and printmaking, as well as rodeo bull rider (allegedly).

Notable clients
Paul McCartneyThe EmmysGrand Ole OpryMicrosoftHPEli LillyBristol Myers SquibbSonyFordSamsungCapital One
Disciplines & recognition
UX ResearchInteractive DesignSCAD FacultyFilmIllustrationMidwest Pioneer

Ric's range across sales, creative, photography, and administration, combined with David's academic rigor and three decades of agency and institutional leadership, gives Fusion a foundation most shops simply can't replicate.

Dr. Troy VanAken
TV
The early years · Part of the act

Dr. Troy VanAken

B.S. · Hillsdale College
M.S. & Ph.D., Mathematics · Bowling Green State University

In the beginning there was a third chair: Dr. Troy VanAken, custom coding the architecture from his house while the rest of the country still commuted to offices. He left around 2006 for a career in higher education. Today he's the 14th president of Elmhurst University and has been since 2016. He set the standard for the caliber of backend functionality that we still strive for today.

"We can do that!"

Let's Build Yours.

The large agencies the world hires called us when they ran out of time. Imagine what we can do with you.

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