About Us

The year is 1994, the school: Preston High School, the computers are 486 DX4 100’s with a turbo button, the software is Dvision and Crystal Flying Fonts. If none of this rings a bell, then you’re lucky to have bypassed the era of turtle computers. But for Matt and Sammy this was the hardware and software we got the privilege of using for our video production class. Even though it took over 10 minutes to render a 30 second clip, we were addicted. When we weren’t filming our football team getting crushed by bigger schools, we spent all our extra time in the computer lab making spoof videos with the likes of Jared Hess. Yes, we worked with the creator of Napoleon Dynamite. Let’s not mention this again ;)

It was later that year, when, after countless hours of reading manuals and thousands of computer restarts that we took a field trip to another high school, one that had more students in its graduating class than our entire school. And yet, this neighboring school is still considered small. That just goes to show you how small Preston High School really is. Yes, Napoleon Dynamite was an accurate portrayal – oops I forgot I wasn’t going to bring that up again ;( Anyway, we ventured across the border from Idaho to Utah and toured the video production class of Logan High School. This is where we met Ian working on a video that used so much red colored corn syrup that it was instantly banned from any school broadcasts. This was the first time all three of Systematic’s owners would meet and create a friendship that has lasted longer than our marriages.

In 1999 Sammy, Matt and Ian quit their jobs, put all their savings into paying the lease on a basement office space, brought in home computers and began designing business cards, rave flyers and anything that paid at least half of the bills. It was no less than 2 years later that paychecks could actually be made. We survived on the usual Ramen noodles and bean burritos. It was rough, but we were determined to make the business a success, especially since Zion’s bank denied our loan for a measly $10,000. They said we had a less than 10% chance of success. Little did they know within 5 years we’d be printing for them, along with many other financial institutions and pretty much every other major corporation in Utah.