For an Issaquah design firm, business is as much an opportunity to make money as it is to help nonprofits.

“I say our for-profit work funds our nonprofit,” said Andrea Heuston, founder and CEO of Artitudes Design, her positive attitude dominating every curve of her face.

Artitudes has won several awards for both being one of the best places to work in Puget Sound and for it’s commitment to volunteerism.

It most recently won the prestigious Stevie Award at the 2011 American Business Awards for its work in the art docent programs at public schools. Her designers lead art projects in classrooms from Issaquah to Seattle.

Many of the classroom crafts originate from Artitudes’ Maple Street office. Egg-carton caterpillars, close-pin farm animals and plenty of googly eyes decorate the cubicles, walls – and even ceilings.

Regular Monday-morning staff meetings are opened by a craft project.

“It’s a lot of fun,” she said, before mentioning she’s often thought about writing a book on team building.

While Artitudes does do some branding work, such as the new Issaquah Artwalk signage, it primarily focuses on Powerpoint, Keynote and Flash presentations for audiences from 1 to 10,000.

“It makes stories stick for audiences,” she explained.

The company has almost benefited from the economy’s collapse, because major tech companies like Microsoft have laid off some of its design staff and turned to freelancers, she said.

This year alone, her 18-person company has grown by about 40 percent.

Heuston’s altruistic approach to business came three years ago when a surgery went wrong and her doctors put her in a medical coma to save her life.

The survival rate was about 40 percent, she said.

When she woke up, the second chance at life fortified a positive attitude and generosity.

“You need to make a decision to have a good day everyday,” she said.

Her benevolence was so strong, her accountant warned her to stop spending so much on nonprofits and keeping employees happy.

That year she donated about $50,000 in work to Olive Crest, which helps abused children.

Despite the warning, she didn’t feel inclined to give any less.

She even began a program where employees can have a week of paid leave to spend time volunteering at organizations they’re passionate about.

Heuston, now 40, got her start in design when she was 17 at her father’s company doing technical illustrations – dry work, she said.

At the time, computers weren’t used much for design.

She eventually opened her own firm, which moved to Issaquah in 2006.

Over her career, she’s seen how computer software rocked the design world, but technology isn’t done yet, she said.

The next major breakthrough, the next Helvetica, is going to be motion, she said. “Static images are going away.”

The benefit is that designers can get more information into shorter amounts of time, and they can make ads more relevant.

It’s not all positive.

“I think it can move too fast,” she said.

Consumers also have stopped questioning the validity of well-produced messages, she said. “People don’t take time anymore to understand the concept.”