‘Apprentice’ candidate Thomason gets help from Spokane design firm, photographer

A year ago, Rick Hosmer and his partners at Spokane-based design firm Klundt Hosmer seldom watched the reality TV show “The Apprentice.”

Now they don’t let a week go by without taping every minute.

One of the contenders on the show, 29-year-old Alex Thomason of Seattle, asked Klundt Hosmer to design his personal Web site, to grab fan attention and help with his campaign to come out as the show’s big winner.

That site — www.alexthomason.com — is now drawing thousands of visitors a day. It’s also become an online marketing tool for Klundt Hosmer, a visual communications and design firm.

Hosmer and his partners, Darin Klundt and Jean Klundt, had never heard of Thomason until he called them late last year.

The three took on the job — at no cost to Thomason — and produced the Web site just before this season’s “Apprentice” series started on Jan. 20. Another Spokane contributor to the site was Dean Davis, who owns Dean Davis Photography. Davis shot more than 200 photos of Thomason that Klundt Hosmer considered for use on the Web site.

The Web site has thousands of visitors checking on Thomason and his effort to help his “book-smart” team defeat another group of executive wanna-bees, the “street-smart” contestants, on the popular Thursday-night TV show.

The Thomason site has spawned a handful of business leads to design Web sites, Hosmer said.

Added Darin Klundt: “We’re getting a good number of clicks on our own site, from people looking at the Alex site and coming over to ours.”

Knowing that the site might generate immense marketing value, Klundt Hosmer didn’t charge Thomason a cent for the Web design. A site like his usually costs between $6,000 and $9,000, said Hosmer.

The third day after the Jan. 20 debut, the site drew about 10,000 visitors, according to Hosmer. The interest should continue for as long as Thomason, a deputy prosecutor for King County, remains a competitor. Each week, one of the contestants finds himself the recipient of The Donald’s pithy “You’re fired” send-offs.

Because of an extremely restrictive contract Thomason signed, he said he’s unable to talk about his involvement with the show or his Web site. He grew up in Brewster, got degrees in Latin and theology from Seattle Pacific University, and ended up later getting a law degree from Seattle University.

His selection of Klundt Hosmer happened because of his friendship with Steve Bertone, an attorney with Paine Hamblen Coffin Brooke & Miller in Spokane.

Bertone supervised Thomason in 2003 when Thomason moved to Spokane to work for a summer for the law firm. When Thomason asked for help finding a top-quality Web development firm, Bertone pointed him to Klundt Hosmer.

Bertone said he’s seen other sites by other “Apprentice” contenders, and the Klundt Hosmer product is clearly one of the best.

(The other Seattle resident on this year’s season, Verna Felton, who works at Microsoft, has her own site at vernafelton.com.)

Thomason’s site is the first fan site the firm has created. The company’s portfolio of clients includes a mix of small and mid-sized firms, like Hill’s Resort, Cascade Windows and Itronix Corp.

Darin Klundt said the challenge for the project was finding a way to convey an upscale, sophisticated look and keep the Web design clean and simple to navigate.

Bertone said the online result proved his point: “I’ve been really impressed with everything that comes out of their doors. They do things as well as any of the best firms in Seattle.”

After the show ends in May — and no, Thomason won’t even hint if he’s still around at that point in the contest, which was taped earlier — Klundt Hosmer and Thomason will discuss what happens next.

If, like other past successful “Apprentice” contenders, he wants to pursue a TV career, Thomason might want to have Klundt Hosmer maintain the Web site.

“At that point, if that’s what he wants, we’ll look at ways of getting some kind of payment for that work,” Hosmer said.