In January of 1998, a group of designers, advertising creatives, film directors and photographers got together to create a company dedicated to the proposition that "stuff shouldn't suck".

In honor of the year it was founded, a group chose the 98th element of the periodic table as the name of their new company: Californium.

In 2005 the collective joined creatives in Hong Kong, London, San Francisco, and Honolulu to form the Creative Underground, with Californium its flagship office in North America.