Creative Process

There isn't a magic formula for standardizing our process for every project, there are too many variables from one job to the next. And we're constantly learning and evolving how we approach problem solving. But it helps us to stay on budget and deadline if we break things up into phases and task lists.

Here's are some of the processes we've used before:

Planning

This is the time to get everything on the table. Depending on your location and preferences, we can meet, talk, email, or instant message about your goals for a successful project. Then we'll step away to contemplate, develop strategy, and generate outlines for moving forward. Among other things, this might include researching competition, evaluating software, reviewing strategic goals, asking more questions, or studying planning documents. This is a process that we return to repeatedly, especially during the design phase. Ultimately, the aim is to identify a few concrete goals that we can work towards and measure quantitative results against.

Design

Without question, a properly conceived design will be the most important phase of your project. Regardless of the technology or format of your final product, our approach is to focus on three fundamental elements of graphic design -- typography, grid systems, and color. On web projects, we add a fourth component, interactivity. The process begins offline, sketching wireframes on graph paper for reference when we eventually boot up InDesign and begin assembling two first drafts, which will then go through two rounds of intensive iterations before we move to final production.

Development

We approach the practice of coding a usable website from a designer's perspective. Each navigation element, submit button and line of CSS code is designed for efficiency and scalability. Because we use web standards and reduce the amount of code to an absolute minimum, there more potential for future redesigns, feature additions, or development teams to leverage your new site. For administering content, modeling a flexible database, and powering advanced functionality, we prefer to develop on the leading site development platform, ExpressionEngine (EE). There are plenty of circumstances where we understand that using EE isn't possible and if that is the case, we will work with a solution that fits your needs.

Maintain

After launching a new project, we don't just pack up and wish you good luck. Ideally, you'll keep us on contract to help fix bugs, provide training to new staff, and make ongoing improvements. Websites are almost like living organisms, you need to feed them, be responsive to your audience, and nurture growth. We stay on top of trends in web marketing, social media and development tools so that when something truly useful comes along, you'll be able to leverage it with the best possible timing.