Design Culture

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Bernard Sunley Foundation

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A family grant giving foundation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Design Culture to accomplish?

• Build a new website to better reflect the foundation's position and sector standing
• Make it easier for grant applicants to engage with the foundation and receive information
• Deliver an exceptional user experience

SOLUTION

How did you find Design Culture?

Online Search

Why did you select Design Culture over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Design Culture were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The Bernard Sunley Foundation is a UK-based grant-making organisation supporting charitable initiatives of all sizes – from local community projects to national institutions, awarding over 350 grants each year, creating measurable social impact.  Why the need for a new site?The Foundation had identified a need to improve its online presence with a digital platform that would better reflect its position and sector standing, make it easier for applicants to engage, and deliver an exceptional user experience for all audiences. Evolving the brand The Foundation’s brand has strong equity within the sector and among its audiences. While continuing to lead with its distinct logo and vibrant green and grey pairing, we evolved the brand by bringing in a warm neutral to bridge and soften the palette. In application, this addition has strengthened and elevated the brand, with the new palette better supporting photographic imagery, and providing greater opportunity for typography and colour use in hover states, banners and interactive elements. Designed for impact and built for the future The resulting site is modern, polished, and applicant friendly. The new site makes application processe clearer and more accessible and engages audiences with the real-world impact of the Foundation’s giving through surfacing project case studies and beneficiary testimonials. The modular WordPress build gives the team flexibility to create and manage content and the site has been built to be scalable and easy to maintain. Case studies can easily be surfaced across the site in different formats, helping to tell beneficiary stories and highlight the impact of grants. By combining user-focused design, accessible development and a future-proof approach to the site’s architecture and navigation, the Foundation now has a digital platform built that can adapt and grow with their needs and future plans. Designing for accessibility and engagement Colour and typography use were updated for accessibility and subtle micro-animations add dynamism without being distracting for audiences. Page lengths were deliberately capped to reduce frustration, particularly for less digital confident audience groups.  The site is designed not only for visual impact and usability but also for performance, with SEO best practices and advanced analytics built in to track engagement and inform future improvements. Key successes Clearer applicant journey with persistent log-in for saved formsEngaging case studies highlighting funded projectsModular CMS enabling flexible content creationAccessible design compliant with standards.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Key successes:

Clearer applicant journey with persistent log-in for saved forms
Engaging case studies highlighting funded projects
Modular CMS enabling flexible content creation
Accessible design compliant with standards.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Very responsive, flexible, strategic and also intuitive.

What was your primary form of communication with Design Culture?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Small team so enabled a good personal connection.

Excellent breadth of understanding of the foundation and took the time to really understand the landscape that we operate in

Are there any areas for improvement or something Design Culture could have done differently?

I would have preferred some face to face meetings, especially in the early stages of the brief but the online meetings did work well overall.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Communications and Marketing Manager of Air Ambulances UK

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Air Ambulances UK (AAUK) is the national charity that supports the lifesaving work of the UK’s air ambulance charities, helping them save even more lives every day.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Design Culture to accomplish?

• We hired Design Culture to increase visibility for UK air ambulance charities and create a powerful, professional website with a clear and easy user journey.

SOLUTION

How did you find Design Culture?

Other

Why did you select Design Culture over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Design Culture were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Design Culture was tasked with designing and building a new website for Air Ambulances UK. The scope included:

• Full website redesign and development
• Improved user experience and navigation
• Clear presentation of our role and impact across the UK
• Integration of contact forms
• Mobile responsiveness and accessibility compliance
• Visual identity updates to reflect a national, professional brand
• Key deliverables included wireframes, design concepts, a fully functional website, CMS training, and post-launch support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The new website delivered a much better user journey, was visually appealing, easy to navigate, and made it simpler for users to understand the charity’s role. It was also built with a user-friendly backend, making updates and content management straightforward for our team.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Working with Design Culture has been a fantastic experience from start to finish. They really took the time to understand our goals, audiences and internal capacity, guiding us through each stage with clarity and care. It was an incredibly smooth and collaborative process throughout.

Design Culture have been great every step of the way — even when parts of the project evolved, they remained flexible, understanding, and solution-focused. Together, we were able to quickly agree on a clear plan of action and move forward with confidence. Their team has been responsive, supportive, and generous with their knowledge, helping us make informed decisions at every stage.

The website not only looks great but delivers a truly thoughtful user experience. The flexibility built into the design means we can create dynamic, engaging content with ease — it’s a platform that will grow with us.

What was your primary form of communication with Design Culture?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their ability to quickly understand our charity’s needs and translate them into a clear, impactful design was impressive. They balanced creativity with usability and were highly responsive throughout the project.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Design Culture could have done differently?

A slightly quicker turnaround on some phases would have helped, but overall communication and delivery were strong.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Anglo-Polish Cultural Exchange Curator of Anglo-Polish Cultural Exchange

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The Anglo-Polish Cultural Exchange is a public cultural programming forum, a cultural and social inclusion campaign and an online research hub.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Design Culture to accomplish?

• to design a bespoke Wordpress website
• to develop project branding
• to host and maintain the website, with a service level agreement
• to provide a chief vehicle for a cultural and social campaign

SOLUTION

How did you find Design Culture?

Referral

Why did you select Design Culture over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Design Culture were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Anglo-Polish Cultural Exchange: Public Programming Forum, Cultural and Social Inclusion Campaign, Reserach Hub and Virtual Museum

1) Visual identity creation

Creation and definition of identity: wordmarque logo, colour palette, typographic choices

Define and supply in simple 1 page guidance. Supply of all logo file assets.

2) Information Architecture / Wireframing and design / Development

Further define scope and finalise requirements and site map

Wireframe and design of templates – Wireframing website templates
– Design of website templates
– Creation of style guide and assets

Development of global elements, and unique modules to create required page templates – Front End Development

Development of global elements, and unique modules to create required page templates – Back End Development

Development of global elements, and unique modules to create required page templates – Testing, Bug Fixing, Browser compatibility
– User testing

3) Wordpress Setup

WordPress + WPML Multi-lingual set up
Custom search using Algolia, Relevanssi or similar Custom Post Types

4) Content

DC populate the new website with supplied written content
and prep and upload of image content
– Extent: copy and image upload for all pages of the new website shown on website,

to include homepage and landing pages; plus
– Collection posts and  ‘blog’ posts

5) Digital Marketing - Essential Initial Setup

Essential SEO inc Social Tracking
Google Analytics / Google Tag Manager / Google Search Console Implement essential goals

6) Project Management

Project Management across lifecycle of project

7) Project Handover

CMS Training (Virtual training via screen sharing assumed) Preparation and supply of image size guide documentation

8) Annual Hosting and Support

Website Hosting

Website Maintenance Agreement (WMA)

9) Ongoing Development of Design Features

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

1)High-Profile Partnerships

Creating and unprecedented institutional partnership between three foremost Anglo-Polish organizations - POSK, the Polish Cultural Institute and Ognisko Polskie (Polish Hearth) which have never worked in this way before previously. In the course of the project, partnerships with the University of Oxford and the Association for Art History have also been forged.

2) High-Profile Media Coverage

The project has been featured in numerous media outlets, including mainstream British press and TV, including:

·      The Guardian, September 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/25/agent-behind-james-bond-spy-vesper-lynd-given-new-role-in-uk-poland-relations

·      The Times, October 2022

https://www.thetimes.com/article/prince-philips-secret-letters-to-painter-reveal-love-of-modern-art-67jzz5t9r

·      ITV London News, Octiber 2022

https://www.facebook.com/polishinstitutelondon/videos/take-a-look-at-last-weeks-tv-report-by-itv-london-news-about-the-launch-of-the-g/2379824698837458/

·      Creative Review, October 2022

https://www.creativereview.co.uk/celebrating-the-fantastical-theatre-of-polish-design-and-illustration/

·      The Guardian, April 2023

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/apr/28/persian-power-pinochet-protests-postwar-punks-and-princes-the-week-in-art

·      The Jewish Chronicle, May 2023

https://www.thejc.com/life-and-culture/feliks-topolski-the-jewish-artist-friend-of-prince-philip-that-time-forgot-gn3h1ky0

·      Arts Industry, April 2023

https://www.artsindustry.co.uk/feature/3052-taitmail-no-artist-s-eye-on-the-coronation

·      Arts Industry, May 2023

https://www.artsindustry.co.uk/news/3066-artists-commissioned-to-record-coronation

·      Decorative Arts Society, May 2023

https://www.decorativeartssociety.org.uk/news/punks-princes-and-protests-the-chronicles-of-feliks-topolski-ra/

·      Contemporary Lynx, May 2023

https://contemporarylynx.co.uk/event/the-chronicles-of-feliks-topolski

According to the calculations of the Four Communications PR company, the above publicity has reached audiences of some 641,000 people, creating profile and credibility for Polish culture and for the partner organizations. The equivalent cost of advertising  in mainstream media would amount to some £200,000. 

3) High-Profile Original Content Nowhere Else to be Found & High-Profile Contributors

The APCE website features contributions from internationally renowned academics, public figures and curators, many of whom hold senior academic degrees and/or public roles. It also showcases unique, carefully created and academicly accurate original content nowhere else to be found – i.e. analysis of Polish immigration to the UK by the long-term Director of the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies at ULC, Prof. Jerzy Kolankiewicz, APCE Academic Advisor; interviews with leading figures of the British artworld discussing their Polish heritage conducted by Dr Marta de Zuniga, an academic, diplomat and former Director of the PCI; and texts about mostly forgotten Anglo-Polish cultural figures by artists’ descendants and art historians. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Design Culture were absolutely exceptional in terms of project management, time-keeping, accountability as well as high ethics. Out of 14 website companies longlisted to build the website to the exceptionally short timescale of 10 weeks, they were the only one who were able to fulfil the technical brief to this exceptionally short timescale. They are excellent in terms of regular communications with the customer so that it is a real partnership.

What was your primary form of communication with Design Culture?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Superb technical expertise; superb efficiency; great communication; very principled and ethical, commissted to purpose-driven and social-conscious projects.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Design Culture could have done differently?

Design Culture has been exceptional in every respect and I would not hesitate to work with them again.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Program and Research Associate of Transparency International U.S.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Transparency International U.S. focuses on stemming the harms caused by illicit finance, strengthening political integrity, and promoting a positive U.S. role in global anti-corruption initiatives through a combination of research, advocacy, and policy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Design Culture to accomplish?

• Redesign our website
• Take over hosting of our website

SOLUTION

How did you find Design Culture?

Online Search

Why did you select Design Culture over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Design Culture were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We approached Design Culture as we wanted to redesign aspects of our website. This included adding and removing pages, changing the color scheme and layout, and adding other features to streamline both the posting of entries and further edits to the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Design Culture listened to our concerns and ideas, then presented us with a few variations of mock-ups. The redesign we chose has fit our needs perfectly, and Design Culture also assumed hosting of the site. Of the few tech problems we encountered, namely issues carried over from the firm that had originally built the site, the Design Culture team was quick to respond and troubleshoot.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Design Culture is everything you want in a firm. When we approached the team about this project, we knew that we wanted to make changes to the site but didn’t know exactly how to articulate those ideas. The Design Culture team met with us and listened to our mission, scope of work and audience, then returned to us with a fantastic redesign. They're quick to respond, and just as important, patient with us when it takes longer than usual for us to reply to their follow-up.

What was your primary form of communication with Design Culture?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

No one on our team has a background in design, so when we've worked with UI/UX designers in the past, it's been difficult to predict and explain exactly how we'd like our web presence to appear. Design Culture listened to our less-than-ideal, vague critiques of the original site ("we want it to be more clean!"), understood our audience, and presented us with a site we're now proud to share.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Design Culture could have done differently?

Nothing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Programme & Communications Manager at The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, which is one of the four Inns of Court. We are a professional membership association for barristers. My role involves managing programmes of work, particularly related to technical projects, and overall responsibility for our communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Design Culture, and what were your goals?

We had two websites which were confusing for visitors, outdated and not mobile responsive. We needed to rationalise the navigation, content and update the look and feel.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

In addition to web development, we wanted to undertake a branding exercise to ensure the new websites delivered a coherent experience to the user which was aligned with our brand identity. We had seen similar work completed by Design Culture and were keen to consider them on this basis. They proved very strong on both the development and design elements of the brief.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Design Culture met with us to specify our requirements, then wireframes were designed. They helped us to identify our key users and mapped the user journeys throughout the site. They designed custom page templates to support our content, and helped us group content sensibly.

Alongside the development, they devised and led a branding exercise to help us identify our key audience groups and messages, and ensure the site delivered against these. They also directed a couple of photo shoots as we needed fresh imagery to support our updated brand proposition. The site was built on WordPress using a blend of plugins and custom development.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked directly with the two directors, plus a project manager, designer and front end/back end developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our website is designed to be informative rather than transactional so we didn't have key metrics as such, however we received very positive feedback on the user experience from our members.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Our project manager was terrific. She was organised, efficient and took the time to understand our project and objectives. The timeline was fairly tight but they managed to deliver on time and issues which arose were always dealt with promptly and courteously.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I liked their flexible approach and found all their team very personable and easy to work with. We felt our connection was more like a partnership than a traditional client-supplier relationship.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There were a few minor issues during the build, but these were dealt with promptly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Freelance marketing consultant of christophercox.co.uk

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Digital marketing and project management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Design Culture to accomplish?

• Build a new website for a non-profit
• Ensure the site is optimised for search and UX.
• Refresh the brand to add freshness without disruption and expense.

SOLUTION

How did you find Design Culture?

Referral

Why did you select Design Culture over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned
• Other

How many teammates from Design Culture were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Design of new website Refreshing of brand Training Testing Launch Ongoing support

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Increased engagement on site. SEO performance improved.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Very timely and proactive, everything delivered on time to tight deadlines.

What was your primary form of communication with Design Culture?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

As both a client and freelancer, I've worked with many digital agencies – and I've had my best experience to date with Design Culture. They were straightforward, intelligent, proactive, organised and helpful at every step of the way. Many costly agencies don't have as much integrity and talent as their team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Design Culture could have done differently?

There was nothing they needed to improve on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Clerk of Lord Crewe's Charity

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Grant giving endowed charity

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Design Culture to accomplish?

• Replace our website
• Enhance our digital image
• Design and produce promotional literature

SOLUTION

How did you find Design Culture?

Online Search

Why did you select Design Culture over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Design Culture were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Build a replacement website; design promotional literature and advise on digital strategy

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Delivery of product

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They were timely and conscious of what was needed to ensure that delivery progressed constantly through the project. They were very responsive and supportive and dealt with all requests with good humour.

What was your primary form of communication with Design Culture?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The people. The individuals on our project had very high empathy for our needs and how we wanted to appear through the website they developed and the promotional material. They were attentive and excellent at aligning the development work with the image and feel we were seeking. They were also a real pleasure to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Design Culture could have done differently?

No areas for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Chief Research Officer, at Picker Institute Europe. We are an international charity working across health and social care.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Design Culture?

Design Culture developed a new website for the NHS Staff Survey. The survey is one of the largest workforce surveys in the world and is carried out every year to improve staff experiences across the NHS.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We chose Design Culture because of their previous experience designing websites in our field and ability to deliver against AA and NHS brand identity guidelines.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Discovery, content framework, architecture, development, and test and delivery.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had a project manager to take us through the project with other staff members being looped into discussion at key points of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The website is easy to use (both back end and for the user) with a professional clean design that meets AA accessibility.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very easy with use of tools such as asana and figma to share docs and designs.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They had an impressive approach to project management and collaboration.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Communications Director of Fair Trials, an NGO that campaigns for fair and equal criminal justice systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Design Culture?

Our Drupal website needed a complete overhaul. The site had grown too big, was not optimised for organic SEO, and was difficult to edit. We wanted to change to an easy-to-use content management system (CMS), and a more engaging, easy-to-use site for our audiences. In addition, we wanted a brand refresh that we could apply to the website and other materials.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We received 5 pitches. We chose Design Culture because they had a good combination of creativity, technical ability and project management. They understood our brief and we trusted that they would be able to deliver both the brand refresh and a new website.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

After initial meetings to understand our requirements, Design Culture proposed a new brand that included several template designs that we could use for different content on the new website. They also developed a new information architecture structure that re-shaped how we organised content on the site. This included a resource hub that would help users to find content on our site.

They were responsive and patient while we adjusted some of the architecture and were great at talking us through some of the more technical aspects of the development. They supported us throughout the development of the site and gave us plenty of opportunities to consult with our organisation and to test the site with stakeholders. It was launched without any major issues.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with account managers, project managers, developers and designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We've had extremely positive feedback from different stakeholder groups. The site looks fantastic and is much easier to use and to update.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very effective. The team are very approachable and supportive. They are particularly good at explaining the more technical aspects of the development.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They just made the whole process simple and straightforward.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No, they were great.