Dreamten

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Clovis Thorn: Grand Street Settlement is a comprehensive community services organization. There are around 37 settlement houses in New York City. Grand Street Settlement was founded in 1916. We provide services for tots to seniors and everyone in between. We offer early childhood health, pre-kindergarten youth services, afterschool programs, and summer camp. Our services for adults include assisting them with signing up for public assistance, legal help, and health services. For seniors, we run centers that provide programs for the elderly including nutrition—breakfast and lunch. We also own a senior housing facility. That’s also done in 34 sites across the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Northern Brooklyn. I’m the director of development and communication.

Robert Cordero:  I’m the executive director of Grand Street Settlement.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dreamten?

Robert Cordero: We needed someone to work with us on branding, communications, and website development. Initially, we need help with a social enterprise project. We used to work with another graphic artist but we were not satisfied with the design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clovis Thorn: Currently, we've asked Dreamten to take on a pretty comprehensive branding project. It’s a new initiative that we're undertaking, a social enterprise café. This will be more than just a coffee shop; it's a café with a social purpose. It will be located in a brand-new building on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The café will be deeply invested in the community. It's going to have a double bottom line model: to make a profit but also reinvest those profits back into the people that it serves. It's going to provide job training in the culinary arts for young people. Oftentimes, these will be young people who are at risk for criminal justice involvement. We've asked Dreamten to come up with the initial design concept for the café, including the logo branding. They will also do the implementation of that logo and branding across the collateral that you would need for a café. That’s all the signage, menus, smocks, and all that stuff. We need to make sure that the café has exposure in the community and is known for being more than a coffee shop.

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

Robert Cordero: I had worked with Dreamten previously, specifically with Philip Lester. I gave him a call and asked him to work on it. If this project goes well, we’ll ask them to bid on more substantive work for the entire agency. Given the broader scope of potential work, we have to get multiple bids as the cost estimate exceeds our internal spending level. I'm sure they'll be competitive during the bidding process.

How much have you invested with Dreamten?

Clovis Thorn: At this point, we’ve paid $4,500 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Clovis Thorn: The current project began recently, around 2 weeks ago. That's a pretty tight timeline. The firm has already delivered the initial concept and we'll be wrapping the initial stage up in the next week or so. If that all goes well, we would expect to continue working with Dreamten on several other projects over the next few months.

Robert Cordero: There'll be a monthly retainer for a limited number of months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Clovis Thorn: We don't have any quantitative metrics but by observation and anecdote, their work is very well received. It is super solid design work. There are no complaints, even on the first draft. There's always critique and refinement, but it's always really solid.

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

Clovis Thorn: We have worked almost exclusively with Philip Lester, the principal. Communication was by email, phone, and personal visit.

What did you find most impressive about Dreamten?

Robert Cordero: Philip is just a consummate professional and backs it up with very high-quality and thoughtful work. What distinguishes him is he won't take work just to take it. I've actually approached him at other points in my tenure. He'll be very honest about whether it makes sense for his firm to do a project for a certain price point. I really respect that a lot. He wants to make sure he does a good job.

He's based in North Carolina now but he was previously living in Virginia. That has not been an impediment to working with a non-profit in New York City. He often requests to come out and visit at the beginning of a job. This allows him to absorb everything so that can emerge in his work. There are firms in New York City that won't even come to your organization to do that. I think that differentiates them, as well as better quality work. It gives a deeper understanding of what we do and what we want.

Are there any areas Dreamten could improve?

Clovis Thorn: We did not experience any problems.

Robert Cordero: None.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is a behavioral and social science research firm. We conduct evaluations, put together reports, study and analyze data on behalf of a variety of clients, primarily government agencies: US Department of Education, Department of Labor, Health, and Social Services, etc. We focus on education, healthcare, international development and a few other areas.

We do a lot of things to help disseminate the different kinds of research products that we put together, including the development of different websites, web-based tools, and applications. I am a Research Analyst.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dreamten?

For several years, I've been involved with work on what's known as early warning systems in education. That includes developing systemic approaches and continuous improvement processes at schools. 

The goal in early warning system is to use predictive early warning indicators to identify students that might be struggling to meet educational milestones. Whether it's dropout prevention, college readiness, or being ready for secondary education. There's been a growing amount of research in this area, and we've developed a lot of tools, guides, and even a web-based tool that different schools can use to gather these early warning indicators and take action to get students back on track.

We had restructured some of the work that we had done in this area and reached out to Dreamten to help redesign our website. It was about representing the breadth of different services we provide in this area and communicating that to potential clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Internally we had developed some designs for what the website might look like that were consistent with the new design of our company's main website. We wanted it to look and feel similar to that while focusing on the set of services that we were offering in the field of early warning systems.

We brought the design to Dreamten and worked with them on developing the structure and how the website should be designed. We had an older WordPress-based website but it was very wordy and a bit difficult to find information and resources. There wasn't a whole lot there regarding a call to action or encouraging potential clients to get in touch with us.

We had a lot of the pieces that we needed in place. We had designs for how the website might look and operate. We had too much text and other information on the website. We needed to pare it down and redesign it, so it provided a more interactive and user-friendly experience, to help individuals get the reports, products, and tools that we were producing, and to be encouraged to get in touch with us also.

Dreamten designed the new website and built it in WordPress, a more recent version of it, and has been helpful in helping us take this idea that we had, put it into practice, and make it real.

There are a lot of pieces that are custom to the website itself. I don't think it's an amazingly complex, cutting edge kind of website but I think it does its job very well in the sense that it's simplified, it's not cluttered, and it helps identify the main areas of work that we operate in. They helped us build the website around what we call our implementation task, and it features the different kinds of services, five different sections.

There's a separate component, a resource library where we're posting articles, videos, webinars, brochures; things that we've produced or things that other organizations have done that are aligned with some of the work that we're doing. We wanted to feature that kind of work. What Dreamten did was they allowed us to build a taxonomy for the resources that was tied to each of these five different services that we provide: synthesizing research, developing customized tools and supports, assessing and improvement practices. Turning what schools are doing into a continuous improvement process and evaluating how effective that is.

The resources are all tied to each of these elements. When you go to one particular section of the website, you'll see a description of that service, what it is we do, why that might be valuable, and a link to contact us. Then there are related resources so that you can quickly go to resources such as an article or guide that we've written that are tied directly to the part of the implementation path, which is the service area in which we operate.

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

I think that came just from working with our internal group. The way our company is organized is that we have a communications department, more so I guess you would call it a services department. This department goes out and helps conduct the research or evaluations, or the kind of core business area things that we do. The communications department was aware of Dreamten and suggested that we work with them because it would be a lot easier for them to build this cost-effectively and on time. 

The website isn't what our communications team would routinely put together. We tend to put most things through our main website, which I believe is built and maintained internally, so this is a one-off website. 

How much have you invested with Dreamten?

Significantly less than $5,000 hosting fees per year going forward. The initial investment to put the website together was in the $25,000 to $30,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started this work in November 2015. The problem is in January 2016, our company rolled out a major reorganization. The internal processes it took for things like spending money on contractors had entirely new and different routes it had to go, to receive approval. Everybody in the company was trying to figure out what these new routes were like and their new world and responsibilities. The delay was entirely on behalf of our reorganization.

Dreamten was extremely quick turning this information around. We had a deadline to expend our funds by the end of the year, and they did that. Then, the new structure was sitting there waiting to go and needed additional approval in the new year for the language and how we were going to approach different sections of the website. Getting that approval took months because it took us a long time internally to figure out who had to be involved in that conversation and what the language of the organization was going to be like within this new structure.

Dreamten was very fast in responding to requests in putting together the website, as we had drawn it up. Then we just had to sit on it for a long time.

Our agreement is for hosting the website, primarily. Just because of the structure of the company, we decided that it was easier for everybody if Dreamten just hosted it and the URL goes to their server as opposed to having it hosted internally. Maintenance and updates are there. I find that if I have questions on how to do something, they're very responsive and willing to walk me through the management of the website itself.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I don't have any metrics set up at this point, which is ironic since a lot of the work that we do is about measuring stuff. We just went live with the website at the beginning of October, so at this point, I think it's premature to say exactly what impact the new design has had. We haven't announced it publicly, so I don't have much to share with you.

We have got some individuals that have contacted us through the website, a lot of views on the Contact Us page and the newsletter sign up feature. I don't have Google Analytics; I haven't pulled a report on the website pre-launch and post-launch, so I'm not at a point where I can say much of anything in quantifiable terms what the redesign or the services they provided have done for us.

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

I think it's good. This isn't a huge project, so I don't know if this is one that speaks to their ability to manage large-scale projects to completion and within budget. They certainly have undertaken their other obligations promptly and have done everything to the plan and contract that we signed. Our experiences with them have reflected on them well and their ability to manage the project, but a small lift in the scale of things.

I had one contact at the company after we initially agreed to work with Dreamten and that's been the main developer, so I've just been talking with him directly. It's been a mix of emails and phone calls. 

What did you find most impressive about Dreamten?

I think that they have provided a great service. They explained the tools and the management of the website really well, so once the website was up, the conversation became one of how do I use something. They're very responsive to questions and requests. If I didn't understand how something was organized or how something worked, there was a very high degree of personal responsiveness to those requests.

Are there any areas Dreamten could improve?

Maybe just communicating about the tasks in a different way. It wasn't like there was a ton of stuff that needed to be done, but I think it would have been helpful if we had just listed out the tasks and the progress. I've worked with other web development companies where they are a little more explicit about what was going to be done. I think maybe because of the nature of this particular project; it didn't require a lot of specificity in essence. I always find it helpful when you list the next steps, sprints or tasks that you're going to accomplish, and then you share that with the customer so that they're aware of what you've been doing and how you've been doing it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Vaporware is a consulting firm that specializes in building responsive web applications for startup companies. I am the Executive Director of the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dreamten?

We were looking for some modern and best-in-class visual designs at a very rapid pace. That’s what we simply haven’t been able to find from individuals or other organizations, so with really high expectations, we were looking in a week’s time for someone to come in and understand an application and design the initial concepts of the application for a client.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided some consulting, as well as several weeks of design iterations of UI [user interface] and UX [user experience] and graphic design for an entire web application. They essentially took over the entire design aspect from a creative design perspective all the way down to actually delivering the assets and deliverables for the project to developers and clients through an approval process that had many iterations.

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

I think we found him locally on a couple of different websites and just reached out and started having a conversation to see what it was like to work with him. I think their overall focus on design instead of development really made them a good partner for us as well as their flexibility in speed. For example, we needed a lot of things last minute as they typically are in our world of consulting. He was very flexible and was able to accommodate that as well as travel at a last-minute request.

How much have you invested with Dreamten?

We have spent between $50,000 and $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It started November 2015, and it is ongoing. The first project that we worked on with them ended in January of this year. We’ve continued working with them on some other projects and are on our third or fourth project with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I would say first and foremost it is the customer appreciation and customer happiness. That’s what we really pride and rate ourselves on. Dreamten has taken that on themselves and has done an extreme job with that. As far as the success of those projects, each of our clients defines success in their way. Some are looking to raise more money, and some are looking to acquire more customers or different kinds of customers. The successful rounds of funding and refunding that are continuing to fund projects from an investment level have continued since their involvement on those projects. 

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very flexible, which is one of the great parts of our relationship with them. We work remotely with them most of the time, and we use a variety of tools but mainly Asana as our project management tool and Slack as our main communication method.

What did you find most impressive about Dreamten?

I would say their professionalism and attention to detail. One thing that we also struggled with was the handoff between designer and developer and making sure that that communication goes smoothly and encapsulates the entire original intent of the designer, and that has been extremely positive working with them. Not many other designers were able to pull that off in our experience.

Are there any areas Dreamten could improve?

I don’t think so, at least not off the top of my head.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Gheelish, a food and beverage company. We make organic popcorn and chips with ghee.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Dreamten to accomplish for your organic popcorn and chips business?

We initially hired Dreamten to come up with our branding, packaging, and product design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dreamten has designed our website, product packaging, and overall branding. We had nothing before we started working with them. The team has created our logo and brand guidelines.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from Dreamten.

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

We found Dreamten through a referral. We chose them over other options because they had high ratings, were close to my geographic location, had pricing that fit our budget, had a great culture fit, and had company values that aligned with ours.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Dreamten in November 2023, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Dreamten has taken us from a design concept to a finished product and website. We didn’t have anything before we started working with them, so everything has gone up. We’ve launched in stores like Sprouts, HomeGoods, and TJX.

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

Dreamten’s project management has been amazing. The team has absolutely delivered on time. We communicate via virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Dreamten is super hands-on and highly communicative. The team constantly gets our feedback along the way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Dreamten to improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of a consumer packaged goods (CPG) food company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dreamten?

We hired Dreamten to create our branding and packaging design. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dreamten has designed my company's logo, bags, nutrition facts, website, and sell sheets. Initially, I provided Dreamten with references from other brands to give them an idea of what I was looking for. I've also shared basic mock-ups that I had created, although I'm not a designer, and Dreamten has brought those mock-ups to life.

What is the team composition?

I worked with 3–4 teammates from Dreamten, including Philip (Founder).

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

I had previously worked with Philip on a different project and contacted him again for this one.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Dreamten in October 2023, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Dreamten's branding identity is very professional, and the bags designed by the team have turned out fantastic. The retail partner that we work with loves Dreamten, and our investors love them, too. Overall, everything is great, and Dreamten's exceeds my expectations. 

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

Dreamten delivers work on time and on budget. I have no complaints.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I want to highlight Philip's work — he is incredible to work with. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm impressed at how good Dreamten is at coming up with branding ideas. The team is super creative, and that is their biggest strength.

Are there any areas they could improve?
I can't think of anything for Dreamten to improve. I would work with them again in a heartbeat. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I suggest giving Dreamten as much insight as possible. Share with them inspirational brands that you like, and the team will take it from there.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a sports media company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Dreamten?

Through an app, we wanted to address the high school athletic marketplace to become a one-stop shop for ticketing, roster management, highlights, and stats data.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dreamten helped us revamp the design of our fan mobile and web applications. They entailed the look between ESPN and the high school sports marketplace for our platforms' new UI/UX design. Regarding the process, they sat down with us to ask all the appropriate questions to understand our audience and competitors to the point of putting themselves in our shoes. After that, they could redefine our user personas and other platform elements.

What was the team composition? 

We interacted with Philip (Owner), their co-founder, and three other members of Dreamten's team.

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

We were looking for a partner that could focus solely on UI/UX, and after online research, we came across them on Clutch. We chose them because we liked their websites and personalities, and they seemed like they wanted to see us succeed, which I really appreciated.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $10,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2023–January 2024.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I was delighted with Dreamten's design work, and our team was excited about it. In addition, they were proactive with their deliverables, doing more than we asked; I sent them our logo, and they redesigned it, and now I'm using that logo.

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

Dreamten met deadlines and went above and beyond our expectations in that area. Regarding tools and communication, we use Slack to message each other and Zoom for weekly meetings to go over the designs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed by Dreamten's sense of care and commitment to ensure they were looking out for us by always trying to find ways out of their scope to help us get better results.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I didn't think there was anything they could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure that they have a good understanding of what you're trying to accomplish.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a consumer subscription company in Raleigh, NC

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dreamten?

We hired Dreamten to design our new cross-platform mobile app

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I had heard excellent reviews of Deamten from another founder in Raleigh, and was impressed by their website and work.

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

We had created a Figma file for the app and had Dreamten take it from a C- to an A+. They worked extremely quickly and efficiently and we felt like our money was being spent in a thoughtful way to get highest leverage.

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

I'm not sure exactly who on their team touched the project, but we worked a lot with Jason who is a co-owner.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was excellent work. Plain and simple. The outcome was good enough for us to enter into a significant ongoing contract with Dreamten after completion of the 1-off project.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent.

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

They are world-class designers who are also thinking about how they invest their time and energy.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m CEO at Zen, a company focused on improving workday health and productivity with our posture awareness software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dreamten?

We realized that users wanted a Mac-native feel to our UI/UZ.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found Dreamten from Clutch.

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

We began with a very detailed discovery call and from there went straight to work. We only had a few revisions because Dreamten pays very close attention to detail. Within a few revisions we were done and the assets were delivered.

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

We worked with 3 people, a project lander, a designer, and an illustrator.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve received outstanding feedback both on our new UI/UX that has boost conversion rates by 5%.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication was stellar, both asynchronous and meetings.

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

The attention to detail from this team was unbeatable!

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

The only room for improvement I would say is to make it 100% clear if the designer that a customer will be working with is on a different time zone.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Perla, Inc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dreamten?

We engaged Dreamten to develop the UI/UX for our MVP.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed over 20 UI/UX and Dreamten was the one that exhibited the best knowledge and culture to meet our needs.

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

We provided an MVP wireframing to Dreamten. They provided outstanding branding, great user experience and user interface for the MVP and deliverables in a timely manner for us to go to development.

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

Four Dreamten persons worked with our team: CEO, Design director, webflow specialist and content/branding expert.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our UI/UX has been praised by all of our clients and potential users. The site looks very professional, clean and user friendly. The platform UX is simple and great.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project was well organized, managed, staffed and was timely finalized without any budget runoffs.

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

The CEO is very knowledgeable in business and provides much guidance and resources in addition to the amazing job that the company performs. Our relationship with Dreamten has been enriching for many reasons, just one being the excellent job they performed for what they had been hired for.

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

The team worked very effectively and efficiently. We have nothing to add.