Cue Studio

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Co-Founder of Greenhouse Tea Company, a black-owned, wellness centered tea manufacturer out of Baltimore, MD.

For what projects/services did your company hire Cue Studio, and what were your goals?

We hired Cue Studios to help rebrand and relaunch our website and our packaging designs.

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

Selma-Rachel is a visionary. She was able to quickly identify the needs of my company from a marketing perspective and execute on our vision.

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

We had a kickoff meeting to discuss the vision and mission. We then put together a specific plan of action and execution plan. We collaborated with the Cue Studios team to identify key brand attributes which translated into the following deliverables:

• Logo Mark/Logo system
• Updated language to clarify brand messaging
• Updated website
• High level brand style guide, which outlined color palette and type face
• Art for tea packaging

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

A project manager and a project lead. They worked collaboratively.

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

After our initial launch, we saw an uptick in traffic, as well as an increase in conversion.

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

Their style is very hands on. They are open to suggestions, but very keen on maintaining the integrity of the expected outcome.

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

What was most impressive to me about Cue Studios was their willingness to be flexible and the amount of time and effort they put in to ensure our deadline was met.

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

Nothing that I can note from this experience.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of product management at a website that researches financial information & securities used by investors to make investment decisions.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cue Studio?

We use them for our design work. We wanted our clients to have a great user experience when interacting with the tools and data we present.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cue Studio provides us with full design services. We’ll give them with spec sheets and information on a project. They’ll take that and run with it, creating prototypes and getting feedback.

Throughout different iterations, it becomes a collaborative process. Sometimes, they’ll even conduct user testing to get feedback from our users or people in the market before we ship the designs off to our dev team.

What is the team composition?

We primarily connect with two people, but a third person jumps in occasionally. Our two main contacts are Selma-Rachel (Founder & Creative Director) and Omar (Product Designer).

How did you come to work with Cue Studio?

Someone at my company found them. After talking to them and other candidates, Cue Studio seemed like the best fit. They seemed to have the knowledge and could fit within our culture. Selma-Rachel also had good experience that seemed relevant to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $250,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Cue Studio started in July 2017.

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

Cue Studio is part of our team at this point. Their work quality has had a great impact on the business. They’re pretty good at providing resources that would help us continue projects if they’re not around.

Throughout the process, they’re responsive. It’s easy to set up meetings. Back when we were in the office, they would come by when we needed them to. It’s been a great experience.

How did Cue Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Selma-Rachel manages the projects. They do a good job. We collaborate quite a bit through Asana. We do have separate boards, but we both have access to each other’s, so it makes it easier to track projects.

The design files are typically started in Freehand or InVision. Then they make their way into sketch files, which are shared on Zeppelin so that everyone can access them.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Cue Studio will take projects and do a lot of research, even within our data. There’s not a lot of handholding along the way. Their team independently creates work within the guidelines we give them. They also go above and beyond to ensure the designs fit within our website and overall workflow. They do the extra work to make sure that what they’re producing fits well within our market.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not off the top of my head. If there was anything, I could bring it up to them, and they’ll address it pretty quickly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re working with someone outside of your organization, stay organized. Make sure you have frequent meetings. We meet once a week to discuss the status of the projects and go over any questions we may have. The constant communication and organization with the systems are always helpful.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a large accounting firm and am part of a small corporate venturing group within the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cue Studio?

We were partnering with a financial wellness business to undertake digital financial planning offerings.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have an ongoing relationship that has included many small projects related to the application. To start, we determine an idea for the direction of the design collaboratively. From there, we have a meeting about goals, research plans, and brainstorming. Their team develops a few concepts and designs from there. They collaborated with experts on our team to handle design work, iterating it together as needed.

They were primarily responsible for UI/UX design and some aspects of branding through the design process. It was essential that they understood our high-level brand, architecture, and guidelines to brand the application in accordance with our identity.

What is the team composition?

I was exclusively interfacing with Selma-Rachel (Founder & Creative Director). 

How did you come to work with Cue Studio?

We needed a new design partner after our old one was acquired to work internally for another company. Selma-Rachel had worked with that design team earlier in her career, and I was referred to her. I liked her approach in our early conversations, so I decided to start working with her.

How much have you invested with them?

Over the course of a year and a half with them, we spent about $320,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May 2018–June 2020. Because of funding, we aren’t making new developments to the application at this point. Otherwise, the project would be ongoing.

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

She worked closely with financial subject matter experts to develop flows and experience. They were always very impressed with her ability to understand the subject matter and incorporate a strong UX. When we’ve tested the app, the design has resonated very well with end-users, who feel that it’s fresh and intuitive.  

How did Cue Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate over calls, Slack, or email.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re easy to work with and committed to doing the job correctly. She’s open to feedback and committed to our satisfaction with her work.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

Early on, I felt that we weren’t aligned on our north star at our initial meetings. While that was an unexpected challenge for then, they came back to the next meeting understanding that we had to realign with each other. She is very open to feedback and takes a constructive perspective to move forward on tasks.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep goals and objectives top of mind. At the start of meetings, it may be beneficial to review them. However, she’s very easy to work with. People shouldn’t need much advice to be successful with her.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for the world’s largest flute retail shop. We sell musical instruments, accessories, and provide repairs. I’m the CEO.

What challenges were you trying to address with Cue Studio?

We hired them to do a rebrand for us including an updated logo and new website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did a full exploration of a visual rebrand. They gave us about half a dozen options to choose from. After we picked a path, we refined the new logo over the course of several iterations. Once we had that logo worked out, we implemented it into different materials including business cards and stationery. 

They helped us redesign our website to incorporate our new brand. Their team also helped us select the right e-commerce platform for us and guided us through the process. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with Selma-Rachel (Founder & Creative Director). 

How did you come to work with Cue Studio?

We had mutual friends with Selma-Rachel. We met up for coffee and just hit it off. Our business relationship progressed naturally from there. 

How much have you invested in them?

We invested around $40,000–$45,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in early-2016, and we worked together until around 2019.

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

They’re fantastic. The quality of the work is great. We get compliments nearly every day about how beautiful our website is. We currently do around a million dollars in sales per year. Our online presence is far more robust than our competitors. 

How did Cue Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

I don’t know what tools they used internally. However, they were very on top of everything and turned work around quickly. We had a lot of meetings in person and communicated regularly over email and digitally. They were very responsive. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re honest and offer great insight. It was helpful to have Selma-Rachel share her opinion about our design. She had a strong vision for our company. Their cost was also very reasonable. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. Our engagement with Cue Studio was extremely positive. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

They’re a great partner and I would recommend hiring them if you’re in need of their services. Be open to new ideas and take a broad view of how different users might interact with your website.