Fireart Studio

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a founder of a travel agency. We provide travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destination.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Fireart Studio to create a UI/UX design for our website and build it from scratch. Our primary goal was to create an enjoyable web customer experience that could help us stay in touch with our clients, allowed people to check hot offers and travel opportunities suggested by our agency, and easily book their trips.

SOLUTION

How did you select Fireart Studio and what were the deciding factors?

I was looking for the best designer on Dribbble. Fireart Studio ranks very high there, so I decided to hire this team. Honestly, it is one of the best decisions I have ever made for my business.

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

We started with a kick-off meeting with Fireart team. First of all, we discussed our company's needs, objectives, business interests, and expectations. The next step was creating two wireframes for a homepage.

After few iterations, we agreed on the design, and their team proceeded with website development. What we particularly liked was the front-end development work they did.

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

Mostly, I was communicating with their project manager. We made short calls to discuss everything happening on the project, approve concepts, designs, and so on. Also, he is a kind fellow to work with.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Fireart's effort and amazing talent, we have created a smooth, stylish and very convenient website that helps our travel agency stand out from competitors and continuously increase customer retention.

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

We collaborated and communicated seamlessly. They adjusted for the time zone that was comfortable for us, and the overall production process was great.

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

We loved the web design created by Fireart Studio. Their design work is impressive and helps us build a stronger brand in the online world.

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

We would like to have more communication with designers just to say thank you for their prominent work! Actually, I don't see any areas that require improvement as I'm happy with the results.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a product manager at the company that provides custom gear manufacturing services. Most of our clients are in the automotive, agricultural, off-highway, machinery, pump and climate control OEMs and tier manufacturing industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our company needed full-cycle custom software development services, from UI/UX to coding, QA testing, and deployment. We wanted to create an enterprise CRM and client management software that would enable our agents to organize their work better and process customer requests faster and more effectively.

It's how Fireart helped us, actually. We hire them to design UI/UX and build this system in correspondence with our enterprise needs.

SOLUTION

How did you select Fireart Studio and what were the deciding factors?

We found Fireart Studio on Dribbble. They did great job for their previous clients, and our decision on hiring this team was mainly based on web designs they created for other brands.

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

Fireart started the process with a kick-off meeting and creating the outline of all our requirements, needs, and expectations. Based on the context they got during this meeting, they made several wireframes and suggested them to us within the first week.

When we approved designs, the team started the development process. We liked that they did many user tests at different product development stages. We believe it helped us create a well-performing software.

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

We were communicating directly only with their sales manager at the very beginning and with a project manager during the entire process. However, I know that 3 or 4 developers and 2 designers were invloved in our project as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our employees enjoy using our new corporate software. They shared great feedback with our team leads. Our top management has also noticed that average employee performance has increased almost 3x thanks to our new digital tool. That's an amazing result, I suppose.

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

The workflow was seamless and effective! We saw amazing results of their work after every milestone. We were contacted by their project manager on a weekly basis. He kept us informed about everything happening on the project.

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

Fireart Studio created excellent custom illustrations and animations. They have become beautiful complementation of the overall software design.

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

We have no suggestions for improvement, as the quality of work and all processes were great.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company provides automation tools for Cryptocurrency traders. I'm its Product Manager. We connect people who want to trade in Cryptocurrency (but don't really know how) with professional traders, who provide signals for them to follow. The signals that are being followed are then translated in an automatic way to active trades, while the owner can be asleep, at work, or doing some other thing than constantly keeping an eye on their trades.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Fireart Studio?

We had a very big challenge with creating a new mobile app, and specifically, an activity aimed at the core of our value proposition: a marketplace. A place where those who look for signals to follow (i.e to trade with signals) can find signal providers who fit them.

What were your goals for this project?

Primarily, our problem was transfering our concrete value proposition from our initial software, a Telegram Bot with complex user interface, into a mobile app that is fit for both Android and iOS. Secondarily, our problem was to construct a well-rounded the Marketplace activity, which did not actually exist previously in our initial Telegram Bot.

SOLUTION

How did you select Fireart Studio?

We knew that we had to get a very good studio to work with. So we researched the web and finally came across Fireart Studio on Dribble, as it was high ranked there.

Describe the project in detail.

The overall scope of the project was creating a mobile-app that is up to standard with iOS and Android, which mimicks our entire offer from the Telegram Bot.

This means showing the open trades for users, giving them a glimpse of the markets they're in, showing them their portfolio, allowing them to open new trades or edit them, allowing them to choose a signal provider and following its progress, etc. Technically, this involved around 6 different main activities, menus, sub-menus, etc.

What was the team composition?

The team included one designer. He was an exceptionally gifted designer who was able to take care of all our needs. His dedication to us included the honed ability of being able to act not only as a product designer but also to take into account UX considerations, while working out with our Product Managers what we actually wanted from the specific features.

Without really being part of the company, he still managed to represent our customers and take care of their concerns, which is a rare thing to find when working with a remote vendor.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results looked marvelous. We know, because we only allowed our highest paid users to access the Mobile App (at least in the beginning), and their retention rate was extremely high. The app looked much better than what we had imagined, and the Marketplace looks sleek and very inviting to new users.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Fireart were on point on this. Despite the fact that we worked remotely, the designer which we worked with was always on point with his work, his clarificatory questions and concerns, and with his overall progress towards achieving what we wanted.

Working together over Figma, we knew what would be ready, when and how. And it was always possible for us, based on internal decisions, to come back to previously-made work and introduce changes into it or consult with the designer on how to best proceed from here.

Also, business wise, the supporting infrastructure that Fireart gave to the designer, in terms of explicitly taking care of his work-time and reflecting it to us was on par.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Well, honestly, we did not expect to receive good designs with people working remotely. This is what surprised us the most about Fireart

 We cannot stress this enough: their designer knew what we wanted even better than we did at times, and the resulting Figma designs that were handed to us were on point both in their overall design theme and up to the tiniest details involved. He's been really excellent professionally, and also a very kind fella to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really that we could point to. The only thing I would say is that there is an essential difference between working with remote designers to working with in-house designers. Since we began as a bootstrap with limited resources, working remote was the solution for us, and Fireart really lived up to this solution. Now that we've grown as a business we are considering an in-house team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the managing director. We are a tech start-up that help companies prosper by preventing risks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To launch our marketing website we needed a website designer.

SOLUTION

How did you select Fireart Studio and what were the deciding factors?

We did a longlist, then a shortlist, and then had an RFP process which Fireart Studio won.

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

We had a kick-off meeting with their team to discuss our goals and objectives. Within the first week they provided us two wireframes of the main page. We provided feedback and after few iterations the design was finalized.

Furthermore they designed motion illustrations which exceeded our expections. Initially Fireart Studio was responsible for the design of the website (including illustrations). We were so pleased that we decided to extent the scope and asked Fireart Studio to code the front-end of the website.

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

We were assigned a project manager to support us and serve as the main point of contact throughout the project. We only spoke with our project manager, but we were aware that there were 2 designers and 2 developers involved.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launch, we received positive feedback on the design of the website from (potential) customers.

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

On a weekly basis the project manager contacted us to discuss the progress and the challenges. Our feedback was directly reflected in the design process. When we wanted to add new designs or extent the scope they would come back to us with a couple of ways to achieve it and give their recommendation. No deadlines missed and we are happy with how the project was managed.

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

They take ownership of the product. From early on, they bought into the concept of what we were trying to do and wanted us to be successful. It feels like every person on their team is invested in us. It’s not just another project for them. We will certainly engage with Fireart Studio again for design and development services.

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

Nothing off the top of my head. It’s a pleasure working with Fireart Studio.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

TheoremReach is an audience monetization platform that provides market research and data insight services to games, mobile apps, and website owners. I'm responsible for operations, marketing, and finance at the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Fireart Studio?

We hired Fireart to help us define and design our branding, design and develop our website, and design and develop our UI and UX for our client and user-facing products.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to have an ongoing designer and UI/UX support for our projects that would help us grow our business and communicate our offering clearer.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected this vendor based on a combination of expertise, portfolio, responsiveness, and pricepoint. We continue to renew the contract with Fireart as they prove their worthiness with all of our projects.

Describe the project in detail.

Fireart provides ongoing design and UI/UX services to us; thus far they've helped us to create our logo, branding, style guide, design and develop our website using a custom WordPress template, design and develop our client facing dashboard, and work on new and as-yet unreleased product designs.

What was the team composition?

Fireart provides us with an account manager to handle scope requests and a designer to execute our vision as part of the SOW. For additional services around development, the account manager brings in developers when necessary to handle one-offs at an additional scope.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website and our company branding have received numerous compliments from clients and users. Our designer did an amazing job creating a company mascot for us that embodies the positioning and brand of what we are trying to achieve in-market.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Though there is a 7-hour timezone difference, the team is very responsive and handles projects at a fast and professional pace. We've enjoyed and continue to enjoy the experience working with Fireart. We use Slack to communicate all requirements, approvals, and feedback and at times Fireart will employ Trello and Invision to communicate more complex project details.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The consistency of the product and continued communication have remained excellent throughout the engagement period.

Are there any areas for improvement?

While we sought out and employ Fireart for their design services, our one-off development projects with them have at times resulted in follow-up work required. This is not an area of deficiency for them but more a suggestion to ensure the initial scope of work is correctly detailed for one-off projects to avoid confusion.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the art director at PracticeLink, where I design, produce, and oversee the distribution of our quarterly publication, PracticeLink Magazine. Our magazine includes content to help physicians navigate the job-search process, including topics such as relocation, navigating contracts, interviews, and compensation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Fireart Studio?

We hired them to do custom cover illustrations for us every quarter, based on the themes in our cover article.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main objective was to illustrate some of the fairly abstract topics in our cover articles in a way that is engaging, on-brand, and attractive to potential readers, while clearly communicating that we are speaking to physicians.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We initially chose Fireart Studio based on the quality of work in their portfolio. We’ve continued to work with them because they understand us, deliver quality every time, and are fast and easy to work with.

Describe the project in detail.

We submit drafts of the cover articles to Fireart Studio, along with ideas for the illustrations. They send us several sketches, which the editor and I discuss. Then we pick a favorite and Fireart Studio sends back a print-ready illustration. Sometimes, I’ll make a few minor tweaks to things like colors and such.

What was the team composition?

Our internal team consists of myself as the art director and an editor. Our CEO reviews the magazine as well before it is distributed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The topics in our magazine are not easy to illustrate since they deal with abstract or specialized subjects. For example, the most recent cover article Firaert Studio had to illustrate was how physicians trying to find a job should consider their personal interests to determine which potential practice fit them best. It’s difficult to convey this visually, let alone in a way that matches our style and speaks clearly to potential readers. However, Fireart Studio does a great job every time.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their team is extraordinarily easy to work with. They’re also agreeable, proactive, flexible, gracious, and creative. I could not ask for a better experience.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Occasionally, during the art direction process, I have trouble articulating my creative vision up front and it takes ongoing communication before the illustration looks the way I want it to. When this happens, I have the opportunity to see the illustration change over time as the Fireart Studio team responds to my edits.

I’m often impressed at how deftly they make changes, listening to my vision and doing what I ask for. They also implement my requests with creativity and thoughtfulness, so there’s no compromise in the quality of the work from their initial designs. To me, this demonstrates not just artistic skill but skill at working with people.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There's nothing they need to improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the CTO of a music platform for artists and fans.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fireart Studio? 

We initially reached out to Fireart Studio to help us with some of our design and graphic elements. Since then, they’ve continued to support us with design work for our website and mobile apps.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Fireart Studio primarily creates high-fidelity graphics for our website and mobile apps. We provide them with written instructions or rough wireframes, which they then use to come up with different design concepts. From there, we go back and forth to fine-tune their ideas, and they create the final pieces in Sketch.

What is the team composition?  

At any given point, we work with 1–2 dedicated full-time designers as well as a project manager.

How did you come to work with Fireart Studio? 

We looked at a few creative studios and really liked Fireart Studio’s portfolio on their website. After starting with a small project to get comfortable working with them, we added additional responsibilities. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

Their work started in August 2018 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t fully launched our product externally yet, but, so far, we’ve received a lot of positive feedback internally. Our engineering, business, product management, and marketing teams have all complimented their design work.

How did Fireart Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication has been excellent. Typically, we’ll either work with their project manager to coordinate the projects or give feedback directly to their designers, depending on the situation. We use Slack and Zeplin to collaborate on tasks.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Compared to other off-shore options, their communication is excellent, and I appreciate the amount of effort that they put into their work.

Are there any areas they could improve? 

No, I can’t think of anything. Everything has been fine for what we need. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When considering a design partner, start with smaller projects to see how they go before adding on more tasks. That’s what we did, and it worked out smoothly for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Nomorewires. We are a technology company focusing on wireless power transfer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with FireArt Studio?

We had been working off the radar for a while. We needed a high-end web page to bring us out of the woods, link to our social media accounts, and start advertising our mission.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The website was meant to get our name out while we’re still in the early stages. The design and development task that we set for them was quite complicated. It isn’t easy to make the viewer understand what we do and what we’re all about. It was probably hard for them to come up with something that everyone could understand. We wanted to utilize the “less is more” principle. It’s especially hard to include all the important facts and information while keeping it short.

They helped us set up our social media accounts. There were a lot of details involved, such as the background photos, videos, and corporate identity. They made everything on the social media and the website look the same.

We used them for all our design work. They are currently designing a series of infographics for social media. They’re also designing our white papers and ad banners for a social media campaign.

What is the team composition?

We were initially in contact with the CEO through Upwork. We went back and forth while I described what I needed and he made his recommendations. When we finally started the project, he assigned us a project manager, who took care of us from that point on. When there were larger issues, I contacted the CEO, but we were mostly in touch with the project manager.

How did you come to work with FireArt Studio?

I stumbled upon them on Upwork. We needed a simple 2D animation to describe our technology. After talking with them and looking at their portfolio, we decided to hire them for the whole online presence, from the webpage to social media content.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent over €10,000 so far ($11,602 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from January to March 2018. We had a lot of back and forth and weren’t in a hurry. We wanted to tweak or change a lot of things, but they were fast.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It looks good and works great. We're about to launch our social media accounts. The traffic has been quite low, but we'll hopefully have a lot in the coming months. We attended a conference in Helsinki to do a live demo, and our competitors complimented us. Overall, feedback has been positive.

How did FireArt Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They used a software to track their hours and billed us weekly. The overall experience was very pleasant. I felt like they were at my service at all times. When I needed something, they were immediately available.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They made me feel like I was in good hands and were there for me 24/7.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They are a bit too soft. They have a great team and know what they're doing. But sometimes they let the client, who may not be as informed, take the initiative. We made some rookie mistakes and requests at the beginning. They went with it, but could have suggested other things to avoid those mistakes.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Figure out what you want, and they will handle it. They are very friendly, fast, and professional. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO and lead engineer at a career development company. We provide resources and job placements for new healthcare professionals in the eye care and allied health industries. Our team built an intelligent tool that parses healthcare resumes and provides industry-specific feedback for these individuals. With one click, they can now get tips on how to improve their resumes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire FireArt Studio?

We hired FireArt for the frontend UI/UX design and development of our web app.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to provide a useful tool that would strengthen our reputation as the number one career resource for new healthcare professionals. Many candidates, especially fresh graduates, are unsure of best practices when it comes to creating their resumes.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We originally came across FireArt's portfolio on Dribbble. We were very impressed with the quality of their work and hired them for a series of marketing pages. Since we had worked with them before and were happy with the results, we selected them again for this project.

Describe the project in detail.

After gathering the initial requirements, they sent the first round of wireframes for feedback and revisions. Their team completed the design based on the approved wireframes, then began the actual coding and development. They also did custom illustrations for the design.

What was the team composition?

We worked primarily with our project manager, who acted as a liaison between our team and their designers and developers. We also corresponded directly with one of the designers on one of our initial Skype calls.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our team was very satisfied with their output. We also received very positive feedback during our early rounds of user testing. While we have not yet launched our product, we expect that it will meet our business goals and appeal to our user base.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We used email, Skype, and Google Docs to manage the project. Communication took place primarily through email, but we also had Skype calls when we needed to go over some design concepts and open questions. While there were some unavoidable delays due to the time difference, our communication was satisfactory. They were quick to respond when we requested additional assets, such as the full source code repository and access to the build scripts they used to generate the final JavaScript bundles.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We really appreciated their raw talent. They came up with an attractive design with minimal direction and inspiration from our team. They were also quite helpful, pointing out some usability issues that we were able to fix before our users encountered them.

We were also impressed with the quick turnaround time of the project. They even accommodated our tight deadline by sending us the final project assets prior to the final wire payment clearing into their account. We were grateful for their trust and flexibility in this regard.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They could provide a bit more structure when gathering initial requirements. While FireArt did give us a questionnaire to fill out, I'm not sure how useful it was. However, they still did a great job on this project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a digital design firm. We do a variety of UI/UX work for websites and mobile apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with FireArt Studio?

We had more clients than we could handle, so we needed to outsource a few projects. Finding someone within our price point that could do great work was important to us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired them to do a variety of work on four or five different projects. This includes UI/UX work for mobile apps, illustrations for a website, concept work for an animation, and website design. Their overall design style is fun, playful, sleek, and utilizes bright colors.

When we get a project that fits their style but we’re too busy complete it, we’ll bring in FireArt to supplement our resources and utilize their specific skill set. Other times, we’ll create a design in-house and have FireArt develop a different version so that we can present clients with multiple options. Once they accept a project, they assign designers best suited for the job. They’ll update me throughout the process and send sketches or concepts for revision. I send back my suggestions and they complete the project.

What is the team composition?

They have a team of people who specialize in different things, so it depends on the scope of the individual project. Due to the variety of work we’ve requested, I’ve interacted with four or five different people in the organization. They usually assign a project manager that communicates with me directly. I’ve also worked closely with the designers when necessary.

How did you come to work with FireArt Studio?

I found them on Dribbble. Compared to other agencies I’ve found on there, FireArt’s strength is their reliability and responsiveness. They’re very timely and always eager to jump into projects and get rolling on stuff right away.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent roughly $10,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2017 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They're familiar with the industry and different styles so they can interpret nuances within design assignments. They deliver every project I send them within expectations. My clients always love the work they do.

How did FireArt Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything they did was great and communication was excellent. They set up a Slack channel so we could talk to the project manager and the designers themselves, which was extremely helpful. In addition to Slack, we’d communicate via email and Skype. Jumping of Skype call with the project manager and speaking face-to-face is useful because emails can be easily mistranslated.

Outsourcing work to a different time zone is always a challenge. However, I was able to hold most meetings during regular work hours because they did everything they could to accommodate time zone changes. It’s a different process than working with someone locally, but definitely worth the trade-off.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They approach each project with the professionalism and efficiency of a large studio. I always get the sense that while they’re a multifaceted team, they know how to work together and execute a project, so everyone is happy with the result. They offer a high-end client experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing from my experience could really be improved.