Graffino

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director of Friday Pulse. We’re an employee engagement firm that provides a platform. We measure employee happiness through weekly and annual surveys that gauge contentment across the firm; that could be across a team, department, or entire organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with Graffino?

We were in need of a new website because our previous one was out-of-date.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Before coming to Graffino, we worked with a copywriter and designer. We built the wireframes through a team effort. Then, they were sent to the designer. Once the pages were approved, they went straight into development by Graffino.

How did you come to work with Graffino?

Graffino was recommended to us by our nonexempt director. They came in and pitched to us. Their team sounded professional, and we had a good rapport with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement started in January 2020 but it got delayed because of COVD-19. However, things are still ongoing, and we’re now on a retainer.

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

It’s been amazing to work with them. I can’t fault them at all. They exceed every other developer I’ve ever worked with. Graffino is brilliant, and they delivered. We changed the brief slightly, but they took it in stride and were quite receptive to it. Account management and customer service were both spot on. I’d recommend them tomorrow.

Since the website launched, we’ve had no issues. There have been no bugs reported from users; we found a couple of bugs internally. Deployment only took a couple of hours, and the Graffino team always keeps in touch. I’ve enjoyed the entire experience. It’s been a pleasure to work with them.

How did Graffino perform from a project management standpoint?

Our account manager is brilliant. He was brilliant and maintained daily contact. What’s more, he was responsive to all my requests and queries as well as educated me. I can’t speak highly enough of Graffino.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with how their process and implementation work. The lack of bugs has been great. First, they’d develop a few pages and then send it to us to proof. After a few tweaks, it’d be ready to brief. Their output and account management are excellent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s not anything. I’ve not had this high level of experience before. It was the least stressful website I’ve had to launch.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Develop a good rapport with them. Make sure there’s an account manager who’s been dedicated to you. They’re a great partner to have. Their team really knows their stuff.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Silver Fern Group. We provide software and other technology solutions for the greenhouse industry. We have a software program, IoT devices, and mobile applications.

What challenge were you trying to address with Graffino?

We were building our first website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The range of services was limited to the frontend development of the website. We host it ourselves, and we work with them on languages and other factors. Since we’re an IoT company, we have a variety of opinions on this subject. We were debating between React and Node.js. As far as deliverables, it was just the finalized website.

What is the team composition?

I believe there were five people involved. We worked with an outside designer, but Nick (Managing Partner) was our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Graffino?

We worked with a designer who introduced us to Graffino. We trusted his reference. Our conversations began with the owners before they gradually introduced us to the team.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $6,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2020, and then we worked with them on the project for six or seven weeks.

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

The anecdotal result of the work is the credibility with our customer base. My co-founders and I are pretty young, so the website added credibility. Our customers feel like we’re genuine about building this company.

We’ve had no bugs since the project finished. We had a two-week period of the MVP, where they were tasked with fixing all the errors. They delivered on that.

How did Graffino perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. The team was flexible upfront. We had a tight timeline, and their team actually under promised and over delivered. They did a phenomenal job. It’s hard to come up with critiques because we felt very well taken care of.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First, I was impressed with their communication. The team was also open to feedback throughout the process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing we thought of was the time zone difference of about 10 hours. We ended up having our calls at the same time. If we’d gone into the project knowing that was a good time for them, that might have been helpful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We were very clear and upfront about what we cared about. Outside of what we cared about, we gave them free rein to do their quality work. Graffino is excellent at what they do, so we gave them the ability to do their job.

When they did their first version of the site, we made sure to document every bug, put it in video form, and sent it back to them. They loved that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the outsourcing manager FLYERALARM GmbH. We’re a printing company based out of Germany. I’m in charge of hiring all outsourcing partners within IT.

What challenge were you trying to address with Graffino?

We needed a reliable partner to help establish good graphic knowledge in the UX space within the company and to handle a lot of our WordPress files.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They work on WordPress files such as our press portal, consumer blog, and help our in-house team create websites. In the main, they’re currently maintaining several websites and projects, including our blog.

In terms of development and programming, they use PHP and JavaScript. For the framework, they use WordPress, Laravel, and CEP from Adobe. Scrum framework, Kanban and Waterfall are the methodologies used.

What is the team composition?

There are two developers with us on long-term contracts.

How did you come to work with Graffino?

We were looking for the right personality to fill a void created by the loss of someone in-house. Graffino had the skillset required and appeared to be a good partner for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €100,000 per yr. roughly (approximately $111,000/yr.).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in December 2017, and it is ongoing.

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

The last project deadline seemed impossible, but they finished ahead of time. They effectively reduce the internal IT workload, successfully finishing projects given to them.

How did Graffino perform from a project management standpoint?

I am the project manager. They do well, enabling me to effortlessly manage from our side. All deadlines were met.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are professional and do a good job. Compared to other agencies I’ve seen, they're a great partner for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They should just continue to grow and improve as they’ve done over the course of our engagement.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and manager of a consulting company, Migroconsult Agency. We offer tax and child benefits to Romanian workers in Austria and Germany, servicing about 6,000 clients.

What challenge were you trying to address with Graffino?

We were in need of a new, professional website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

After an initial period of collaboration, Graffino helped us decide our best option was to build the website in JavaScript. From there, they performed an in-depth investigation of our company, using some of our own data, and conducted market research in order to come up with personas.

The team built several pages, including the home page, a page for potential partners, principal services, the team presentation, and the terms and conditions. Graffino also integrated a refund calculator based on a few complex algorithms I provided.

What is the team composition?

We worked primarily with Nick (Co-Founder) and Miki (Designer), but we had contact with a few other members as well.

How did you come to work with Graffino?

Graffino was recommended to us by a contact who’d worked with the team before. I made an appointment, visited their offices, and had a conversation with them. Even though we were in conversation with a few other companies, Graffino convinced us they’d be the best fit for our project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $15,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work with Graffino took place from December 2019 – March 2020. We’re about to launch the site.

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

We’re getting ready to launch the site, so we can’t speak to its success yet — though we have an estimation of six months in place in terms of when we’ll see a return on our investment. We’re quite optimistic that the new website will perform well. We’re satisfied with the work they’ve done, especially some of the UX components they were able to integrate.

We had quite a few requests and the project wasn’t easy, but Graffino handled the challenge extraordinarily well.

How did Graffino perform from a project management standpoint?

The team granted us access to many of their software accounts, which was extremely helpful. It provided us insight into which team member was working on which task and for what amount of time. They also used ClickUp, which was a very useful instrument.

Even when we needed to adapt project deliverables, Graffino always managed to complete work on time. 

Throughout the project, we visited one another’s offices on a few occasions, and each time they prepared a detailed presentation on their progress. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

In one word, professionalism. They’re experts in their field, and the team is up to date with all of their technology. Graffino introduced us to so many new possibilities, and our experience working with them was just excellent. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind. They’re far better in every facet than previous web developers we’ve worked with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take advantage of their willingness to conduct research, and take the time to explain the mission, values, and long-term goals of your company so they can take you in the right direction.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the national director for Germanagrar Romania. We are a Romanian company, but we have shareholders and the main company is located in Germany.

We have activity all over Europe, and approximately 5–6 other countries where we act as an investment company for people who want to invest in agriculture. We are also doing farming ourselves in Romania as well as in all the other countries.

What challenge were you trying to address with Graffino?

We already had a website but it was out of date, and we wanted to have a completely new, innovative design and landing page for it. We wanted to be able to extend our activities in Asia as well as Africa through these efforts.

What was the scope of their involvement?

To start, we initially had an open discussion with them about what we were looking for. I gave them some websites I really liked and let them know who and what we were trying to target with the website.

They built a completely new website for us on WordPress, providing both frontend and backend development. They created a landing page and placed a video in the background. Additionally, they developed a menu bar and 7–8 sections where users can find out about our services, our activities, updates, news and workshops.

What is the team composition?

There were 2–3 people that worked on the project, but we had one main contact who we gave our feedback to. If there were any improvements or issues, we went through him.

How did you come to work with Graffino?

We began working with another company, but we weren’t satisfied with their work and had paid them a significant amount. We ended that engagement and I started searching web design companies. I came across Graffino and decided to contact them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project from October 2018–August 2019.

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

Internally, we are really pleased with the results and it is exactly what we wanted from the start. They exceeded our expectations. It is completely different from what we had and is very high quality. They did everything that was required from them and it was within budget and on time. 

How did Graffino perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication was really good between our teams. They were easy to reach and very responsive, making changes whenever necessary. Their team also gave us suggestions and feedback. We spoke on the phone and also met in-person once. Everything went through email or Dropbox.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were really supportive. Their team was really creative in their ideas, and they understood how to meet our expectations. They met our needs when it came to creating a design. Besides that, they were really helpful and supportive with the process of bringing the site online, even though it wasn’t their responsibility to take care of that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Because of our previous unsatisying experience with a vendor, I can make a clear comparison, and there isn’t anything we are not pleased about with Graffino.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m an online marketing specialist working for Zacaria. We hold residential and industrial real estate investments in Romania.

For what projects/services did your company hire Graffino?

Our main focus was to transition from our old website to a better one. We wanted a clean, intuitive website to showcase our properties. We also wanted to test Graffino to see if we could collaborate on future projects.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main goal was to build a customized, responsive, user-friendly, and fast website. It’s important for our customers to easily find all the details about our properties. We needed a flexible, professional development team that could make our product aesthetically pleasing.

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended by others who heard about their good work. They're also based in our city, which gave us the opportunity to talk face-to-face and made our communication even better.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They have redesigned and built our website and logo from scratch. After building the wireframes, they worked on front- and backend development and implemented their designs. They combined WordPress and custom code.

What was the team composition?

A team of programmers worked in the background, but we didn’t contact them. We interfaced only with the co-founder, who was responsible for documentation and team communication.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We didn't have any specific measures of success, but it was a pleasure to work with Graffino. They delivered high-quality work on time and within budget.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We stayed in touch through email and had regular meetings every week. I could call the co-founder at any time and he would call back. They used project management software to track tasks, issues, and questions.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We appreciated their willingness to support us after the project was complete. They were honest, professional, and highly responsive. They went above and beyond to make the product as good as possible.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, they met our budget and focused on delivering our products. We had no complaints.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am one of the founders of a media company that produces videos and content for our clients. We specialize in anything related to 3D video, handling everything from static 3D renders to complex videos. We are expanding our services. I am one of the founders of the company, and I handle sales and general management.

What challenge were you trying to address with Graffino?

One of our customers was transitioning from their old website to a new, better one. Online sales were very important. Since we had a very good relationship with the client, they asked us to do it. We didn’t have that capability, but we knew about Graffino because we had worked with them before and recommended them as a subcontractor.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Graffino did everything. I only handled the account management and ensured that the client provided a detailed brief. I also made sure that Graffino’s managing partner could handle the project.

Graffino was in Romania, our client was in the Netherlands, and I was in Brussels, Belgium. This is not a massive issue in the U.S., but it means something in Europe. I mainly went to the client’s headquarters, kept in touch with them constantly, and periodically visited my team in Romania. I ensured that everything was in order on all sides, and did a bit of stakeholder and account management. Our situation wasn’t optimal. We could have lost information, and communication could have been tricky. I was very happy that it all went well.

One of the client's requirements was minimizing maintenance costs once the website went live. The client had internal staff to handle the website. However, whenever they wanted to change an article on their previous website, they had to call and pay their agency. The costs were too high. We promised to deliver a website that was easy to maintain and populate with new information.

We built the backend from scratch, to make it as user-friendly and easy to update and maintain as possible. Based on their requirements, we made everything editable that could be. 

We created sketches using a specialized software. Graffino made the designs, we submitted them to the client, and we went through three or four rounds of feedback. We agreed on a design and implemented it.

Then we continued with the backend work, and Graffino gave us a simulation of the website. They basically gave the client a working version of the website, where we could test everything and see if it worked as we wanted it to.

After that, we started going live. The process took two days, which was quite amazing. They integrated Salesforce, MailChimp, and all sorts of third-party apps. We had to ensure that all those were integrated. We couldn’t double up those integrations, so we had to switch them from the old site to the new.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with five people from their team, including the designer and four back- and frontend programmers.

How did you come to work with Graffino?

I first worked with their founder when I was part of an NGO and they volunteered to help with our website. I liked what they did, and called them for a project quote when I started working for one of the biggest consultancies in Romania. They gave us the best offer, and I was very happy with the results.

I heard about them again from one of our clients, as if I didn’t already know them. They were very happy with Graffino. When I need web work, I send them an email.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work, including plug-ins and other components, was around €30,000 ($35,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the current project in December 2017, and it launched at the beginning of May 2018. We’re pretty much happy with everything at the moment.

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

We closed the project recently, and our customer was satisfied. We loved the site and it looked great.

The only back-and-forth and tension that can arise in a project like this is during the clarification of expectations beforehand. We always plan three or four rounds of feedback before any major step. The client may want something that isn't in the designs and technical requirements they approved. Graffino was reasonably flexible, adding things that weren't in the initial brief. This can be tricky to navigate, but it went well for us.

How did Graffino perform from a project management standpoint?

They used multiple online tools, including ActiveCollab. They always populated it with all the tasks, deadlines, and project phases. Both the client and I could check the project’s live standing and comment on tasks and open discussions. Coupled with Slack, it helped a lot. We coordinated excellently using those two tools.

The finances were also straightforward. They used online tools, and everything went quickly. Compared to my other experiences, it was easy to work with Graffino. They were well organized.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really like what they do, and they don’t view it as a job. Talented individuals, particularly artists, value the freedom to do what they like. I saw this with Graffino.

During the design phase, the client asked for a newsletter popup dialogue box. Graffino responded by suggesting the latest trends in user experience, gave us an interesting explanation about why this was not necessarily a good idea, and told us that we had better possibilities. Neither I nor the client would have known this. Graffino knew because they read about this every day and understand everything that happens in the industry.

I loved their passion. I felt confident with them, and I listened whenever they gave me feedback or suggestions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I know it sounds strange, but not really. No one I’ve worked with was perfect, but you can solve anything if you understand the goal and adopt a decent level of flexibility to adapt to circumstances. Even if some things seemed negative in the short term, their strategic and communicative approach to the project was great.

I’ve worked as a consultant for five years, and it’s hard to find a flaw with Graffino. They have a grasp on the basic, evergreen principles. If they keep following those, there is no limit to what they can do.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Listen to Graffino’s advice. They are experts, but clients sometimes have fixed ideas about what they want. Suppliers can always just submit to them, but if a client truly listens to Graffino's opinions on web development, they will get great value for the price.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a software development company dealing with backend services. I’m a co-founder of the company and one of the programmers.  

What challenge were you trying to address with Graffino?

Our backend services were not very impressive visually. From time to time, we need to display elements on a web page or another type of application. The goal was to make things more aesthetically pleasing for the end-user.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They implemented the CSS and HTML needed for turning graphic designs into web interfaces. We used different frontend frameworks for the development. The design work was done by their in-house person, as well as other collaborators.

Their work takes place before the final development of an application, and after the discovery and design phases. Working with them, we determine the functionalities of web pages on a case-by-case basis. I’ve worked with them on logo and UX [user experience] design, but they also can implement UX design from other people.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with four people from their team, including their co-founder, a coder, a designer, and a UX expert.

How did you come to work with Graffino?

When I met their co-founder, we talked about what we did, and he told me about his graphic design company. I needed that type of service, so we started working together.

How much have you invested with them?

The overall cost of their work has been around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them four or five years ago. Our collaboration has been ongoing on an on-and-off basis.

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

I’m thrilled with their work and have continued using them. Based on other designers, I didn’t expect Graffino’s work to be so pixel-perfect. They’re not the cheapest option we could find locally, but they are diligent and deliver top-quality work. 

How did Graffino perform from a project management standpoint?

They are based in my hometown, so I’ve visited their office frequently. I typically handle project management, and I have access to their entire team. We communicate through Slack, Skype, phone and email. We have an Agile process with daily standup meetings and retrospectives at the end of every sprint and every project. We discuss how we can improve the work, if there is something to improve. They are very responsive in this respect.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have used other designers in the past, but the experience was not that good. I like to continue working with the people I like, and Graffino is definitely that.

They are thorough in terms of implementation. As a developer, I’ve appreciated seeing another team break down problems and solve them bit by bit. We’ve never ended up with big CSS clusters—style elements are brought together one by one in a modular form. It’s a programming approach to frontend work.

Graffino was the first agency that asked for feedback at the end of a project. We met for a coffee, discussed the project and determined what went or didn’t go well. Things have gone better and better with each project. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We continue to have feedback meetings, but there was nothing I could identify for our last project. I simply congratulated them on their great work.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to trust the team and talk to them. They may decline to work with the type of customer that comes in with fixed ideas. On our first project, I came in with a set of ideas, but they explained what was wrong about them. In the end, they were right.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CEO and owner of a company called Travel Keys.

What challenge were you trying to address with Graffino?

We were trying to rebuild the front- and backend of our website. We needed to make improvements to the frontend to keep pace with the challenges within search engine marketing. Our backend system was dated and had tech problems.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They rebuilt the backend entirely and did a lot of frontend coding in PHP. They designed the backend interface, which was a heavy UX type of project. We collaborated on a lot of the development. We started with sketches and they helped with the wireframing process.

We had a lot of database needs. We wanted to give users the ability to search in a friendly UI with a variety of functions, including map, video upload, review, and rates and booking interfaces.

What is the team composition?

We interfaced with about three people. We could connect directly to the developers who were working on the project.

How did you come to work with Graffino?

They were a referral. We looked at a few other companies, but they were very efficient and we felt they’d be a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000 and $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from early 2015 to early 2017. They provided maintenance and support after we launched the site.

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

Our conversion rate went up dramatically after their involvement. I don’t remember the exact increase, but it was substantial. I’ve since sold the company and we’ve merged into a fairly large entity.

How did Graffino perform from a project management standpoint?

They did well overall. Most of our communication was through video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This was one of the better experiences I’ve had. I’ve done a lot of web projects before and this one was the easiest. They offered a really good value. They were affordable, delivered in a reasonably timely manner, and we didn’t have to deal with many bugs. They worked with myself and our COO and made the process pretty painless.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any net negative feedback for them. There were a few mild scoping and project management issues on both sides. It was a complex project and there were occasional delivery delays. Given the nature of the project, it was never a problem. They operated within one standard deviation of normal.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and Design Director at Design, Deux, Inc. We were founded in 2013 and tackle mostly visual design problems for clients worldwide.

What challenge were you trying to address with Graffino?

I wanted to try out their firm so stated by asking them to do my personal website. It was an experimental project to see how it would flow. I wanted to see how they would listen to my problem and identify challenges, and if they could do something revolutionary on the frontend development. After they did a great job with my personal website, I needed their help on a bigger project for which our in-house developers weren’t performing well. I needed my designs to be pixel perfect.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have redesigned multiple websites for me, starting with my personal website. For that one, we had a couple of meetings during which we went through a scenario of how my website should perform.

After that trial, I brought them on board for a bigger project. They’ve now developed several projects and become my go-to agency when I’m starting a new project for which the client has enough financial resources.

What is the team composition?

We work with the co-founder.

How did you come to work with Graffino?

I came to know one of the cofounders when I was living in Romania. His knowledge of programming and frontend development is really good. At the time, I knew he wanted to do high-end work for high-end clients and was struggling to get the right team in place. When he was able to get some of the people that he wanted on his team, I wanted to give them a try.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2012 or 2013. Our work ended in 2016, though I’m trying to bring them onto a couple of new projects.

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

When we started on my personal website, the number of questions I got from them was overwhelming. They were passionate about the project and wanted to get it done fast.

How did Graffino perform from a project management standpoint?

Their philosophy is that it’s not about what you’re working on, it’s about who you’re working with. They’re very picky about who they work with. They choose projects based on who is bringing the project to the table. They want to engage in long-term relationships. They're not the kind of agency that will just do a website and move on. They're looking for three-, six-, or nine-month long projects that are more than just a regular website.

They take pride in how the code is written. They put quality above money and timelines. They don’t develop from one day to another, and they don’t take on projects that have very tight timelines because they can’t guarantee that their code will be 100% correct. They don’t work towards hard or shifting deadlines because then they’re not able to meet their own quality standards.

We email when we need to share notes or documents but we mostly communicate by phone and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Fairness. I think that describes them. They're also eager to do quality work rather than quantity. They're my number one choice simply because they can actually deliver what I want them to deliver.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could work at a faster pace. There are probably certain things that they’re taking a bit longer on than they should be.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be transparent with the people at Graffino because they'll do their very best to help you. If you don’t give them the right information, they’ll make assumptions which lead to mistakes. The more transparent you are, the greater the chances that the solution will be developed faster than initially thought.