ILLUSIO

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and what you do.

I’m a home designer in Bend, Ore. I’ve been doing business for 12 to 13 years. I specialize in residential design. I hired Chuck to rebrand and build a website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Why did you select Illusio Design to work with initially?

I met Chuck [Spidell, founder of Illusio Design] in Portland personally, and then I went to his website. I saw that he had some really good talent there and he had a good technical background. I needed a new, fresh look to market myself. The word was out that I was in Bend and here to stay. Not to toot my own horn, but I do great work. I needed a brand to reflect that. 

SOLUTION

Can you tell us a little bit more about the scope of the work that Illusio completed for you? Did it include design, development, training, and support?

Yes. He set me off on a WordPress platform. He provided logo design. The whole vision you see on my website, he provided everything – the technical background, graphics, and usability. He did the whole package. He showed me how I could update my site myself, which is really helpful.

How long did the project take?

It’s ongoing. Initially, it took about a couple of months, maybe three. We’re always adding new content, changing content. I’ve been working with him for a little over four years now, I think.

Can you give a sense of the size of the project, either in a cost figure or in a personnel work-hour figure?

I think he was the only one working on my site. The amount that I put into it during the last four years would probably be more than $10,000.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, are there any metrics or any qualitative feedback that you can share to indicate the effectiveness of his work?

It has done wonders. It has increased my sales 200 percent. I constantly get compliments on the site. A couple of years ago, we implemented a feature on there where people could purchase my plan books. They’re books of my designs. We’ve implemented a PayPal link on that. I received thousands of orders. The site works. It works for me while I’m not working, which is, I think, everyone’s goal with a website. I would say he got a home run on it as far as effectiveness.

How would you describe his performance?

Excellent.

Is there anything unique or special about Illusio Design compared to other companies that you may have worked with in the past?

He is down to earth. You can talk to him. You throw some ideas at him and he comes back with your ideas but better. He responds to email pretty promptly. He’s just an all around good guy.

Is there any area that you think he could improve on or that you would do differently?

The only thing he could probably improve on is the same thing that I could improve on, and it’s more of a company growing pain than anything. I need to hire employees to speed up my turnaround times. I’m not speaking for his company, and it’s nothing bad. I think all small businesses have this issue where they get to a point where they become really popular and work increases. You’ve got to make a decision in order to keep productive.

BACKGROUND

Could you give a background description of CivicActions?

CivicActions has been around for just about 10 years now. We are a technology company that works exclusively with open source technologies to build websites and other Web-based programs. Previously our focus has been predominantly with triple bottom-line companies and NGOs. We’ve worked with organizations like Amnesty International and ASPCA. Recently, we have started to focus a little bit more on government opportunities. We’re very committed to the agile methodology. We’re looking to take some of the things that have made us so successful within the triple bottom line and the NGO community and apply that to work with local and federal governments.

What is your role at the organization?

I’m the director of client and professional services. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

When you first started working with Chuck Spidell of Illusio Design, what brought about that relationship? Why did you want to work with him?

I can’t remember the exact history of which one of us approached the other, but we were really interested in his design sensibilities, looking at his portfolio and the work that he’d done. We felt that he was very interested in projects that maybe have a slightly wider scope than just sort of a website for a business. We felt that really he was a good fit for us from a personality standpoint, as well. Chuck is a very personable person, but also we really felt that he was interested in the types of projects we were working on and that he would go the extra mile in order to ensure the success of the project, that it wasn’t a sort of vendor-client [money-driven] relationship. We felt very confident in talking to him that we could form a much deeper relationship. That’s been borne out by our work with him. The clients that we’ve worked with have really loved the design and branding. He’s worked with us from a number of capacities, either from a complete bottom-up starting project where we’re doing branding work before we’re even starting to look the web presence, through the sort of taking and applying [existing] brands. 

SOLUTION

What is the scope of his work for your organization? Is it on an as-needed basis as projects arise with your clients?

It is. We work pretty much exclusively at this point in Drupal. I know that Chuck actually does design and implementation in WordPress, which is another open source content management system. His work with us has pretty much been doing design and branding, and then also providing theming support. As the design is being translated into the website, he’s really useful at working with the individual who’s coding that and providing support or suggestions. That’s the other thing we really like about him. He’s very collaborative. It doesn’t stop when he gives you the final designs. He takes a very active interest in seeing how the work that he’s produced makes its way onto the final product and provides support and feedback. He’s really interested in doing a great job. That really comes across loud and clear with the attention to detail that he has, and the fact that he stays engaged even he might have other projects that are coming up; he is very good at managing his time so that he still remains present.

He worked with us quite recently on a project with the San Francisco Housing Services Association. They’ve done a website called EatFresh.org, which is looking to share recipes, dieticians, all sorts of information about eating healthily on a very tight budget. He really did a great job with that. We’ve got the website, but he was really supportive with the print materials as well. We’ve got bus posters; It’s a really solid campaign, more than just the website. He really brought the vision to life in a very visual way.

In terms of the size of the projects that he typically works on, can you give a sense of that either with an approximate cost figure or personnel work hour figure?

He’s worked on pretty much every size. We’ve done some work that’s sort of pro bono. He’s done everything from kind of the 40-hour project, doing just enough work for clients who maybe don’t have a huge budget, all the way up to an overall project size somewhere in the $500,000 to 600,000 [range] of which he would be doing up to about 300 hours. So, anywhere between that 40 hours and 300-plus hours. That’s what we really like about him, that he can span all of those needs. He can drill down to the smaller but also expand up to the bigger budgets.

How long have you been working with Chuck?

About five years now. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, can you give any particular examples that indicate the effectiveness of his work?

He worked with us on a campaign called 180 Million Americans, which is an American public media campaign. [The goal of the campaign was] to remove federal funding for public media. He designed the site. The goal was to get as many people signing as possible. We achieved about 53 percent. The design and really the aesthetics and sort of how they were pushing people really resulted in a phenomenal number of people visiting the site and signing up to pledge their support for American public media. That’s one of the big win projects he was on. 

Also, with the EatFresh website, I think they’re getting about 16,000 unique hits at the moment per month. Really the only publicity has been through some of the food bank organizations and then from some of the bus posters and materials that Chuck designed. I’ve actually had people  I’ve shown the site and they’ve said, “Oh, I saw that,” so he’s definitely good at brand recognition, because you can definitely see those results with people really recognizing some of the elements that he’s put in there.

Is there anything unique or special about him compared to other companies or other designers that you’ve worked with in the past?

I think Illusio Design's overall commitment and attention to detail, and that they are a real pleasure to work with are a few of the best things about them. The other thing I really like about him is that even if there’s a problem, Chuck will stay with you to work out the problem. We all know that Web projects aren’t without their hiccups. I always tell my clients we expect there to be problems, and what I really love about Chuck is his commitment to stay the course and if necessary to find creative ways to resolve issues. I think that’s a huge skill. Sometimes when the going gets tough, people can sometimes sort of peel away, and he definitely doesn’t do that.

Looking back on the work that he’s done, is there any area that you think that he could improve on or that you would do differently?

No. I don’t know that there’s anything that comes immediately to mind.