L+R

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a former executive at an ad agency.

What challenge were you trying to address with L+R?

We commissioned L+R to redo our website. The challenges were to modernize the way we presented ourselves online, create an engaging look inside the work we’d done, and beautify how we were presenting our portfolio to prospective clients.

What was the scope of their involvement?

L+R scoped out the complete redesign of our website. There was a discovery phase and research on competitors and peers involved. We gave them examples of websites that we liked. They also looked into the contemporary trends in website design, who our customers were, and what they were looking for when considering an ad agency.

The legacy website was a bastardization of a previous site and was always meant to be temporary, so L+R created a completely new experience with consideration to SEO and analytic tracking, focusing on marketing, lead generation, and lead capture perspectives.

We showed the team the existing website and content. We’d just created a new aesthetic in terms of color palette, typography, and icons, so we provided our new brand guide and style guide. L+R came back with examples of design approaches, UI aesthetics, animation styles, imagery, and effects that would bring the style guide to life from a web perspective. 

L+R used Figma to present early work, prototypes, and suggestions. In terms of SEO, I did a preliminary audit and identified keywords that were relevant and important to our business, which I provided to L+R.

What is the team composition?

I worked with 5–6 people from L+R, including Alex Levin (Founding Partner), the CTO, and the developers, who were based in Europe. The development team included someone who specialized in the understanding of animations and parallax scrolling, a teammate on the React side, and someone focused on the UI design.

How did you come to work with L+R?

I’ve known L+R for a long time, and I’ve engaged them at several companies. I first collaborated with L+R in 2013–2014, when we were both brought in as independent contractors to help a startup do their UI/UX across web and mobile, with me as the product manager. We got on well and liked each other, and they did a good job, so we stayed in touch. 

After that, I helped another startup that needed to redesign the web and mobile apps, and I brought L+R in. That project was also very successful. Later I engaged them to build a custom photo booth experience for a client. When it came to the website redesign, I took the lead in identifying potential vendors working with the head of creative. We had 6–7 options, ranging from bargain-basement WordPress shops that would bang something out for 25k, all the way up to firms that would do a high-end custom design, with pricing of 250k and up. I put L+R in that mix because I was confident they would present themselves well and be a quality vendor to consider. However, I didn’t influence the decision-making.

We interviewed all our options and asked them to come back with a plan and proposal, including scope, budget, timeline, and creative support for their thinking. We went through 2–3 rounds of presentations and whittled it down to three options: the best in bargain pricing, a middle option, and a top-rated option. L+R was in the middle regarding pricing, and they beat everyone out — they won the project fair and square.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on the website from January–August 2021, when I left the company. The proposed website launch was in September 2021. I left just as they were finishing the project, so I don’t know if they engaged L+R in further work.

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

L+R did a lot of research and provided best-in-class options of directions for us to take the website. They always presented themselves professionally; there was never a time when we wondered what they’d been doing for the past two weeks. 

The team has a lot of awareness of who was coming through our site. L+R educated the company on setting up the site for retargeting, growing organic reach, and putting visitors into marketing-qualified leads. They also advised us on understanding where visitors were at any given time and on concepts like backlinking.

How did L+R perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very organized, delivering on-time 90% of the time. We played catchup with them to review everything and give them timely feedback. Overall, the team was very good at speccing out dates and timelines, considering that the project involved design, software development, and feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

L+R’s style stands out; they’re very in tune with the marketplace and UI/UX best practices. They have a unique aesthetic approach and are very innovative and creative. Additionally, L+R has a very good grasp of technology and excels at using it to get data and then leveraging that to build experiences, customer journeys, and user journeys. 

From the start, we were impressed by their sensibility and ability to understand our needs and serve up a proposal that introduced new thinking and made our head creative feel like they got what the project was about.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing they needed to improve in their work comes to mind. However, they don’t always present themselves as best they could in their first meeting. I was really excited to introduce them to my new company, and their initial presentation was a little underwhelming considering what I know they can do. I was surprised because they’re way better than what they showed. That said, this happens to all of us, and everyone has their own opinion about what they should be saying and what resonates with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to be as clear as possible and understand the brief you’re giving. The onus is on you to be good with your feedback and have the discipline not to introduce feature creep. You can’t ask for more features and expect L+R to deliver on the same timeframe and budget. I would also recommend being open when L+R suggests new ways of thinking — don’t be afraid to embrace that. 

Also, be clear on your timelines and do your bit to help them keep theirs. Although there’s always room for a company like L+R to slightly underestimate the time, I’ve never known them to blow their timelines. They were always good about clarifying what would cost more money and what constitutes a separate scope.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the creator and director of Spireworks, which is a bespoke architectural lighting and engagement platform. For a little over a decade, I have overseen all aspects of the project from the technical to UI/UX and business development.

For what projects/services did your company hire L+R?

L+R provided brand consulting, design services, and iOS engineering support on our major campaign Change At A Distance. Working with them, we were able to coordinated multiple aspects of the project from web, social and mobile into a successful 2020 initiative.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to encourage our existing member base and new members to engage our experience as they have always done, but with a donation to the Global Corona Virus Relief Fund.

How did you select L+R?

L+R found us with a client opportunity. Their size, ability and eagerness to assist led us to a successful partnership.

Describe the project in detail.

We looked at the various ways in which our members were engaging and came up with a strategy that would not alienate them. In addition, we were able to create a compelling story for the public that helped meet the project goals to have the widest reach possible.

What was the team composition?

We worked with principals, designers, and iOS engineers from L+R in coordination with our internal engineering and project management team.

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

We were able to meet our giving milestone for the year 2020.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had successful handoff of ideas and design prototypes between our teams.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We find L+R to be professional, reliable, but most of all creative. They reflect a strong internal discipline and that they enjoy their work. These are great ingredients for successful partnership and collaboration.

Are there any areas for improvement?

While collobaration has worked well, there is still a need for high level management when it comes to synergy between our internal team and L+R. Otherwise, for what they offer, very pleased with our work together.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the co-founders of AveNew Solutions, functioning as the chief visionary officer. 

What challenge were you trying to address with L+R?

I came up with an idea for a mobile app that was inspired by the Global Citizen app and hired L+R to build it.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

L+R developed our social activism app and has continued to evolve it to be significantly more robust for our target market. This includes labor unions around the globe as well as nonprofits that are struggling with activating their large membership base. We white label the app to any organization that wants to license it.

The solution itself puts out calls to action to an organization’s members, incentivizing them to read articles, sign petitions, take polls, and more. With each completed action, the user receives points. We’ve partnered with another company called Global Reward Solutions so that users can exchange their points for various awards like merchandized gift cards, event tickets, and so forth.

L+R has collaborated with us tremendously on all fronts — not just the actual development but also the UX design to figure out how to make the experience great for our members. To account for COVID-19, they’ve integrated the ability to participate in meetings and assume virtual actions. They’ve also tweaked our logo, which we’ve adopted into our collateral.

What is the team composition? 

Our day-to-day project manager acts as their client liaison. Then, we work closely with the head of their development division. I’ll work episodically with their partners whenever we’re looking at bigger-picture issues. Finally, their UX specialist will get involved at times.

How did you come to work with L+R?

I initially issued an RFP for a development firm. I got a bunch of proposals, but I just didn’t feel like we were aligned. They were all garden-variety developers.

Suddenly, a little light bulb turned on in my head — if I was so inspired by the Global Citizens app, then I should find out who built it. That’s how I found L+R. I contacted them through their website form, and they put me through the wringer to make sure that we’d be aligned as partners and that it would make sense for us to ultimately work together.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial development lasted from January–September 2020, but we continue to work with them for clients who request certain modifications to our app. I fully expect this arrangement to be an ongoing collaboration.

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

We find their entire team to be responsive, collaborative, and creative — the latter is not something that I’d personally expect from an app developer. I thought that I’d be on my own to figure out the best user experience even though I’d never created an app before, but they’ve been supportive. Having their individual and collective creativity has made this a positive experience.

How did L+R perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good communicators. We have a Slack channel as well as a ClickUp account set up with them, so it’s very easy to track their workflow or ask questions. They actually used ClickUp before we did, so we ended up integrating it into our firm because of them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

L+R is more than just an app developer. They take great pride in their work and are willing to think through the UX, which makes them stand out from all of the other app developers that I’ve talked to. I definitely view this partnership as a collaborative effort rather than just a vendor-client relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes they talk in technical terms that I don’t understand, but that’s about it. Their team is incredibly hardworking, intelligent, and passionate, so they can get caught up in “app speak.” That’s great, but laypeople like me need translations.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO and founder of Alexander. We deliver a subscription platform for long-form journalism.

What challenge were you trying to address with L+R?

We hired them to develop and then release the tech on which our company’s platform is based.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team designed and built the entire app that we will be offering via our launch later this year. We had a basic framework in place when we started working with them, but they developed the entire infrastructure, including our backend content management system and user portal, for the iOS app store.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a couple different members of their team.

How did you come to work with L+R?

They were referred to us by someone who had worked with them previously, and it seemed like a good fit so we decided to move forward.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost is going to be around $50,000 leading up to launch, but there will be an ongoing cost associated with our server refinement and development.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together started in January 2020 and is still ongoing.

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

The quality of the work that they have delivered has certainly been A plus. We are highly satisfied with what they have accomplished so far and are looking forward to the eventual launch of our product with them.

How did L+R perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done a very good job of managing the project. There have been consistent daily and weekly updates via Slack and email about our progress and any challenges we face, and they prioritize check-ins at every stage of the project with their lead project manager. The whole process has just been incredibly thorough.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their problem-solving skills have helped us to deliver our content in ways that nobody has done before. That ability to find solutions and then implement them in innovative, user-friendly ways is a huge asset to our project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, the whole project has been terrific.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I manage owner relations for a global hospitality franchise. Mainly, I facilitate simple and seamless interactions between our internal team members and our franchise partners.

What challenge were you trying to address with L+R?

We were working with Bond, a mail-marketing platform, to send handwritten notes from our team members to franchise owners. Their site proved to be a bit challenging for us to use on our own. We wanted to make the process as easy as possible for our internal staff, so we worked with L+R to create our own microsite.

What was the scope of their involvement?

L+R built our microsite and completed additional ad hoc tasks like uploading different notecard options and conducting security reviews. Basically, they assisted with anything that came up during the engagement.

What is the team composition?

Ivan (Director of Engineering, L+R) was my main point of contact.

How did you come to work with L+R?

Bond recommended them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent just under $20,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–October 2018.

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

A decent amount of our team members use the site. Before partnering with L+R, we were sending 20–30 notes a month. Now, we're sending well over 100.

How did L+R perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed really well in terms of both scheduling and planning. We set up weekly calls with their team, and they came prepared to each one. They were helpful in all aspects of their service.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their response time was fantastic. They consistently checked in with us and followed up on unfinished tasks. The team was committed to delivering everything we needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did a great job.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a venture associate at Loeb Enterprises. We start new companies internally, and right now we have about 15 companies in our office.

What challenge were you trying to address with L+R?

We were pitching a large media company on a potential joint venture and we wanted to build a prototype of a website and mobile application that we would use for the pitch. We were looking for a vendor to help us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did the visual design for a web and mobile application. We only needed the prototypes, so they didn't do a working version of the application. In addition, they did some logo and branding work for us. They understood all of our needs and the context of what we were trying to do, so it was a productive relationship.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Alex and Ryan, both of whom are the founding partners of L+R.

How did you come to work with L+R?

I was referred to them by a friend who had worked with them in the past. We liked their communication style and we got along with them, so we decided they'd be a great fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project between June–November 2016.

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

We got a contract with a joint venture partner, so we accomplished what we wanted.

How did L+R perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very organized and responsive (we usually used Slack to communicate). It was a great experience and they met our deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really grasped our business goals, so it wasn't just about designing a good-looking product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I wish we had more in-person meetings, but that wasn't a big deal.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the VP of creative at Estée Lauder Companies.

What challenge were you trying to address with L+R?

We needed a company to help us create a microsite for a diversity event.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed an internal microsite on a SocialChorus platform, guiding us through the entire process and executing the creative with our oversight. Initially, we wanted to do the site externally, but the technical guidelines changed and L+R was instrumental in helping us make the transition seamlessly.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Alex Levin (Founding Partner, L+R), who had a team underneath him.

How did you come to work with L+R?

I met Alex at a speaking engagement and learnt about his work. Over the years, we brainstormed and collaborated together, but we never worked on a specific project. When this project came up, I knew they were the perfect partners.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from January till March 2018.

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

They did an exceptional job. They created an event space for our internal project, essentially building an app within an app.

How did L+R perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly used email and phone to communicate. They're also currently consulting us on another project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very knowledgeable about the most relevant industry standards.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was a product manager for an interior design company that sells fabric, wallpaper, and furniture to the interior design community, architects, and trade professionals. My responsibilities included building our e-commerce system and all of our internal enterprise tools.

What challenge were you trying to address with L+R?

With a new tech-savvy CEO on board, the company was determined to use our brand into the 21st century. Our website was outdated, uncompelling, and unsuitable for an engaging e-commerce experience. We needed to build a new site that reflected our company’s new direction.

What was the scope of their involvement?

As a B2B company, we needed an online platform to support a powerful, functional, e-commerce toolset. Our main objectives were to revamp our website and build an iOS app to fulfill our business needs. To supplement our e-commerce, we needed to develop a new algorithm and design for our innovative search, filter, search, and sort feature. We collaborated on the full concepts, feature sets, and wireframing process. They guided our in-house developer as he worked on the backend and we integrated the APIs on the website and app that they designed.

What is the team composition?

Their business lead worked with us on the scope of work, timeline, and general project management. We also kept in frequent contact with two of their brilliant designers and their equally talented tech lead.

How did you come to work with L+R?

Our CEO discovered them through a referral and decided to give them an interview. We got a sense that they were genuinely interested in working with us, especially since they offered to throw in a trial project to get a sense of their work. They also appeared to be very progressive and in-touch with the latest technologies. We felt like they would be a great fit because they didn’t seem like the company to take our requirements and spit them back out.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent more than $100,000 to develop the website and iOS app.

What is the status of this engagement?

They’ve been the company’s preferred web development agency since 2015.

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

We’ve worked on similar projects with larger agencies, but they never produced the amazing results that we generated with L+R. Since launching the website and iOS app, online engagement has gone up by 60–70%; the website alone has received more than 12,000 views. Comparably, the personalized shopping experience they implemented on the site has increased online sales by 30%.

How did L+R perform from a project management standpoint?

Some vendors tend to overpromise when it comes to scheduling, but L+R gave us an honest evaluation of the project and stayed true to the timeline. When our team lost focus, they worked hard to get us back on track. They also helped make the project a truly collaborative experience by keeping us involved at every stage. If we had questions, they provided thorough explanations to ensure that we knew exactly what we were paying for.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve partnered with many web developers in the past, but none of them produced work as phenomenal as L+R. The platforms that we asked them to build were very comprehensive and complex, but they absorbed our business goals and built a well-designed app with cutting-edge designs. Their exceptionally talented team proved that they thrive in a collaborative environment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

L+R are in a league of their own when it comes to high-quality work and exceptional service. While there’s always room for improvement, L+R gave us no reason to criticize their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a new growth equity investment firm, and I’m one of the co-founders. We invest in growing vertical SaaS businesses across the country.

What challenge were you trying to address with L+R?

We engaged with L+R for help with our branding, logo, and website design.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were just launching the company, so we were creating everything from scratch. It started with the logo. L+R interviewed us, and we talked through our values, our vision for the firm, and why we picked the name that we picked. They synthesized all that information and put together five potential logos. We talked through those options and narrowed it down. They did a little more work on the one we really liked, and we got to the final logo from there.

We did a similar process on the website itself. L+R did all the design, and they worked with another firm, Mangrove, on the backend. We now work with Mangrove directly because they’re hosting the site. If we have changes or issues, they go into the code and make necessary changes. The site is developed on WordPress.

How did you come to work with L+R?

It was a referral. One of the founders of L+R is good friends with my cousin, so we were connected that way. It was a good fit.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work began in September of 2016 and was complete in January of 2017.

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

We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on the logo and the website. We loved working with L+R. We thought they did an awesome job. We highly recommend them to others.

How did L+R perform from a project management standpoint?

L+R was awesome. That was one of the things that impressed us. From the very start, they were very organized. They gave us a proposed timeline right off the bat, and they stuck to it. We had check-ins often. We like when we’re project managed on stuff like this, and they were great.

What did you find most impressive about L+R?

We were very impressed when they spent the time to get to know us and our values. That showed up in their creativity and what they ended up building for the logo and the website. We were very happy with that. It reflected what we hoped it would. They worked hard, delivered on time, and managed the project well. They were fun to work with, and we were very happy across all fronts.

Are there any areas L+R could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind right away.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

SA Studios is a cultural lifestyle agency with offices in LA and NY. With various investments including Grind (co-working space) and an incubator for startups, SA focuses on traditional sports, eSports and video game marketing. Our key clients include MLS, Umbro, Machinima and T-Mobile.

What challenge were you trying to address with L+R?

The business opportunity was to help T-Mobile drive foot traffic to its flagship store in Times Square, New York. The target market was residents and local workers, and not tourists. Our challenge was to create a compelling event that would lead to increased sales of phone plan activations. We organized a Clash Royale mobile eSports tournament, hosted by two well-known YouTube influencers. We targeted male teenagers and their parents. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Part of our solution was to contract L+R to create a custom photo booth that generated gifs customized with graphics similar to those found in the video game. The purpose of the photo booth was to provide added engagement at the live event, as well as creating social media assets that could be shared.

The overall scope of work for L+R was to design the physical aspects of the photo booth, (a custom stand utilizing the T-Mobile color scheme that was strong, flexible and portable), and to design the software component of the photo booth, (gif generator, UI & UX, graphic overlays and social sharing connectivity). 

L+R were responsible for ensuring all design, production and event management for the photo booth. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The duration of the project was 4 weeks.

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

L+R's performance was excellent. The physical product was well designed and the manufacturing was of high quality. The software component was bug-free. 

The event attracted over 300 customers and T-Mobile sold twice the number of phone activation plans than their average daily number. 

How did L+R perform from a project management standpoint?

L+R was timely with deliverables and was always available to help out and go the extra mile.

What did you find most impressive about L+R?

L+R has an extremely talented and creative group of hard working and reliable designers.