noformat

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a private bank based in Switzerland, and we hold a pretty unique position because we stem from the second oldest bank in the world, which was founded in 1590. A few years ago, the particular part of the bank that I work for became independent. As a result, we’re now one of the oldest and youngest private banks in the world, which calls for a very particular branding, which I am responsible for.

What challenge were you trying to address with noformat?

We needed help with branding.

What was the scope of their involvement?

noformat created a new logo for us. After that, we engaged them to revamp our annual report, create our brochure, and develop our WordPress website. We used Figma during the design phase. We’ll continue to work with noformat whenever we need them. In fact, we’re working on a website project right now which will be the next generation banking for younger people, especially to those who are new to investing.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with over six people, including Ian (Creative Director). We’ve also collaborated with their product managers, content managers, designers, and more.

How did you come to work with noformat?

We reached out to different design firms and asked for a pitch. We all gave them the same brief and gave them an outline of what we were hoping to achieve. After that, I presented the three pitches to without giving any background on my preferred company. In the end, noformat stood out against their competitors because their approach to the project was inspired and nuanced.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in April 2020.

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

The new logo and website that the team created have been well-received internally and externally. We’ve also won the excellent communications design category in the German Design Awards because our logo perfectly captured the entire history of our bank. Winning that award is an absolute factor showing noformat's success in our project. Moreover, they’re incredibly smart, creative, and insightful.

How did noformat perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great at communicating, and they get back to us quickly. They also do thorough work; they’ll work on something until they’re satisfied that it’s in excellent condition. We use Figma to collaborate because we have a super strict firewall since we’re a banking firm.

Despite that, they’ve been able to adjust to our needs. In addition, most of the management is done through email. Although it’s not the most efficient, it’s what our system can accommodate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their artistic intentions in all the things they do have been impressive. They approach projects as if they’re building artwork, not just a well-designed project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should make sure that if they’re working on different things for one brand, everything is implemented the same way across all projects. In this engagement, our brochure and website deliverables overlapped with each other, and the team could’ve improved in streamlining that. Despite that, everything worked out in the end.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to them and hear their reasoning on why they make certain choices. noformat knows what they’re doing, and they always have good reason to recommend things. As a result, giving them creative liberty and the opportunity to engage in a conversation with you will allow them to think outside the box for your brand.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CMO of Asian Legacy Library, a Sedona, Ariza-based nonprofit library that preserves texts of ancient Asian wisdom.

What challenge were you trying to address with noformat?

We wanted to create a greater and broader presence in the world of preservation. We had been North American-oriented for the last 35 years, and we wanted to have a more global presence.

We were looking to expand and rearticulate our brand and create a new website. We wanted the site to serve as our marketing platform and a digital library of all the things we’ve cataloged.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had multiple calls with noformat’s team before creating a strategy. They facilitated a discovery phase where they explored the landscape we operate in through research and online interviews. They studied our competition, analyzed our communication history, and made suggestions for us to implement in our brand. 

From there, we created strategic documents that defined our brand. We formulated a new mission, vision, and teaching approach for multiple stakeholders. This was rather complicated because we were a B2C brand when fundraising, but we were a B2B brand when it comes to who uses our product. 

noformat then developed our WordPress website. We’re currently adding features to the site and its digital library.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with their COO, a senior project manager, a senior strategist, a senior UX designer, a senior UI designer, a junior UX designer, a junior UI designer, and some programmers. 

How did you come to work with noformat?

I knew noformat for the past 20 years.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve invested $120,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve started working together in April 2020, and our relationship is ongoing.

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

noformat’s work has been well received within our organization. Additionally, they’ve made us change our organization’s name, allowing us to be more visible and accepted in other parts of the world. 

How did noformat perform from a project management standpoint?

noformat’s project management has been 100% — they’re probably the most efficient organization I’ve ever worked with. They’ve been very responsive from beginning to end. 

We collaborate using Figma, Asana, and Slack. We occasionally send emails, but they’ve encouraged us to use the platforms above. It has been a little painful at first but ended up being great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The excellent nature of noformat’s creative product is because of their strong and strategic insights. In addition, their understanding of our environment is really good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Follow noformat’s processes and start as early as possible. Give them upfront all the information you can give and start from a strategic standpoint so their work will be better.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Revolution School is a new high school in Philadelphia. We welcomed our founding class in September of 2019, and I work in the area of communications and marketing.

What challenge were you trying to address with noformat?

We were a startup school with no brand awareness. We wanted to build a website that would serve as the face of our company. We were still building the physical buildings that would house our school, so in the meantime, we needed a website to establish our presence in the digital realm.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team began with delineating our brand strategy. They helped us understand what our unique value is, and how to best communicate that to our target audiences. They delivered our brand identity — a visual articulation of our mission and personality.

They then carried that through to our website design. They adhered to a content strategy that’s geared towards prospective students and their families. They helped communicate our story — of a visionary who had the dream to start a high school like no other — to prospective users. The website, which is built with WordPress, is SEO-friendly.

One unique functionality they incorporated was a sliding scale tuition calculator that gives families an idea of what they’ll be paying for tuition. They also created a unique class schedule projection, which lets families know what a student’s day looks like.

What is the team composition?

We worked with around 5 people total. That team consisted of a project manager, a creative director, a brand and content strategist, and a copywriter.

How did you come to work with noformat?

We stalked them on the internet after being impressed by a website they’d built. We reached out to them and had an in-person meeting with them in New York.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in April 2018, and the website was launched in August 2018.

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

We were able to enroll our founding class before we had a building or even teachers. That speaks volumes to the work they did since our digital presence was our only representation; the website was a large part of what gave people confidence in our organization.

We also attracted a huge number of applicants for work, which has been a consistent dynamic. They proved to be real experts in brand strategy and design.

How did noformat perform from a project management standpoint?

They could not have been better. At every stage in the process, it was extremely clear where we were and what still needed to be done. It’s been two years, and I can still reach out to our project manager with questions, who answers very promptly.

Their team is extremely kind, and we’ve never experienced anything but the utmost professionalism from them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They transformed our ideas in an even more powerful way than we had originally anticipated. They listened very carefully to us before articulating our existing vision as something truly compelling.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In addition to how “in sync” they were with us, I’d highlight the level of their expertise. Their design, copywriting, and UX/UI inputs exceeded all of our expectations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d really have to dig deep, but in our particular field — education — marketing is very foreign to most teachers and administrators. They could possibly do more to educate their clients on the value of their work to optimize the communication surrounding it.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CMO at a USA based FinTech. We are private with PE investment. We sell trading software to Hedge Funds and asset managers globally.

For what projects/services did your company hire noformat?

Ideation, design of desktop, mobile and tablet. Graphic design and image curation.

What were your goals for this project?

To launch our new website by April 30th. Designed by NoFormat and developed by a company called Splica bases in Canada The objective of the site was a rebrand and increased lead generation.

How did you select this vendor?

Recommendation from our developers.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project had an incredibly tight timeline - 4 months design and 3 months development. There was a 2 month overlap between design and development which required very close project management. The NF team of 5 worked on the project at the same time in order to complete the project. Ideation, design of desktop, mobile and tablet. Graphic design and image curation.

What was the team composition?

Project manager, senior UX designer, 3 graphic designers.

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

The site launched one week ago so not at the moment. Except anecdotal Positive feedback from clients.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was done through Asana and Figma. It was incredibly efficient and detail oriented. We hit completion on exactly on target.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I have worked on lots of web sites, and honestly, they are the most creative, professional, detail-oriented company that I have ever worked with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and CTO of Cloudforce. We help organizations of all sizes and industries migrate to the cloud.

What challenge were you trying to address with noformat?

We decided in late 2018 that we wanted to change our name as well as our branding and collateral.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team at noformat worked with us to help us rebrand all of our various business assets. They started by creating a logo, producing a branding guide of different colors and fonts. Once we settled on the design, the team began developing our website, which they designed from scratch over several iterations. We’ve also used noformat’s services to change our print materials. 

Since the initial rebranding project, we’ve engaged noformat on a few other projects, including a magazine print ad and artwork for our new office.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about five or six people, including a designated project manager.

How did you come to work with noformat?

We did a lot of research, looking primarily to find a branding and marketing company that had a portfolio that looked similar to what we were trying to achieve. When we found noformat, they fit that requirement very well, so the decision to reach out was easy.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $75,000–$100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in February 2019 and the project is ongoing.

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

Their work has had a dramatic impact. Rebranding is a serious undertaking and has a big effect on the company. We’ve seen a really positive impact, and we’ve received great feedback. It’s even increased excitement in new hires that we bring on. 

Generally speaking, our sales and marketing efforts have also been positive over the last 12 months. We’ve gotten a lot of traction with business development as well, all of which we can, at least in part, attribute to noformat’s work.

How did noformat perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager has been fantastic. She’s a great point of contact, and whenever we need anything, she’s able to help us out.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve worked with a lot of big brands, but they don’t come with a big brand price tag. For what noformat has provided, it’s been an excellent value.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing they could improve on is more consistent communication with schedule, though it wasn’t a big drawback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Provide noformat examples of what you’re trying to achieve, but don’t get too involved with telling them what to do. Trust them to understand and achieve your end vision and they’ll produce something awesome.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder and the CTO of Clara Technologies. We’re a digitizing and automating legal startup. Our team of senior lawyers creates online, digital systems that help business founders and investors manage their legal needs.

What challenge were you trying to address with noformat?

Essentially, we wanted to build an expert system for nonexperts. Our team wanted to take something that’s very complex, like all the legal pieces of information for a startup, and present that information in a way that’s understandable and UI/UX-friendly. We needed to come up with designs and visualizations that’d simplify the information.

What was the scope of their involvement?

noformat designed our online, interactive web application. Their team worked with me to ideate new concepts; one of the key ones being the stakeholder map. It’s a single view function where a startup founder can see all the individuals and legal agreements related to their startup. noformat collaborated with me to define what my team was looking for in features. Then, they conducted design explorations of various different options, working together and iterating with us to find the best solution.

What is the team composition?

I have daily contact with three individuals. There are other team members who jump in when needed.

How did you come to work with noformat?

One of my team members previously worked with noformat and was happy with their work. After I was introduced to them, I conducted an interview and showed their work to the other co-founders. Everyone liked what they saw, so we selected them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing engagement started in February 2019. All the main parts of the project have wrapped up, and we’re now doing some refinements.

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

noformat developed an overall brand visualization that works really well for us and has been noticed by all of our stakeholders. The app has received positive reviews that highlight its clean and fresh design. noformat worked with me to create prototypes of concepts that allowed us to go through and review what we’re building. They made sure the solution is an integrated system on our platform.

How did noformat perform from a project management standpoint?

I hold daily meetings with our project manager and lead designer. We discuss through iterations and then they go and produce the various components.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their visualizations and design match exactly what we’re striving for as a brand. They excel at coming up with novel, unique visualizations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there are no areas for improvement. It’s been a good project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you communicate with them and work iteratively. noformat has a process that allows you to see results. They work with you so stay away from a fully hands-off project. That’d lose a lot of their great advantage.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CTO of two companies where we hired noformat, including The Assemblage, a coworking space with three properties in Manhattan.

What challenge were you trying to address with noformat?

We did everything with them in terms of branding and digital presence. We started with them at the very beginning of the company, when we were creating the brand.

What was the scope of their involvement?

noformat provided web development and design, mobile development, and graphic design. We worked with them over a three-year period, and we did a lot of things together.

They created our brand from scratch, at the same time that we were buying our properties. We set up a whole community from scratch.

They developed the front- and backend of our site. It’s based on WordPress, with PHP, React, and Node.js on the backend. We integrated it with some commercial products, such as a module for managing members, which connects through APIs.

They also created a blog for the community. They designed our whole branding, including the signage for bathrooms, meditation rooms, TVs, and phone booth doors. They created pamphlets and other advertisements. The app was built for Android and iOS using React Native.

What is the team composition?

I don’t have all the internals, but I know that they have a creative director, a project manager, developers, graphic designers, and UX experts. My two main points of contact were their creative director and Milos (Head of Operations), who served as project manager.

How did you come to work with noformat?

I believe someone recommended them to me, but I’m not sure. They came to a meeting right after I joined as CTO. I hadn’t known them before. I liked how they worked, so I kept hiring them for different projects we did later on.

How much have you invested with them?

We paid them $700,000–$1 million for all the projects combined.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with noformat in July or August 2016, and it was ongoing until these days. I left the company in April 2019, at which time they were still working with us. I don’t think they’ll continue there, because I left and they haven’t replaced the CTO.

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

We had almost 3,000 members, and everybody loved their work. I’m pretty sure that they got a lot of work from those people as well. The impact was amazing. Everybody loved what they created. I have more than 25 years of experience, and I’ve worked with a lot of companies, but I never saw an agency like that. They’re really creative and they make a lot of research for any project.

They’re very professional, and they do an amazing job researching before they bring any proposal to us. They put in their creativity, and do it 20 million times better than anything else in the market.

The website got an award from a group looking at websites in coworking spaces. Ours was one of the top 10 websites out there, as per those people.

How did noformat perform from a project management standpoint?

I was in charge of technology, and I met virtually every day over scrum calls. For some projects, we had meetings every other day or weekly, but we were connected all the time. We used tools like Slack and Asana for coordination. We had different projects and tasks, and they presented very nice timelines to us. They were on time almost every time with deliverables.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There are many things. They’re really professional in how they communicate with us, analyze our needs, and present different solutions. On top of all of that, it’s the creativity they have. It’s really amazing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. They could be a bit cheaper, but, for the work they do and the quality they bring, they’re not expensive. We could find cheaper agencies, but not with that quality. I always advise my friends to use them because, in the end, one hour of noformat’s time is much better than 20 hours at a cheaper place, where they wouldn’t achieve the same results.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They need to explain their needs and requirements to noformat, and give them some time to bring different proposals and do the proper research. They will need a few days in the beginning to understand the client’s needs. They already have a process in place to do that. They go through surveys to understand the client’s tastes and likes and dislikes.

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of a creative marketing company.

For what projects/services did your company hire noformat?

To develop a customizable mobile navigation app.

What were your goals for this project?

Launch the product

How did you select this vendor?

We met with 5 development companies that were referred to us by industry associates and Harvard colleagues. We selected Noformat after meeting with all 5 companies. We liked their creativity and vision for what we were trying to accomplish.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Designed and developed from scratch a comprehensive navigation app that integrated features not available in the market, ie, customizable exits along an entire trip at the brand and/or amenity level, comprehensive boolean search integration with exits along a route, real time gas prices per exit across the entire USA, all with full functioning turn by turn navigation.

What was the team composition?

12 people in all phases of design and development.

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

We launched the app in December 2019 too much acclaim due to the innovative nature of our offering. The users to date have exceeded our expectations, and we have attracted interest from corporate partners ahead of schedule. We are continuing to develop and implement new features.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was very impressive. They are extremely creative and capable and they are particularly good to work with, as they are adaptive and forward thinking. In addition, they always strive to work with us through any difficult situations that may arise.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Ability, capability, vision, problem solving and sense of partnership.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We have been very pleased with them so far.