Do you have any statistics or metrics concerning their work?
We're not even using the site to the extent we should yet, because we always get bogged down with other things. I think State Creative was the spark for a larger change in organizational philosophy around what's important. Because we're dedicated to youth, to the community and to our low-income operation, I think people think that aesthetics and marketing aren't as important as they are. After people saw how remarkable the website looked, and this is an award-winning website. It started motivating people.
So, I've been able to get the organization to paint its walls and start putting its logo on the walls. We're getting a more vibrant and colorful look, getting a sleeker look. I think we have better brand recognition. State Creative also designed business cards to go with the website. I just think we now have a better look, one that's more memorable. Now, I'm working on the second site with them, and it's going to look totally different. People are coming up with ways to find a little money to put some vibrancy into our marketing and branding, and State Creative was a kind of a catalyst for that because people saw that the product looked so good.
Is there anything unique or special about State Creative that really makes them stand out?
I think there are a couple of things. One, they know their stuff really well, and they're very competent and very good at what they do. Their project manager is good at telling us what's happening, but using language that's understandable for someone like me who is not all that technologically savvy. I was comfortable talking with him. I'm the guy who likes to know everything that I'm managing, so I could probably get a little annoying with a lot of questions, but he was patient, and he always answered my questions and re-answered them if I couldn't understand the first time. So, I think they're good at that interface with the client.
Second, for the price that we paid, they do very clean work. I think their designer's style is just very clean and crisp. That really works for me. I don't want something that looks cheap or tacky. I think clean and crisp is the way a website should look, and I think their design people have that on lock in a good way.
Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?
Not really. The only thing they did that I felt weird about was my fault. I couldn't keep up. Their job is to build websites, my job is not to do anything with websites – it was an add-on to my normal work. It's not in my job description to do this. I think it was hard to keep up with them, and I felt bad just because of that. I have decided to work with them again, so that says a lot.
What advice would you give a future client of theirs?
I would say anyone that is going to work with them should ask for references and ask State Creative how they would go about putting together the client's team to work on this. For example, I watched another organization that I work with go with a different company to build a website. That organization had eight or nine people on their internal committee making decisions on the website. I think that's too many people.
It's not State Creative's place to tell a client how to operate, but if I were a client, I think I would ask about what other clients have done that's been successful. If someone asked me, I would say put two or three people in your website committee to work with State Creative, and then get ideas from the larger staff when needed. But, don't put an eight- or nine-person committee together because it will get too confusing. The process will be too tedious, take too long, and have to deal with too many opinions.
The new websites have received positive feedback from users since their launch and have been praised for their layout and intuitive navigation. State Creative is a responsive partner and they conduct thorough research.