Vadimages

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization is called Tandem NY, and I am the owner. I design and develop women’s bike fashion accessories. We have an online website, and we sell in retail stores.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vadimages?

He designed and developed our retail website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

He built it from the ground up. I had never built a website before. I needed it to be a retail website. He walked me through the process seamlessly. It started as: "Look at websites that you like and get back to me." I provided him with all of the artwork and photography, and he gave me three or four options for website layouts. He’s just amazing to work with; he taught me how to manipulate my site, how to put images up, and put my products on for sale. He set up Authorize.net, which authorizes the credit cards. He helped me figure out how to get the bank to transfer the money from my sales on the website to my bank account. Anything that needed to be done, he taught me how to do.

How did you come to work with Vadimages?

I saw him on LinkedIn. His pricing seemed reasonable, and honestly, he was the only person I interviewed, and I liked him right away and hired him.

How much have you invested with Vadimages?

He was very affordable. I looked at companies in New York City, and he charged a fraction of what they were asking, our engagement cost less than $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I launched in April 2014, and my website has been going on for a while now. He also helped me develop a blog site and develop blast newsletters. He did the template for me and then taught me how to do it myself.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have anything specific, but I will say I get such great feedback on my website. They think that it speaks to my customers, it’s lively, easy to maneuver and I never get any feedback like: “You should change this on your website.” Most people like it, it’s about women and biking fashion.

How did Vadimages perform from a project management standpoint?

He is totally on top of it. There was a task list where we would add the tasks, and he would assign it to some people in his company, and I had access to adding and commenting on it. He’s very organized, has good ideas, and great follow through.

What did you find most impressive about Vadimages?

Something I’m always a stickler about is people getting back to me in a timely fashion. It feels like you send emails out and they go into cyberspace, that just never happens with him, it’s like we were in the same office. There were never any surprises, nothing with pricing and there was never a time he promised a date and didn’t follow through.

Are there any areas Vadimages could improve?

Not really, he was very honest. I had never developed a website before so he held my hand through this whole thing, he was so patient with me. He would take a video of himself manipulating my website so that I could see how to do it, so it wasn’t just typed out.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have a website that promotes Cuban graphic design since it's difficult for the Cuban designers who aren't linked to the Internet to do that themselves. I work with them and have this website for them. I am the director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vadimages?

With a limited budget, I wanted to promote these designers who aren't known at all in a manner that represented them. They seemed to understand that right away.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They set up the website, and we shared a lot of time trying to come up with how that was going to look. Every time I've wanted to do more things with it and add exhibitions, do other side things like tours, and so on, they've been able to put those things on the website in a good way. I also wanted to send proposals to design magazines for them to become acquainted and cover Cuban graphic design. Vadimages came up with these prototypes that we sent out. The proposals were accepted – one in particular by Print magazine. Others have touched on Cuban graphic design, but they did a 10-page feature on contemporary Cuban design based on what we had proposed.

How did you come to work with Vadimages?

I advertised on the online bulletin board for the Pacific Northwest College of Art. I said big project but small budget and they responded. I liked their ideas.

How much have you invested with Vadimages?

It has been less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in 2014, and it's ongoing. He structured it so new images appear every day. When I get new images from them, I want this to be very current. This was one of their ideas to add images every day. That will continue through most of September [2016]. Then, I'll get another batch of posters and promotional materials, and they'll photograph all those.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With the new diplomatic relationships with Cuba and them becoming the flavor of the year, I was glad that my website was already in place because there was a huge uptick in visits to the website. When I look at the daily visitors, it's increased much during the past year. It was increasing ever since it started. I don't have it set up to get online feedback. The people who are really satisfied are the designers themselves. They're very happy with how it looks and how they can refer people to it and get direct emails from people through the website.

How did Vadimages perform from a project management standpoint?

They met my needs. They responded promptly when I wanted to change things. I've been very happy working with them.

What did you find most impressive about Vadimages?

I don't have much experience with other providers. Working with another company that used web designers, I saw they promised things that they didn't deliver. That hasn't been my experience.

Are there any areas Vadimages could improve?

No. I'm probably the weakest link because I'm older and less tech-savvy, but they've helped me learn, which has been very good.