Wigwam Creative

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a high-end, custom, sustainable, residential interior design firm. We work with clients in Colorado, where we’re based, as well as nationally and internationally. I’m the marketing and sustainability director on the leadership team of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Wigwam Creative?

They worked with us to develop our company website in a way that humanized the team and what we do.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project was really a collaboration between our two teams. They came in with some great ideas, as well as a questionnaire for each member of our organization in order to get a sense of who we are, how we think, and what are aesthetic is. Wigwam took that feedback and then created three different themes for us to respond to.

Once we narrowed it down to a specific theme for the WordPress site, they really worked on it in an iterative process with us so that they could incorporate all of our feedback. They even helped us to go back to the drawing board with regard to certain aspects until we got everything from the color schemes and images to the fonts exactly the way we wanted.

What was the team composition?

Pete (Co-Owner) and Charles (Creative Director) have worked closely with us on the design side, and we’ve interacted with a couple of different project managers as well.

How did you come to work with Wigwam Creative?

We had worked with their organization under different ownership and a different name almost 20 years ago to develop our original logo and creative assets. When we decided to embark on this project, we interviewed them along with 4–5 other companies and really liked their approach, their creativity, and their thoughtfulness, so we decided to go with them.

How much have you invested with them?

The total project cost was between $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2015, launched the site in June 2016, and have continued to partner with them since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our site gets a ton of compliments from everyone who goes there, especially on the team page where we have a special rollover feature to help showcase the personality of our members.

As far as metrics, we have definitely seen a significant increase in web traffic since we made the changes. We are looking to continue improving the way the mobile site works, but we’ve been very satisfied with the functionality and it has been more than meeting all of our needs.

How did Wigwam Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

Their process is incredibly interactive, and they do a great job of listening and getting to the heart of what you’re about before they even dive into the actual design process. Once we started the design, they did a great job of being gracious and listening to what we said at all times.

Their project managers have been very upfront with timing and scheduling and that transparency has helped us to be very conversational about what works for us, and when. There have been moments where I text Pete and he responds right away, which I think is emblematic of how exceptional a job they do.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Being professional designers, we had a lot of opinions about the creative side of the site, and they made us feel heard while also being strong enough to hold firm on the best practices in the industry and push back when they thought that different things would work better than others. They really felt like a partner the whole way through the process.

Not only that, but they have a really holistic perspective on all of the work that we are doing together. For example, when we had a conversation with them about adding video to the site, they were focused on how that fit into the bigger picture of telling our story as a brand, and that’s something that we really appreciate about what they bring to the table.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One of the things that we weren’t able to do with them were some of the SEO pieces, which looking back I wish we could have included, but that’s not something that I would fault them for.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be thorough in figuring out your vision for yourself, and then be willing to work together with them and to allow them to influence you so that you can create something that is really great and pleases everyone involved in the project. But the better they know what your desire for the website is, the more they can return that value to you.