Slate Web+Graphics

Q: What's your name and position in the company?
A: Jon Dodd - Director

Q: Describe your company in 5 words.
A: Creative, innovative, intelligent, understanding, transparent.

Q: What's your business philosophy?
A: To share knowledge and enjoy our work. To help like minded companies to succeed in their chosen marketplace. To be open and honest and communicate well with our clients. To deliver fantastic websites that go beyond the brief and help our clients to market their business properly and profitably.

Q: Describe your office environment.
A: A peaceful space with creative energy. We are inspired by our surroundings in Hoxton and attempt to feed off that creative buzz. Our workspace allows us to have a creative huddle or alternatively to find some space to think.

Q: Describe how your team interact and work together.
A: Even the most creative team can only be as strong as the process they work through. We have a structure in place that ensures that everyone knows their role and what is expected. We have built an element of 'joint creativity' in to this as the whole team has the opportunity to input in to the creative solution.

Q: What makes you different from other web design companies?
A: We bring creativity and a real world understanding of what the client is trying achieve. It's rare that a web company can deliver an outstanding creative design whilst ensuring that the site delivers correctly from a business aspect.

Q: How do you get the majority of your business?
A: Referrals from existing satisfied Customers. Also we have put together a sales and marketing strategy that we continually fine tune.

Q: Describe how you manage projects from the initial client contact to completion and handover.
A: We research potential Customers and find out what they want and why they need it. A brief is accepted and a proposal is put together by the Director and the Project Manager. Once the proposal is accepted, we work on concepts. We interact with the client throughout the process and one the design is approved, our Developers plan the site. This process is signed off and the site is developed and tested. The site is developed on out Development Server and the link is constantly available to the Client, allowing them to see progress and finally for approval. The site is signed off and is life. We always offer 60 days support to any new site.

Q: What do you think is the most crucial element of creating a good client relationship?
A: Communication and transparency. To worth through the thought process of any project. We also always try and use plain English.

Q: How do you manage demanding clients?
A: We try and keep them in the loop. If a client understands where we are in the process -whether it's design, development or testing - they generally understand when we talk about timings. So, communication is the most important part of the client/agency relationship.

Q: If a client was trying to decide between a shortlist of web design companies, how would you recommend they go about selecting the right one for them?
A: 'People buy people'. Make sure you work with a team that you understand and get on with. An agency can have great creative ideas but if you don't understand how they deliver them, you won't feel comfortable. The same applies to a great delivery system, if there's no creativity to back it up, dont go there. make sure the Agency will spend the time getting to know you and your business.

Q: Where do you see your company in 10 years time?
A: We would like to continue to work on challenging creative briefs that allow us to utilise the functionality that will be available. We want to be at the forefront of this new functionality and make sure that we are ready to deliver at the highest level. We are continually updating our product offering and would like to be at the forefront of new technology, Website optimisation and Social Media.

Q: Where do you see the web design industry in the future?
A: Content is king. Functionality is continually changing and Websites as we know them, will be few and far between. Look at what's happened in the last 10 years and multiply that several times over. HTML 5 will be the norm and the creative aspect will not be held back by technology.

Q: What computers do you have use in your offices, PCs or Macs?
A: Both PC and Mac

Q: How was your company name chosen?
A: Many days of brainstorming! We wanted to convey our multi-faceted approach to creative problem solving. We also loved the tactile nature of Slate and the potential colour pallet.

Q: If you were to give your clients one tip on how to get the most from their website what would it be?
A: Concentrate on the content. Prepare a proper brief and let specialists work on the creative aspect. Clients need to fine tune their content as they know their own business better than anyone. Tell the world what it has been searching for!