Sian Lenegan

WWDC: What's your name and position in the company?
Sixth Story: ”Sian, Founder ”

WWDC: Describe your company in 5 words.
Sixth Story: ”Beyond Conventional Branding & Communications”

WWDC: What's your business philosophy?
Sixth Story: ”Using our knowledge, experience and passion, we create brands, designs, and communications that go above and beyond the conventional. We’ve built a space we love to work in, and clients want to be involved in. We strongly believe in nurturing people – our own and our clients.”

WWDC: Describe your office environment.
Sixth Story: ”We have a small studio in Birmingham's Creative Quarter, it's small but a vibrant and creative space where we love to work and entertain clients. ”

WWDC: Describe how your team interact and work together.
Sixth Story: ”We’ll find consistency in our systems, not our people; we celebrate our diversity because it’s our culture that will make us successful. We believe in nurturing talent. Strong, positive relationships that are open and honest allow us to accomplish more together. We’re open to constructive feedback and encourage team effort, freethinking and expressing opinions. There will always be a challenge around the next corner, what ever happens we promise to be respectful of each other and be supportive. We are confident but not arrogant and in the end our character will speak for itself. ”

WWDC: What makes you different from other web design companies?
Sixth Story: ”We love Mondays! We work to create a team environment that is friendly, exciting and creative, not only on Mondays! What makes us different from a lot of other agencies is that we value being fun and may be a little weird. We want our agency to have a unique and memorable personality.”

WWDC: How do you get the majority of your business?
Sixth Story: ”We're very proud to say that every one of our clients has provided us with referrals. We also so lots of outbound and inbound marketing, approaching companies we want to work with because they have an interesting story we want to tell. ”

WWDC: Describe how you manage projects from the initial client contact to completion and handover.
Sixth Story: ”One hundred percent collaboration. We have systems and processes to keep things in check certainly but we start everything by hand and have our clients involved in the creative process. Typically for a web project we have three big meetings - a planning work shop upfront, a live design session after initial concepts are produced and a sign off meeting. In between there's the usual emails and status meetings. Above all we value our authentic creativity. ”

WWDC: What do you think is the most crucial element of creating a good client relationship?
Sixth Story: ”We may be casual in our approach and interactions with each other and clients but we are focused and serious about the operations of our business. We believe that three things are key - we do what we say, we always trying to make an emotional impact by going that little bit extra and we have fun. ”

WWDC: How do you manage demanding clients?
Sixth Story: ”Well when the odd occasion arises we maintain our professionalism, communicate like adults and always refer to our culture statement to get us through any tricky times. ”

WWDC: 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?
Sixth Story: ”Definitely meeting the companies in person is critical, there has to be chemistry as they say "people buy from people". The web design company must demonstrate that they understand the client's objectives and not just be selling a solution for the P&L or the portfolio. ”

WWDC: Where do you see your company in 10 years time?
Sixth Story: ”We aim to be in a purpose built studio with a team of 15 to 20 providing innovative solutions to a wide range of SMEs and big brands to keep us on our toes. ”

WWDC: Where do you see the web design industry in the future?
Sixth Story: ”Mobile. Everything is going mobile and we're gearing up to do just that and provide our clients with future-proof platforms to be visible in their market place”

WWDC: What computers do you have use in your offices, PCs or Macs?
Sixth Story: ”Mac”

WWDC: How was your company name chosen?
Sixth Story: ”In summary.... Six in Mandarin is good for business and Story because if we had to put a job title on what we do it would be that we are Brand Storytellers. So the Sixth Story and our logo shows the concept of integration. ”

WWDC: If you were to give your clients one tip on how to get the most from their website what would it be?
Sixth Story: ”Make sure that your website design and content is worthy of your products and/or services and is speaking to your target audience, not you necessarily. If it isn't there's no point in driving traffic to it. ”