Q: What's your name and position in the company?
A: Jamie Purches, Owner and Creative Director
Q: Describe your company in 5 words.
A: Professional, Experienced, Effective, Creative, Talented
Q: What's your business philosophy?
A: If you're not taking your company's image seriously, why should I?
I seek to work with those looking to make an investment in the longevity of their company brand.
Q: Describe your office environment.
A: My home studio is Mac based and comfortable. There's usually music playing and I'm set up for conference calls and meetings with clients.
Q: Describe how your team interact and work together.
A: I have worked with my principle developer for 8 years now and we can practically finish each other's sentences. Our offices are quite close to one another so we prefer to meet in person, but when we can't, Skype comes in very handy. My design input is as valuable to him as his development expertise is to me during the design process.
Q: What makes you different from other web design companies?
A: The level of professionalism, knowledge and talent you'll find with Donkey Ink Design is on par with any large design firm/agency, but because I don't have the big boardroom table and big fancy signage, my pricing is much more reasonable.
Q: How do you get the majority of your business?
A: Word of mouth referrals, return clients and contact from my website.
Q: Describe how you manage projects from the initial client contact to completion and handover.
A: With a 20 word limit? Come on now. =)
Download my process document (PDF) at http://www.donkeyink.com/process/DID2011_process_01.pdf
Q: What do you think is the most crucial element of creating a good client relationship?
A: Listen to your client.
Q: How do you manage demanding clients?
A: I choose not to work with clients whose 'demands' are unreasonable. Listening is a two way street and I prefer to work with clients who respect and trust my experience and expertise as it relates to their project. Reasonable 'demands' are not demands at all, but requirements -- and those I do my best to pay attention to and implement.
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: Select the one who understands their requirements. Ask the point of contact for each company to spell out what they are being asked to do. The one who comes closest to an accurate description is the one who's paid the most attention and is likely the best suited for the project.
Q: Where do you see your company in 10 years time?
A: Right where it is now. Small, stable and trustworthy.
Q: Where do you see the web design industry in the future?
A: With the industry changing as fast as it has in the 12 years I've been working in it, the only thing I can say with any certainty is that it will be remain in a constant state of evolution.
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: The name Donkey Ink Design (often shortened to simply "DID") started as a joke at school in the late 90s and was born in Death Valley, Nevada. I had every intention of changing it to something more “media-ish” when I started to take my design career seriously. However not long after I struck out on my own, I realized both my current clients and prospective clients found it quite easy to remember the silly name, so it stuck.
Q: If you were to give your clients one tip on how to get the most from their website what would it be?
A: Make it easy for users to find what they came to the site to find. The best way to do that is to answer these three very important questions before you get to work on building your website:
1) What is the purpose of the site?
2) What kind of content will the site contain?
3) How will the content be organized?
When answering those questions, think about it from the perspective of not the business/website owner, but from that of the site visitor you're looking to attract.
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