London Design Works

Q: What's your name and position in the company?
A: Vince Rowe - Managing Director

Q: Describe your company in 5 words.
A: A Drupa specialist design agency

Q: What's your business philosophy?
A: Elevating our clients online presence and brand awareness through the smart use of technology, clever design and efficient content management systems, specifically Drupal.

Q: Describe your office environment.
A: Our studio is a stones throw from Spitalfields market in East London, when out of the studio our time is normally spent wondering the narrow streets trying to decide which amazing coffee shop / street kitchen to visit next.

Q: Describe how your team interact and work together.
A: As we are all based in-house, it makes this task very easy, we all have the same end goal we just have different specialities in how we can work together to get there. Our designers and UX people need to know and understand how the technology of the site will be used, so they can benefit from it. We meet every morning and chat through what each other are up to, and that normally sparks ideas throughout the day.

Q: What makes you different from other web design companies?
A: The core item would be we are a Drupal agency, so all our sites, ecommerce systems, mobile apps, they all connect or are fully based on Drupal. When the technology is so well known and understood in the studio it frees project time for more design and fresh thinking, saving we pass back to our clients.

Q: How do you get the majority of your business?
A: We have bee going for 8 years, so word of mouth and direct referrals are a large part. We are well respected in the Drupal community and being able to take on the large projects where maybe an individual (no matter how good) would struggle, has always benefitted us and is probably why we get the 6 month plus projects more than the 3 day ones.

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: Meet them in person. While it may sound obvious, we are always surprised at the number of projects we win, or even lose, where the client has said they have no time to meet before making their decision. These agencies are going to be a big part of your project, meet them, see how you get on. It needs to be a good fit for all involved, and saying Hi is a great way to test that.

Q: Where do you see your company in 10 years time?
A: We are currently growing out a few of our divisions, so we could definetly imagine having a dedicated "large project" division, with their own account managers, designers etc. We have also seen a lot of growth in specific sectors, so again having dedicated teams specialising around that would be good for us as well as benefiting the end client.

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

Q: How was your company name chosen?
A: We knew we were going to based in London, and while we take care of large technical projects from the dev side, we are still a design agency at heart. So "London Design Works" was a no-brainer for us :)

Q: If you were to give your clients one tip on how to get the most from their website what would it be?
A: Try and put personal preferences to one side and look at the big picture. We get a fair amount of clients adamant on font or colour choice because they love it, its their favourite. It doesn't matter that they are quite a corporate tech company and they have chosen hot pink and a fat serif font, its what the MD wants. Think about your customers and what they are expecting and hoping to see. Then find a good middle ground, I'm sure we can use that hot pink in there somewhere.