Snakeskin Studios

Q: What's your name and position in the company?
A: Josh Davidson – Creative Director

Q: Describe your company in 5 words.
A: Bold, Risk-taking, Enthusiastic + Dead Creative.

Q: What's your business philosophy?
A: Creativity is king. Pretending that copying trends and mimicking the appearance of other companies will help you stand out is daft. We're all about embracing our client's differences to better excite their customers – nobody wants an apathetic target market.

Q: Describe your office environment.
A: Barn conversion – high ceiling – steel mezzanine – office cat

Q: Describe how your team interact and work together.
A: We communicate my meowing. Shortly after, we have an idea for a website.

Q: What makes you different from other web design companies?
A: We don't take ourselves too seriously; there's an energy to be embraced in being unshackled from corporate-ness. In essence, it's about being specific to each individual client, rather than having a set process or business practice. For us, some ideas can come from days of research, others from simply starring at the wall.

Q: How do you get the majority of your business?
A: Being in Cornwall we have a fairly tight-nip community of businesses, most of which thrive on the face-to-face contact that a lot of creatives shy from. This connectivity we have brings in business, but we also have run successful analogue-mail campaigns to companies we are yet to meet.

Q: Describe how you manage projects from the initial client contact to completion and handover.
A: There isn't a set itinerary with SSS – pretending you can handle every client the same is nonsensical. It's a fluid process, one that makes use of openness and honesty from both sides to achieve. There's an intensely personal element to it, which we find removes uncertainty and makes for better, clearer decision making.

Q: What do you think is the most crucial element of creating a good client relationship?
A: Being human. Most other agencies will treat our industry like it's a dark art, flooding in with the importance of responsiveness without seeing if a client understand what, or why it's necessary. Once you have that mutual respect, clients are more likely to be open-minded and communicate better.

Q: How do you manage demanding clients?
A: This question bothers me – I know most will intend on lying to not sound brash – but it shows a flaw in our industry as a whole: poor communication. If your partner came home from work in a mad mood, chances are they've had a bad time. Meeting such behavior with negativity only makes the situation worse. Understanding a problem, a behavior, will help to remedy it – not use it to make more money.

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: Design requires a soul to produce. Know who it is you will be working with, not just the "account manager" and see if you connect. Think of it like dating – there are a lot of subtle signals and gestures that you decide whether you are compatible – you can only be sure by getting to know them, not by how many buzz words they can think of.

Q: Where do you see your company in 10 years time?
A: We're becoming somewhat of an authority in the remit of graphic design in Cornwall. People want to hear our honest, pull-no-punches critiques of design outcomes and ideas. You'll see more of that, on a bigger scale: a bigger team, bigger reach, more exposure in marketing channels. We want people to know that we're not satisfied with the industry and what can be done about it.

Q: Where do you see the web design industry in the future?
A: Hopefully RWD will be treated as a staple of the market, rather than a company-specific USP. I'd like to see more designers embracing more creative outcomes now that the technology is permitting quicker browsing speeds and stronger connections and the companies that offer the same thing to every client to drop-off – that would be a welcomed change.

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: Over the course of some time, it was seeing how snakes shed their skin to enable them to grow, heal and become stronger. There are thousands or types of snake, and despite an almost identical form, each has it's own, distinct appearance. For us, that heavily paralleled the point of branding.

Q: If you were to give your clients one tip on how to get the most from their website what would it be?
A: Keep an open-mind rather than entering a project with a set idea of what you want – after all, you're not the expert and that is 100% fine to admit.