Quality-Focused Web Design & Development Agency Goes on the Attack

Jan. 31, 2012 - PRLog -- When you think of professions promising idyllic lifestyles – rock star, model, Hollywood director – web design agency manager doesn’t necessarily spring to mind.

But Rick Carlile, Creadyne’s General Manager, begs to differ. “It’s an evolving world,” he says. “The turmoil of the last few years has been the world’s societies and industries shaking themselves up and getting ready for the real challenges that the twenty-first century has yet to throw at us. And where there’s turmoil, there’s opportunity. That’s where the lifestyle entrepreneur comes in.”

The idea of the lifestyle entrepreneur would’ve been unthinkable to most people of previous generations, when only the rich, famous, well-born or exceptionally independent could expect any significant control over their lifestyles. But today, the global Everyman has technologies at his fingertips that let people around the world meet, collaborate, pool resources, create – and earn. Rick is evangelical about the possibilities this opens up. “Look at us,” he continues. “I’m from Scotland but I spend most of my time in the tropics. We have people in the US, the UK, Eastern Europe, the Philippines, people who just like to travel around, you name it. Likewise, our clients are globally-distributed – US, UK, Australia mainly. But we’re not a big operation; we have low overheads. What we’ve done is to identify technology that lets us work with our staff and clients as if we’re all in the same conference room. That’s not so unusual in itself, but our underlying focus isn’t so superficial.”

Superficial? Carlile nods. “Sure – when most people think about globally-distributed teams, they’re thinking about traditional outsourcing and cost savings – and they’re worrying about culture clashes, quality control, and so on – but we’re way beyond that. Sure, we cut costs and have to be sensitive to everyone’s cultural differences, but that’s old news – what we’re about is far more exciting; personal choices and liberty – individuals collaborating for everyone’s benefit. We don’t have dress codes, we don’t have time clocks to punch, we don’t care where you work. We know that our guys can work as efficiently from a Jeep on the beach as they can from a dusty cubicle in a windowless office; they have the tech to stay connected wherever and whenever they want. And we know that by stepping away from the traditional ‘boss-worker’ relationship we’re going to get greater loyalty and better results for our clients. When you personally share focus with people, background culture isn’t so important.”

But surely this raises issues of quality control and project management? Carlile disagrees. “Firstly, we’re as connected as most people who work in the same building. We meet up every day by voice and video, we’re uncompromising about schedules and granular project management. We might not play on the same baseball team at the weekend but that’s trivial. Secondly – and more importantly – we’re extremely selective about the people we work with. They have to be like-minded. They have to be completely focused on quality and project goals. They have to not only be skillful in their area of expertise, they have to be proud of their skills – and push to improve them. They have to be runners, not walkers.”

So how does this kind of organizational setup affect clients? Rick nods. “Overwhelmingly positively. Imagine you’re a web development client working with a company that uses the ‘software sweatshop’ model. You have a room full of resentful, poorly-paid, under-appreciated drones who hate life and have to be bullied into producing results. Then contrast that with the idea of working with a network of educated, properly-remunerated professionals who live as they please and collaborate willingly – all with a laser-like focus on your project’s goals because they know that only achieving those goals gets them paid. Which is going to be the more enjoyable relationship? Which relationship is going to produce better results?”

The results speak for themselves. One client on Creadyne’s new Testimonials page (http://www.creadyne.com/content/testimonials) writes “In short, if their services were in-house, you’d hold them up as the exemplar and celebrate your good fortune. Don’t hold back, they’re that good!”

Another writes, “Rick and his team were amazing. From day one, they were incredibly responsive, thorough, detail-oriented, accurate, flexible and very willing to walk us through the entire development process.”

Creadyne’s focus on quality is not limited to their staff – unusually, they’re making the effort to educate their clients. Their new, eight-page “Web Development Client Guide” (http://www.creadyne.com/content/creadyne-client-guide) takes the form of a personal letter from Rick Carlile to potential clients explaining the design and development process in great detail, and illustrating many of the potential pitfalls on the client’s end that can mar the end result. It’s also very straight-talking. Carlile is unapologetic. “I recognize that some people might be put off by the no-nonsense tone. But what’s really important, in the final analysis? Quality is what people remember, and is what we strive to produce. We work very closely with our clients in order to make sure we’re giving them the biggest bang for their buck that we possibly can. So the client has the opportunity to affect the process and the outcome. It only makes sense to help them get up to speed with what they can expect from us, and what we need from them. It’s a way of trying to protect their investments. The best results happen when everyone is on the same page and knows what to do and when. Our clients need straight information – they don’t want confusing jargon and they definitely don’t want BS.”

The relaunched website’s design (http://www.creadyne.com) reflects this uncompromising attitude. Stark, sleek and filled with strong natural imagery, it’s a world away from the style of websites one normally associates with web designers and developers. “I wanted to make a few things very clear aesthetically,” Carlile continues, “notably that when you work with us you’re getting a very high-quality, bespoke service and product, which is going to be extremely tailored for your needs, and is going to have a strong design focus. We’re not going to jump on whatever the prevalent trend happens to be, because that’s the easy answer and we want to dig a bit deeper for our clients. Design is highly psychological – it’s about colors, shapes and images that provoke certain fundamental, subconscious responses in the user. The new site is intended to be impressive, simple, elegant, futurist, alien, beautiful and just a little bit brutal. Not some run-of –the-mill Web 2.0 cookie-cutter look; how boring – why be a follower, especially of a dying trend? We went with what I call the ‘tech noir’ aesthetic because I believe it perfectly embodies the future-oriented, skillful, cutting-edge rawness that Creadyne represents. Also, a lot of the guys we work with are huge fans of design-led tech noir movies like Blade Runner, Alien and the Terminator series – as am I – so it was brilliant to be able to work with that conceptual palette. Actually, I was writing the ‘hello world’ blog post for the new site the other day, and the perfect definition of what we've achieved just popped into my head. We have created ‘the Gattaca of websites’.”

About Creadyne: Creadyne is a globally-distributed, design-led, quality-focused web design and development agency, headed by Rick Carlile. They don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you have a stunning website that will bury your competition.

They have also seen things that you people wouldn’t believe.

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Creadyne Developments, LLC, is a globally-distributed, design-led, high-quality web design and development agency. We create smart, artistic websites for our clients, specializing in ecommerce consultancy for entrepreneurs, SMEs and corporate clients.