Multiplica

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Business Development + Marketing Manager of NANO Architecture | Interiors

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

NANO is an internationally recognized, award-winning firm offering architectural and interior design services for a variety of markets, including commercial, residential, educational, and multi-use.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Future Forward Inc. to accomplish?

• Complete Website Redesign
• Hosting Services

SOLUTION

How did you find The Future Forward Inc.?

Online Search

Why did you select The Future Forward Inc. over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

What was the size of The Future Forward Inc.’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Future Forward provided us with a comprehensive website redesign - they designed a fully custom UI/UX design system that achieved an accurate representation of our firm. Our goal was to be able to provide both an image-forward AND process-forward site - Future Forward successfully designed our site to balance both.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Google Analytics
• New client leads

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Future Forward was extremely accommodating, organized, patient, and responsive. They always explained everything in great detail and were very fast to reply.

What was your primary form of communication with The Future Forward Inc.?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We interviewed a handful of firms, but Future Forward stood out to us immensely. Designing a website -- arguably the "first impression" for our company -- is a sensitive process that we knew would be challenging at times. Our priority was to find a company that truly understood our firm's mission, values, attitudes, and ethos.

Future Forward was an exceptional fit. Working with them felt natural. They are well-versed with the architectural industry and how we want to appear to our target markets and potential clients. Working with Future Forward was easy. They understood our goals and genuinely blended well with our team. They were very authentic throughout the entire process, and that mattered the most to us!

Are there any areas for improvement or something The Future Forward Inc. could have done differently?

none!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director for Trapolin-Peer Architects Company, an architecture firm based in New Orleans, Louisiana. We specialize in adaptive reuse, new construction, and interiors for design projects along the Gulf Coast.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Future Forward Inc.?

We wanted to develop an image-driven website made with as much intention and excellence as the services we offer and the structures that we design. Our goal was to accurately represent our firm’s refreshed brand identity, culture, and project portfolio. We were also looking to establish ourselves further as leaders in architecture and design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Future Forward designed and developed our website. They used Adobe XD for the design and MODX to build the backend. We provided a lot of content, including photographs and brand standards that they worked with. Some of our requirements were for the site to be image-driven and easy to navigate, and the biggest feature was our project portfolio. Additionally, they provided SEO services. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with the founder and CEO, a project manager, and a creative director. 

How did you come to work with The Future Forward Inc.?

We found them through a referral from another local architecture firm. I reached out to The Future Forward, and they were quick to respond. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $62,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May 2021–March 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Our team was very satisfied with the design and the process that The Future Forward led to getting there. We had a very successful kickoff, and they guided us through the process seamlessly, keeping everything very simple and to the point. 

How did The Future Forward Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They delivered on time and within the budget. The team was very responsive and used email and video calls to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by The Future Forward’s design aesthetic. They had an outstanding ability to narrow down all of our ideas and deliver a very succinct and thoughtful design that accurately represented our brand. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they were wonderful. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We made sure that we had most of our ducks in a row before reaching out to them, and I’d recommend doing the same. Even when we were uploading content, we tried to ensure we had all of our details lined up for an easy handoff, which made the implementation of the site seamless.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director of Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture, an architecture firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Future Forward Inc.?

Our website was over 20 years old and very outdated. We were more of a wider spread architecture firm in terms of our services back when the site was built, and we’ve since honed in on the recreation market over the past 20 years. We wanted our website to reflect our new client base and focus of work, so we decided to look for a company that could help us do that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Future Forward Inc. rebuilt our entire site from scratch using MODX. They began the project with a kickoff workshop, followed by site map development, web design, and web development. We’ve already launched the site, but The Future Forward Inc. still provides us with hosting services and technical support.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with Nick (Founder & Managing Director), Meg (Project Manager), Jonathan (Partner & Creative Director), and Sandino (Web Developer).

How did you come to work with The Future Forward Inc.?

We found The Future Forward Inc. online when we were searching online for development firms with prior experience working with architecture firms. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $70,000 on the website design, and we pay them $1,000 per year for the hosting and support.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Since the site launched, our site’s bounce rate has gone down from 90% to 8%, which we’re really happy with. Our time on site has also gone up almost a full minute, and we’ve seen a 7% increase in our sessions per user.

In terms of the quality of their work, I think they’ve done a great job. We wanted the site to be the perfect balance between colorful and sophisticated. We wanted it to be out of the box, but not wacky and unapproachable. The Future Forward Inc. managed to find the perfect balance in terms of the site’s design and look and feel.

How did The Future Forward Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

The Future Forward Inc. has performed well in terms of project management. They’re always very responsive to all of our emails. Because of our schedule, we set up all of our workshop dates at the kickoff, and we managed to adhere to all of those schedules throughout the project. We didn’t need to reschedule any, which was great.

We primarily communicate through email and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I admit that we weren’t the easiest client to deal with. We were very particular about what we wanted for the site, and we went through a whole lot of iterations to get to where we wanted. 

The Future Forward Inc. has been very patient with us throughout — they listened to us, showed us a lot of different concepts, and went above and beyond to give us what we wanted. It was evident that they really wanted us to be happy. They definitely understood our culture in terms of who we are and what we were trying to represent, and it showed in the final product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Once we finished the project’s design phase and moved on to the development phase, the communication got a little bit weaker. There were also a few things towards the end of the project, especially with regard to the site’s launch, that I wish they communicated more clearly with us.

I also think that we really could have benefited from meeting in person, even just once. We originally planned our first kickoff meeting to be in person, but because of the spike in COVID around that time, we ended up not doing it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t hold back — be honest and speak your mind about what you want and what your goals are.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a director of a Connecticut-based investment management firm with over $8b in assets under management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Future Forward Inc.?

We had an old and basic website that we needed help updating. We wanted a professional-looking platform that communicated that we are a trustworthy, modern firm.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Future Forward helped us design our website, including helping us select what pages and content to have as well as developing the website’s graphic and aesthetic style. They elicited feedback from us and generated different designs options for us to pick and iterate from. We already had some branding, such as a logo, for our firm which The Future Forward used and presented in a way that reflected our company and values. The site’s look and feel went through several iterations during the process.

They helped us crystalize our ideas into the site’s final format and design. After the design was finalized, The Future Forward proceeded to develop the website from scratch.

We launched our website in October 2019, and since then Future Forward has been hosting our site. They’ve also created a CMS so we can update the site autonomously.

What is the team composition?

We worked with The Future Forward’s managing partners, their head of design and branding, their senior technical lead, a client services person, and a developer.

How did you come to work with The Future Forward Inc.?

We ran a RFP and shortlisted companies. We invited each company into our office to present what they could do for us, checked examples of their past work and asked for cost and time estimates.
 From the shortlisted companies, The Future Forward’s bid stood out.

The work they had done previously was very impressive, and we also saw the time and care they would give to us. Just looking at their body of work told us they were operating on a premium level of design that we didn’t see in other bids. 

In addition, the number of design iterations and in-person meetings that they were planning to have with us were superior to what their competitors were offering.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $110,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2019, the website was launched in October 2019 and website hosting is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

It’s tricky to provide statistics regarding The Future Forward’s work because we didn’t have any analytics running on our previous website. Additionally, our project’s goal wasn’t based on numbers, but rather it aimed for a qualitative result — we wanted to communicate our brand to our clients and potential clients with a high-quality website. 

We have a significant presence in our industry and having a professional-looking website was important to us. Since launch, we have received a lot of very positive feedback on our website. After industry speaking events and engagements, for example, we always see an uptick in web traffic and clicks. 
 In addition, the CMS The Future Forward developed has added allows us to update the website without their help.

The website is very reliable, and we’ve had no issues with it since it went live. Our cybersecurity partners have also told us that it’s a very secure and robust website. Overall, the website The Future Forward has developed for us is precisely what we wanted and needed as a firm.

How did The Future Forward Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

The Future Forward is excellent in project management. They stuck to their scope and timeline; the project was on time and budget. There was great communication throughout the process. 

During the design iteration, we had a lot of back and forth about the landing page and website flow and layout. The Future Forward was very game to discuss any changes that we wanted and communicated clearly how long any changes would take to implement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Future Forward has provided us with white-glove and premium service — that’s reflected in how they executed the website's design and development and how they communicated with us throughout the project. They’ve remained available after the website has been launched and helped us with our CMS-related questions.

Additionally, The Future Forward’s attention to detail is impressive. Our logo appears in three dimensions on page transitions and we have a home page with impressive moving graphics — little things like that adds to the premium quality of the site. Our website exudes our brand and what we wanted for our company.

The site also looks beautiful on mobile devices. We didn’t have to ask The Future Forward to make it mobile-friendly; they just made the site responsive, functional, and amazing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We can’t think of anything. There haven’t been any missteps in this engagement, and it has been a collaborative project from the outset.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You need to know your goals and try putting them all on a piece of paper from the outset. Be very clear on what you want to achieve and what’s important to you as a business. Once you’ve done that, you can trust The Future Forward’s process and you should follow their advice. 

You can rely on The Future Forward’s keen eye for design in all aspects. Be open to communicating with them because they will be very open to your ideas and to speaking with you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Cosine. We’re a complementary lighting design agency. We design architectural lighting layouts and procure the products for the projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Future Forward Inc.?

We already had a strong brand identity, so they helped us build out a website using that. Then, they also pushed our brand forward by taking the preliminary design handbook and changing things to elevate our overall aesthetic.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Future Forward has built the WordPress website, including the layout and function. They’ve also created a couple of brand components that we’ve ended up using on all of our identity and collateral.

Initially, they did a lot of preliminary research on the content that we ultimately selected. We provided them with raw images, and they edited them to post them on the website.

The site is a basic portfolio site, but one key piece is lead capture. They’ve developed a typed form that captures leads as people navigate the site, so we’re pushing them to convert and submit a project.

Also, one of our concerns was contacting them to publish content or teaching our marketing team how to post on WordPress, which were both undesirable options. Instead, they connected our database with the website. The images are tied to Airtable, so the site fetches the content every five minutes and publishes it.

What is the team composition?

The owner is involved, and we have a project manager and a design person. I’m not sure how many people are behind the scenes; we’ve never met them.

The project manager is our main point of contact. They collect information, set appointments, and more.

How did you come to work with The Future Forward Inc.?

They reached out, and we took a look at their portfolio. We noticed a couple of mutual connections with some brands, so we called our contacts. Everyone gave great reviews about them, so we decided to go forward.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve done some work outside the initial scope, so we’ve brought it above $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in February 2021, and our partnership is ongoing. They don’t do maintenance, but we can reach out to them if we need them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

It’s been amazing to work with them. Creative companies often lean on their clients to direct the project, which hasn’t been the case with The Future Forward.

Also, the design they came up with is very impressive. The background with moving gradients on the homepage is something that we hadn’t come up with in our original design package, and it’s so compelling that we’re now using it for all our branding.

How did The Future Forward Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a clear process from the beginning, and they’ve adhered to the schedule to keep the project moving forward. The team has been diligent in taking our feedback and processing exactly what we said. If they miss something, they solve it quickly. Overall, they’re excellent to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re tremendously organized. When they ask questions, it’s clear they’ve asked them a hundred times to different clients over the years. They know the answer they want and how to drive us to that answer. If we push outside the requirements, they’re able to figure out how to incorporate something new.

Additionally, their ability to grasp what we try to accomplish with our branding is extraordinary. It’s been a great experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It took them some time to deliver the final product, which we would’ve liked to execute quicker. I think the delay was due to an outsourcing issue — they were going through iterations with a third-party developer, so it took longer than expected. However, this is our first project of this magnitude, so we’re not sure how long this usually takes.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just do it. If the way they’ve worked with us is any indication of how they work with others, then it’s an easy sign-up. We can’t speak highly enough about The Future Forward.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m presently the director of client development with VMDO Architects and formerly the director of marketing and business development for Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, recipient of the American Insititute of Architects’ “Firm of the Year” award in 2014.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Future Forward?

We had challenges with visibility and length of stay. The former website had been designed by a local advertising agency, and while it had unique graphic design, it lacked the best protocols for navigation, backend analytics, and SEO. We also had to call the agency each time we wanted to incorporate video and widgets. It needed coding updates, too. Lastly, we wanted to position the brand to reflect the firm’s growth, expertise, culture, and process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We selected The Future Forward through a thorough RFP and interview process. The Future Forward launched their engagement by a 5-question survey followed by two separate trips to New Orleans to work with our broad studio in an effective and efficient way. 

In tandem with the web design overhaul, The Future Forward was developing a new brand identity and accompanying design guidelines. Once the design guidelines were complete and there was consensus on the website navigation, the site was wireframed and populated. Our internal team continued populating the site, with regular feedback to the Future Forward team.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Nick (Managing Partner, The Future Forward, Inc.) and Jonathan (Creative Partner, The Future Forward, Inc.). There were additional talented folks involved behind the scenes as well. Nick was our regular and consistent point of contact, and Jonathan would weigh in as needed, for art direction.

How did you come to work with The Future Forward?

EDR had a comprehensive crowd-sourced list of nearly 20 web designers. We issued an RFP to five of those firms in mid-January 2018 and had Skype interviews with them in late-January, finally selecting Future Forward.

How much have you invested with them?

I left the firm in early November. At that time, we were commissioned for nearly $70,000. They pulled off a remarkable breadth and depth of services including new branding and accompanying design guidelines and website design. Other firms had quoted over $100,000 for similar services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Contractually we collaborated from March 2018 - February 2019. I understand that EDR is continuing the collaboration with additional website hosting and support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our bounce rate has decreased significantly since the launch and the length of stay has increased by over one minute. The site has improved aesthetically and now marries with the expertise and design acumen of Eskew+Dumez+Ripple. I’ve recommended Future Forward to other architectural firms and PR/marketing professionals within the industry.

How did The Future Forward perform from a project management standpoint?

Nick would respond within 48 hours of any inquiry. We mostly communicated over phone calls and email. We would also have Skype calls and walk through wireframes at regular intervals. It was remarkably streamlined—even with the FF team in Brooklyn and our stakeholders in New Orleans.

Remarkably, The Future Forward met our modest budget and really achieved the consensus that we needed, from a design perspective.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They certainly provided the backend technologies and SEO support. They were brilliant at meeting my budget and building design consensus with my team of design professionals. Most importantly, they really understood us and nailed our identity, really getting it finely nuanced through every touch.

We were very clear that we did not want a template site. We wanted a unique visitor experience. One that would attract a visitor through design and keep them on the site for the layers of expertise. Future Forward was able to deliver a unique, specialized website that reflected our brand.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish there were more Jonathans and Nicks. They both are responsive, hands-on, and they envelop the clients with whom they’re collaborating. I applaud them for being so selective of the clients they take on—I’m really fortunate that we were able to work with them.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

First, hire them.

Second, do your homework before hiring a web designer. In order to maximize our modest budget, we had internally identified:

• Clear and tangible goals for the website
• An internal delivery team and process, setting aside dates for weekly meetings, studio-wide charettes, and key milestone dates
• Precedent websites for our criteria (aesthetics, navigation, culture, blogs, and case studies)
• A timeline with ample time on the backend for population

This was clearly outlined in an objective RFP, through which we make a selection.

Finally, map out a timeframe, Know the budget and decide if you want a third-party web company to populate the site, or if that will come from internal staff, and budget accordingly.