Design Spinners

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an owner of a studio and I design/manufacture fashion scarves and clothing.

For what projects/services did your company hire Design Spinners, and what were your goals?

To design a new website to generate online traffic.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We searched for web designers and after talking to Vani chose Design Spinners for our project. She was very articukate and clear in her vison and concepts.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Our website was designed on a Shopify platform. Vani was a great help in choosing the appropriate formats and style. She is adept in identifying our needs and how to address them. This was website design from scratch.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A project manager was with us throughout the process-gently channeling and moving us along as well! A couple of designers were in the background and Vani herself was always informed and participated often.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We have just launcehd and it is too eraly for any measueables. However it appears to be well received.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

They used Basecamp as a comm tool and we worked from that easily. there were almost daily and weekly reviews when needed.

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

Vani and the team at Design Spinners were always ready to make changes to better fit our vision. Their suggestion showed an understanding of our product line and its dynamics.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

They did a great job.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a writer for Getting Teens Saved. We write plays and books aimed at discouraging teenagers from using drugs and alcohol, by showing the ramifications and pitfalls associated with those.

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Spinners?

I brought them on for their graphic and print design services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

In our first project, they made a flyer poster that’d be used to market a stage play. It was completed during the pandemic, so we had to put the stage play on hold.

For the second project, I wrote a book while we were waiting for the world to get back to normal and went to Design Spinners for the cover design. The objective was to get a quality, attractive design that was related to the book. I gave Design Spinners specific guidelines for the book cover, and they did their own research. They gave me a few options two days later, and I chose the one that best suited my needs.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two people from Design Spinners.

How did you come to work with Design Spinners?

It was my first time doing a project like this and didn’t know what I’d be getting. I took a chance and contacted Design Spinners. The person who was the face of the company won me over through her professionalism and the fact that she seemed to care about my needs. I believe I have a very good sense for this.

How much have you invested with them?

The total for the two projects was $1,300.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Design Spinners in February 2020, and the first project was done in 7–10 days. The second project was wrapped up in February 2021 and was completed in about five business days.

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

The flyer poster came out really sensational, and the book cover surpassed my expectations. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, I haven’t been able to use the work. Otherwise, I would’ve been able to see if my investment paid dividends. 

How did Design Spinners perform from a project management standpoint?

They were well-represented in terms of communication. If I emailed the contact person by the end of the day, I’d get a response first thing in the morning. If I emailed them in the morning, I’d get a response by noon. They were typically responding within a four-hour window.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with the quality of the work and care they put into getting my needs met. At the end of the day, I know that everybody wants my money but what’s equally important is to work with people who care about getting the job done accurately.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

We’re a team. The client has to do their part and Design Spinners will do their part. They can’t be in the client’s head, so we need to make sure that what we want is well thought out. You need to be able to convey that to them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a drive-in and movie theatre.

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Spinners?

I purchased a drive-in theatre back in 2014, and I was clueless about running a movie theater or food and concessions. My partner and I purchased the business and tore the building down, but we needed someone to help us with starting the business from scratch.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’ve worked with Design Spinners from the start, and they still manage everything for us related to branding or updating our website.

First, they worked on our logo. Vani (Founder) asked me questions about what I was looking for and then came back with five different concepts to choose from. They hit it right on the head; we actually had a hard time choosing one. They made the logo in two different formats and color variations for Instagram and things like that.

After that, Vani took care of our WordPress website. She handled the purchasing, setup, and what she thought would work best for us. Vani has a great team that does everything for me. They even handle ordering our employee T-shirts, the t-shirts that we sell, and the passes that we give out. She gets all of the graphics ready, places the orders for me, and has the order shipped to me.

Our plan down the road is to allow people to purchase tickets ahead of time from our website. Everyone is doing it in the business, but it’s logistically challenging. Vani will eventually help me with online tickets. However, right now, they update our Facebook page, which lists which movies we're showing. Our Facebook page is integrated into our website.

We have Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. Vani creates the graphics for Instagram, and then I post them. However, she’d post if I asked her to. Vani designs everything for us, including our menu for our special events, Easter Egg hunts, and Christmas themed events. She creates anything related to our branding and marketing. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Devyani (Creative Apprentice) a lot this summer. There’s also Anna (Project Manager) and other people from their team, but I mainly work with Vani. She’s the one I reach out to if I need something specific, and then she sends that task along to the appropriate person.

How did you come to work with Design Spinners?

I was initially looking for someone to do our logo, and I found their website through a Google search. I filled out a questionnaire, and Vani got back to me quickly. We had a call, and we clicked.

How much have you invested with them?

The WordPress website development cost $1,800, and the logo was $1,000. We pay $99 per month for hosting and maintenance.  

Each year, I spend $1,200 on the hosting, and I give her $1,000–$2,000 more for extra fliers we need, such as for menu updates or special events. Overall, we’ve invested less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started talking with Vani in early March 2015, and that’s when she sent me the first invoice for our logo.

The engagement is ongoing. They host our website; we have the ‘Gold Tier’ gold monthly hosting and maintenance package.

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

Design Spinners goes above and beyond. I would be lost without Design Spinners. We love our website and the logo — they fit our theme and brand. 

We have a lot of traffic on our website, although it’s seasonal. A lot of our business feeds off of Facebook, where I sometimes do promotions to get people to visit our site.

Google sends me reports on how many people visit our website, but I don’t have exact numbers since I’m not selling anything on the website. I just base our success on how many people come to the movies. I think it will be great if we can do online ticket sales, again, I’m still figuring out those logistics on my end.

How did Design Spinners perform from a project management standpoint?

Design Spinners is amazing. On a scale of 1–10, I would give them a 10. We initially communicated via phone, but now, it’s mostly through email. 

We show double feature movies, and the schedule occasionally changes quickly. Although we’re two hours behind them, they execute fast turnarounds. If I send them a message on Monday morning at 6:00 a.m. their time, they have it ready by noon for me to post on Facebook. Their turnaround is amazing.

When I reached out to them in late February or early March 2015, they worked so quickly. She turned the logo around and was able to do the website by April.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Vani and her team do an amazing job. After she interviewed me regarding our business goals and vision, she took that information and came up with a logo immediately. Everything just flows. She listened to me and just knew what I wanted.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They meet the needs of our business in every aspect. Anything that needs to be done differently is on my end logistically; Vani makes whatever I give her happen. I’m clueless when it comes to the website, but Vani knows how to handle everything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Design Spinners is an amazing company. Vani takes care of everything, and she does a great job. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of Bottom Line Consulting (BLC) which is a management advisory services and technology consulting firm. We have delivered results in several industries for the past 20 years.

We support public and private clients in major matters and significant transactions ranging from corporate streamlining and cost optimization to technology implementations, internal audit and staff augmentation.

Our reach extends across the North American continent and along with our channel partners to the United Kingdom, Europe and India. We believe our success results from our integrity, extraordinary service delivery and favorable billing rates.

For what projects/services did your company hire Design Spinners?

We wanted to rebrand our company. We sought out Design Spinners for their quality work and professionalism. We engaged them to develop a new corporate logo, marketing brochure, letterhead and business cards, and custom website.

What were your goals for this project?

To create a look and feel of a professional services corporate business. To create an image of modern conservatism.

How did you select Design Spinners?

We developed a Request for Proposal outlining our requirements and sent it to six marketing/website companies. A team of six people scored each response. Design Spinners was selected due to their quality work with previous clients, responsiveness and references.

Describe the project in detail.

The process of providing our requirements for a new corporate logo, marketing brochure, letterhead and business cards, and custom website was completed by our completing a questionnaire and having follow up conversations with the design team at Design Spinners. Design Spinners utilizes an online portal tool named Basecamp. We used that tool to collaborate and exchange communications.

What was the team composition?

Design Spinners provided several expert resources, from very technical people during the website creation, and design experts who provided creativity and ideas. The owner of Design Spinners, Vani, was a key resource actively engaged throughout the process. Her skills undoubtedly provided extra quality assurance and customer satisfaction.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project was a success because Design Spinners worked quickly to provide mockup designs and completed materials. They were customer service focused.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The collaboration tool used by Design Spinners, known as Basecamp, provided a very efficient and easy method of communication and workflow.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

1. Their creative ability to translate our requirements into interesting and appealing concepts and designs is amazing.
2. Their outstanding customer service.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None at all. After the initial project was completed, we continue to use them ongoing for all of our online marketing and printed collateral. They have earned our repeat business.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the communications director at a Jewish synagogue.

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Spinners?

When I came on board about five years ago, we had a WordPress website, but it was quite outdated, both in terms of functionality and looks. I was looking for a firm that could help us create a new website.

Synagogues typically go to businesses that are specifically aimed at serving religious institutions, but I didn’t like the look of those websites and the services were really expensive for what we were getting.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Design Spinners rebuilt a website for us, and they did the design work. They created banners, worked on other visual elements, and redesigned our homepage. They also did some minor programming. 

We were using WordPress and Design Spinners transitioned us to the Avada theme, which they selected and installed. The team also gave us some ideas about the site architecture and helped us figure out how to integrate evergreen content with our events and services using an events carousel with the Avada theme.

What is the team composition?

Vani (CEO) has been my main point of contact. Over the years, I’ve worked with a couple of different team members

How did you come to work with Design Spinners?

We found them on Craigslist.

How much have you invested with them?

The first project, which involved moving to the Avada platform and cleaning up pages, was about $1,800.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in July 2016. The overhaul was completed in about September 2016, and we’ve done other projects with them since then.

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

The new template looks nice and its functionality is much better. We’ve been able to raise half the amount of our capital campaign, and we’ve been getting great feedback about the landing page. 

How did Design Spinners perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate mostly via Basecamp where we upload our requests and files, as well as email. Design Spinners has always been really prompt in getting back to us, doing so usually within 24 hours. If we need something very quickly, they will deliver. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The depth of their WordPress knowledge is impressive. It takes me forever to figure out certain things in WordPress, but Design Spinners figures things out very quickly. They also have a pretty good design eye. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Most of the time, I like what they do in terms of design. However, other times, it feels like I have to do work on my end to clean up their designs, which is frustrating. Overall, most of the time, I’m beyond thrilled with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re very responsive and they always want to do good work. On occasion, you may have to do some handholding. I recommend customers to have a vision for what they want. Design Spinners isn’t huge on vision, so knowing what you want will get you results.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director for a boutique-sized agency. We routinely work with a number of outside vendors depending on the scope and needs of a particular project.

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Spinners?

We’ve worked with them across a number of projects. For our inaugural project, we were looking for a creative partner that we could collaborate with, and at the same time entrust to take our vision and bring it to life, which sometimes is hard to find. Design Spinners did it since the first time we've worked with them and continue doing that on a variety of different types of projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Typically, they work on some form of graphic design and web development, but not every project has both of those. We bounce back and forth between those two services, and the deliverables have ranged from print-ready files, original illustrations, infographic-style creations, and fully delivered websites. 

They’ve already done a few websites for us and they built those from scratch. Primarily, the websites were done on WordPress. We have a number of clients who have antiquated presences online. We engage with them to help those different brands and companies bring themselves up to a contemporary style and aesthetic, while maintaining the functionality of their key plugins — in some cases for donations, and maintaining that security in a changing digital world.

Their website development process begins with concept design to make sure that we could work with our third-party clients, and have the right vision, look, and feel for them. The next phase involves coding the website. The team handles both front- and backend development. 

We also have design projects that have a traditional design deliverable. Some of them were for internal promotions. Our most recent client work was a communications-based piece where a large regional health organization was in need of designed and illustrated pieces that could communicate from a community health perspective. Additionally, the deliverables had important health information that the organization is focused on.

As a result, Design Spinners created a range of design solutions that worked for administrators, doctors, and technical stakeholders of our third-party client's side. They were able to make something relatable even for an average everyday consumer of the information. They had to thread that needle between those groups and they were successful with that. I think these specifically were delivered digitally with some being printed into a flyer and others put on a website. 

What is the team composition?

We started our conversation with Vani (Founder). She was fantastic at really understanding what we need and what our clients need, and translating that into a creative execution. She was also good at distributing that work to her team and choosing the right members of her team to get the output that we need for that given job. 

There was also a designer that worked on a lot of our early projects. Lately, I think she has a few different web development people to work on the web projects. They also had writers we frequently collaborated with. 

How did you come to work with Design Spinners?

We found them through a good, old-fashioned Google search. They had a really straightforward approach and they fit the model of a small to medium-sized partner that we like to outsource with, which allows us to not have some red tape and delays that we might have with a larger organization.

How much have you invested with them?

I’d say we’ve spent about $5,000–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s probably going on 2–3 years, but our most recent project was from July–September 2019.

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

We don’t have specific metrics given the nature of what the goal was. However, as I mentioned, the different stakeholders from the client-side of things and the consumer have given positive feedback. 

On the client-side, being a large regional health provider, there were many different groups and stakeholders we had to satisfy — getting approval from all those various working groups was tricky. Despite that, we were able to navigate relatively well. We heard nothing but positive reviews from everybody even when the project was concluded and during the project. 

The client was effusive about the clarity of communication and the ease of how they were able to take the external stakeholder's disjointed inputs sometimes and really translate that with ease. Design Spinners is in our upper echelon of most trusted vendors.

How did Design Spinners perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily worked with them through Basecamp, where they managed their projects. They were on top of that and the team kept us informed and on pace with them. 

On a given project, we had regular check-ins, but typically we did that digitally through the project manager, and if it was needed on a recurring basis, they set it up. However, in most of our projects, we set a timeline and our periodic digital check-ins were sufficient. 

They were very responsive and it feels like we have an in-house partner whenever we work with Design Spinners. They really fit what we were looking for in terms of that. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were intuitive and versatile — something that was valuable to us. They could pick up a concept and really run with it, and they could do that across a wide variety of different design disciplines or marketing ideas. That takes a lot of pressure off of us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t really have any suggestions for improvements. However, I think there might be aspects where they could grow their size, but that could also come at the cost of some of the things that made them valuable to us, and from the responsiveness we received — that could be a two-edged sword for us. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Engage in open communication and involve them as fully in the project and the development of it as possible. I think they prove to be a fruitful partner and collaborator when you do that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing lead of a law firm. We have a couple of different brands: Envision Family Law and Vindicate Criminal Law.

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Spinners?

We hired Design Spinners to redesign the websites for our separate criminal law and family law brands.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had preexisting WordPress websites, so we were just looking for a redesign. Design Spinners helped us with that refresh. My team gave them instructions on how many web pages we wanted, what we wanted the design to look like, and what different content we wanted on the site. I was a little more involved with the family law website because they’d actually finished the criminal law website before I came on board in May 2020. I worked with them a lot on getting the look of the family law website’s homepage to stand out and be unique.

We requested a homepage, a page profiling our different attorneys, a blog posts page, a resources page with various download links for clients, and a reviews page, as we had a ton of reviews to add. We focused a lot on the homepage because it was important to our partners to make it look different from other law firm websites, and Design Spinners was able to achieve that. 

At this point, both of the websites have been launched, so the design part is over. We continue to use them for the ongoing maintenance of both websites. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with 2–3 people, but I’ve mostly worked with Vani (Owner).

How did you come to work with Design Spinners?

I can’t say because I wasn’t here when my company chose Design Spinners. We’d had someone else initially build the site. We were looking for a new, refreshing design, which Design Spinners was able to deliver.

How much have you invested with them?

Since we’ve been working with Design Spinners for so long, I think we’ve spent about $100,000 in total. The initial design was probably less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Design Spinners began working on our criminal law website in January 2019, and then we hired them to do the family law website in October 2019. The relationship is still ongoing.

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

I’m not really familiar with any measurable metrics, and I personally haven’t heard of any outside feedback regarding the website. I do know that the partners and attorneys are really pleased with the website and how it came out.

When we were trying to figure out the design for our homepage, one of the partners was really passionate about finding the right one for it. He and I worked together to come up with some sample ideas to send to Vani, and she kept giving us feedback about what she thought would or wouldn’t work. She was really honest about ideas that she thought were maybe not as effective or a little outdated. She really helped focus us and steer us in the right direction to get the look that we wanted that we did not originally consider. She knew what she was doing.

How did Design Spinners perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Basecamp to communicate with them, and it has been really effective. We get a really fast response from them, and it’s an easy way to communicate, post images or documents, or have them upload or change anything. 

Vani’s really on top of things. Either she or one of her team members will get back to us right away whenever we have a question about anything.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness — Design Spinners won’t leave you waiting to find out the answer to your question. If they’re able to do something, they’ll let you know right away, and that’s really nice when we’re trying to get things done in a timely manner. Even if they can’t get the project done immediately, they get back to you to let you know when they’ll be able to do it, which has been really nice.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t really think of anything. So far, it has been a good experience working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Design Spinners is really good at responding as long as you are responsive and willing to help them out. They also want to get a timely response, so it’s nice to be able to reciprocate that and get them the information that they need when they’re waiting on us.

Please describe your organization.

Our company is a merchant service provider which has been active in the industry for over 20 years. Our corporate office is in Southern California. We have a few internal employees, but we mostly work with independent contractors in the field.

What is your position?

I am the Chief Executive Officer of the company.

What business challenge were you trying to address with DesignSpinners?

We needed logo, graphic, and web design resources.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

DesignSpinners is our go-to company for any HTML templates, mailers, business cards, and so on. DesignSpinners is a one-stop-shop in terms of creative and coding skills. If there's something that we need done, DesignSpinners will do it.

How did you come to work with DesignSpinners?

I've had a relationship with their principal for 15 years. At one time, I was working in the sales department of another company for which DesignSpinners was the go-to vendor. They're professional, friendly, and offer great results. DesignSpinners under-promises and over-delivers.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Costs can vary drastically. Initially, we would spend $2,000 or more within a year, but we've come to spend the same amount monthly more recently.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together for 15 years.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I've worked with many collaborators. Whenever I need to put together a good presentation, DesignSpinners is the team I go to. I have created a few partnership websites using DesignSpinners in an effort to acquire leads. User feed-back for those sites has always been excellent.

How did DesignSpinners perform from a project management standpoint?

DesignSpinners has always been the company that could get the work done as fast as I needed it, with the best quality and end-results.

What distinguishes DesignSpinners from other providers?

Any client using DesignSpinners' services will be extremely happy with the results. There are few people that we could always count on, but DesignSpinners' team is among them.

Is there anything DesignSpinners could have improved or done differently?

No. We collaborate with multiple vendors and prefer to give our business to those that best meet our needs. DesignSpinners is within the top positions.

We are a Silicon Valley based startup with 30 employees. Our solution is data protection for next-generation applications and the databases they are deployed on. Our target market is for Line Of Business owners, Application Architects, and DevOps teams. Our company was founded in 2014 and we have been working with DesignSpinners to help us grow our customer base with compelling design and content. I am a Marketing Director at the company and oversee all corporate communications for the organization.

I've worked with some of the DesignSpinners team in the past. We started working with them about 4 years ago. Our product is very technical, so not only is it very complex to build, but it's equally difficult to present to the wider audience. The DesignSpinners team was able to quickly understand our product, the problems it solves for our customers, and portray it in a way that is very persuasive for the audience. The analyst briefings have validated the team's work as the industry conversations and pitches have been successful. The customer pitches have also gone well.

The DesignSpinners team is our go-to source for all things creative. They are top-notch brand strategists who not only help us truly understand our customer, but also help us find ways to get to our customers through content. Specifically, the DesignSpinners team helped us with our first website refresh, our second website refresh after our first-ever product announcement, our logo, our mascot, and all content for the company.

The DesignSpinners team is accommodating with our demanding and tight deadlines. They have also gone above and beyond our requests, often coming back with new concepts that we would have never imagined. What sets this team apart from others is their ability to both strategize and execute flawlessly. They've been very receptive to our edits as we've gone internally several times with a new direction. They have always responded to our requests, but are also very strategic in how they partner with us.

DesignSpinner is a top-notch design agency for creative strategy, brand direction, and beautiful web and print design.

Please describe your company.

We are a merchant services company. We set businesses up to process electronic transactions for Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and others. We're an electronic payment company, and we're 10 years old.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am one of the founders of the company.

What was your goal for working with Design Spinners?

They originally designed our website almost nine or 10 years ago. We recently re-engaged with them within the last year to revamp, redesign, and relaunch our website.

Please describe the scope of their work.

We were providing a lot of the content, but they were providing a lot of the images, graphics, formatting, flow, functionalities, and expertise in that area.

What was your process for selecting Design Spinners?

I used to work with Vani [Gundara], the owner, many years ago at another company, so I've known her for 15-plus years.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

It was less than $5,000 for this particular redo.

What were the results of the project?

The collaboration with them is still ongoing, and it's been great. They used WordPress to create it, so it's a little easier to make changes and edits, and it's scalable. So, it's been a good product.

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

All of our salespeople and agents and so forth liked the finished product. It's a little more state-of-the-art looking – new technology. I've known Vani for a while, but I've just met some of her team recently. They've got a good tool for the project management and monitoring changes, updates, and all that good stuff.

Is there anything unique or special about Design Spinners that really makes them stand out?

Their creative team is really good. Vani has always been very good on the creative side and the technology side. So, when you bring those both together, that seems to be a good solution.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

They really were great. I really don't have anything negative from their side. I was the one that held up the project a little bit because I was providing content. So, they were waiting on me some of the times. I was never waiting on them.

What advice would you give a future client of theirs?

Just get your content ready and be prepared because they will definitely go as fast as you need to go.