case studies

The Designer and The Client

California-based design firm Paper Skillet (www.paperskillet.com) establishes brand identities for boutique businesses. Specializing in developing the 'voice' of a company and then visualizing it, Paper Skillet works in all media, including websites, business cards, logos, print ads, and brochures.

High-end event planning company Donna Romani Events commissioned Paper Skillet to design a simple, elegant site that included many small, yet distinctive elements to represent their style and promote their services.

The Right Choice

Paper Skillet prefers to focus on what they do best—branding—so after designing the look for Donna Romani Events' website, they sought an outside developer to build it. Paper Skillet had worked successfully with Edit.com on a previous site build, and knew Edit.com could get it done cost effectively, within the client's budget and time frame. Paper Skillet found that Edit.com's fixed pricing gives them an advantage when bidding jobs, as they know the cost of the build component while budgeting the project, and can provide their clients with exact price breakdowns. Paper Skillet chooses not to add to Edit.com's pricing—they prefer to pass the savings along to their clients, making their proposals more competitive and compelling in the marketplace.

Paper Skillet had other developers who could do the build, but remembered Edit.com didn't require much project management, and selected Edit.com for the job. After handing off the work to Edit.com, Paper Skillet was free to concentrate on other jobs and business development activities that were needed to keep their own sales pipeline full.

The Results

Edit.com translated the design files in to a fully functional, standards compliant site using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Donna Romani Events wanted the ability to edit their site once it was complete, so Edit.com included the DIY Editing tool in the site build, as an easy way to update text and images on a site while protecting its structure and design. While reviewing the design files, an Edit.com Project ManagerProject Manager noticed a BLOG button in the navigation bar. He inquired about a plan for the blog, and Paper Skillet said there was none, so the Project Manager recommended the setup and customization of a WordPress Blog—a great option for people who want a blog integrated into their website rather than setting up a separate site for it. The client agreed this was a good solution and approved the addition to the proposal.

A Highly Satisfied End Client

Paper Skillet was impressed with the product, delivered on time and on budget, as promised. The site was built according to Paper Skillet's design files, included DIY Editing and a blog, and Donna Romani Events was "very, very happy." Furthermore, as Paper Skillet does not add to Edit.com's pricing the event planner got terrific value.

A Highly Satisfied Design Firm

For Paper Skillet, time was the greatest benefit from working with Edit.com. While Edit.com was building the site, Paper Skillet was freed up to work on five other projects, including a substantial branding and identity campaign for another client—the work Paper Skillet enjoys the most (and is the most profitable for them). Contracting Edit.com to build Donna Romani Events' website saved Paper Skillet time, and ultimately earned them more money.c

The Designer's Challenge

Moonlite Creative (www.moonlitecreative.com) is a marketing firm with over thirty years of combined graphic design, copy writing, marketing, and printing industry experience. Their focus is on design, however they do provide basic website coding for their clients, as well.

Moonlite Creative was hired by a mosaic artist to design and develop her first website, Cocoplum Mosaics. The client wanted a gallery page to show photos of her work, and though she is non-technical, she wanted the ability to update it herself in the future. Moonlite used their experience to round-out Cocoplum's ideas when designing the site. They knew they could achieve the look and basic function Cocoplum wanted in-house via HTML, but the pagination, random display of images and the ability to update the gallery required a customized back-end database.

The Collaboration

An Edit.com Project Manager reviewed Moonlite's request, and provided a proposal with a fixed price quote and time line. Before work on the project began, the client added a request to categorize her mosaics. Though the scope of the job changed, Edit.com was able to incorporate the revisions into the proposal without going over budget.

Edit.com created a customized WebConsole, a database system with an easy to use back-end interface, to meet Moonlite's front-end design and functionality specifications. The WebGallery included over a dozen mosaic categories with an option to view all images regardless of category; a feature to display the mosaics in random order; fields to store title, size and price information for each mosaic; and a feature to display larger versions of the images. Edit.com completed the work on-time and priced as originally quoted.

The Results

Moonlite's client, Cocoplum Mosaics, is thrilled with both the design and the functionality of the gallery. She likes the independence of updating the gallery herself and is "really glad" it's so easy to use. She even brags about it to friends and colleagues.

Moonlite Creative is thrilled because they were able to deliver the site Cocoplum wanted, within their budget, and most importantly, without compromising their design. Moonlite now uses Cocoplum Mosaics as a case study of their own, as Edit.com's "behind-the-scenes" work enables Moonlite to expand their offerings and take on larger projects.