Never stop being of service
Last weekend I was watching HBO’s, The Defiant Ones. If you haven’t seen it, you owe it to yourself to give it a look.
It’s chalk full of history, insight, and memoirs from legendary musicians and artists — most notably, mogul and producer Jimmy Iovine.
In the documentary, Jimmy brings us in to his world as a young man on the come up in the music industry. The stories he shares are incredible. Anecdotes about John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, and Eminem solidify this man as a cultural icon.
But after listening to all of his stories — both the successes and the failures — there was one line in the interview that stuck out above all others.
When describing his “big break” in the early days, Jimmy made an invaluable observation and point. He said, “Never stop being of service to others”. This hit home in a major way.
An uphill battle
In the web design industry, we’re constantly threatened with obscurity. It seems like every week there’s a new product sure to make our jobs obsolete.
In fact, our buddy Mike Rundle, tweeted about this very topic just a few days ago (which is what prompted us to gather our thoughts for this article in the first place).
We get it. We totally get it. It’s hard not to get a little shaky when you see some of the technology available on the cheap these days. The options available to consumers now are light years beyond what they were when we started 45royale. In 2006, services like Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly we’re but distant, futuristic theories.
All of this incredible automation inevitably leads to a question we get asked all the time: “Why do I need to hire a web design agency?”. It’s a fair inquiry. Let’s break this down a bit, shall we?
One size does not fit all
Templates are fine if you have a Tumblr or a one page marketing site. By all means, take advantage of these cheap monthly services — that’s what they’re there for.
But let’s be honest. Templates are just that… templates. A one size fits all, ordinary, commonplace, themed “solution”. And anyone who’s used one knows that after spending hours twisting and manipulating said template in to a less than pefect mess, aggrevation sets in and almost immediately you’re on the hunt for another template that’s (hopefully) better suited to your needs.
This is why any web design agency worth its salt knows they’re not competing with a $15/mo. templating service. Or an AI web site builder that scored 60% in Wise Buyer’s customer satisfaction testing, for that matter.
We know the value we bring to the table. The blood, sweat, tears, and experience earned over more than a decade in the web design industry. And that value is leaps and bounds beyond anything you’d receive from a “customizable” template or entrusting AI to build your site for you.
Results > Solutions
At the end of the day, the technology is the same, regardless of whether you’re a web design agency or Wix. The fundamental principles of design are the same, regardless of whether you’re a web design agency or Squarespace.
What differentiates the two ideologies is a complex expression of humanity, empathy, and experience. We’re here for people. We’re here to foster relationships. We’re here to facilitate and breed passion. We’re here because we want to be a teammate. But most importantly, we’re here because we never want to stop being of service to others.
— Written by @mattdowney
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