Today we updated our Studios website. For those who hadn't noticed, we changed the generic name from "services" work to Studios this past summer. With the evolution of our business, it was a great opportunity to highlight our core competency and reinvigorate our team.
The video that greets visitors to our new ZURB Studios site.
Why the Name Update?
We're four years into the evolution of our business strategy. As we push to build out the remaining parts of this strategy, it's important to focus on what got us to this point. "Services" didn't quite capture that. Studios does. It better reflects how we think of our work. Why? Because we're collaborative and creative, working alongside clients at every step of our design process. We don't do big "Mad Men" reveals at the end of projects. Services doesn't imply that close, collaborative, creative relationship. But Studios does. It's where good stuff happens.
At ZURB, we enjoy tinkering with technology, exploring paths that could lead to the next big thing, like our upcoming responsive email framework. A studio is where you toil over your passions like we do. It's where great things can happen. Where a chance conversation can ignite sparks. And a studio feels small, more intimate, which mirrors our project dynamics. Our consulting projects are typically teams of two people — a lead and a designer — and rarely have more than three.
But the biggest boon of the name change: it reflects our ability to get stuff done. A studio implies focus, and that is central to our growth. As we grow, we want the focus on this ability to remain a lynchpin of our business. And Studios, as a name, just felt right.
We got positive reactions whenever we talked about the Studios name internally. The name evokes a place as much as it does a concept, and that's important. That's because unlike some businesses that push for remote workers, we opt for a place where people want to visit and collaborate. A studio you can visit. Santa's studio, a recording studio, a movie studio — all are magical places where great things happen.
Finally, it allows us to clarify our consulting and differentiate it from our training and education, which is now called ZURB University. As we grow our Foundation business, it helps to differentiate design projects from the support and implementation help we give to customers.
A Site Update That Further Gives Identity to Our Consulting
With the site update, we wanted to make clear what we do as a Studios service. We wanted to highlight how our process works and outline what makes our projects strong. We gave new polish to our case studies, which we haven't been good at keeping up-to-date. Since product design can be a bit messy, our new case studies reveal more about the sparks our work creates.
We've also put a ZURB face to the work we do. Sprinkled throughout are quotes from our team, bringing out the human quality in our consulting. A video montage captures the mood and feeling of our Studios, so you can get a sample of the magic we create.
With the update and the new name, our consulting service has solidified into a place as much as a concept. A place where great things have happened and will happen for years to come.
Bryan Zmijewski
Leading the charge at ZURB since 1998
Our fearless leader has been driving progressive design at ZURB since 1998. That makes him quite the instigator around the offices, consistently challenging both the team and our customers to strive to always do better and better.
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Follow him at @bryanzmijewski