We began to consider the redesign years ago, when we were younger, before electricity was invented. A new coat of paint would be nice, we thought. Something more dynamic, more us. Mike suggested we keep it simple. Just one page is all we need, he said. Sure, Mike. Whatever you say. I opened Adobe XD and began to iterate. Weeks later a thought–Why not just one or two pages more? Then, how about some video? Our options seemed infinite! Months later there were 12 different color palette options, a slew of typography choices, and the latest XD file ended with “_v34.h.” Thus began a long hellish pattern of revision, decay, and something that can only be called redesigning redesign. We stopped updating the old site. Suddenly the last project uploaded was dated three years ago. Talk of the new website design became like a curse. Members of the team whispered about it in dark corners of the office. Even our life-sized cutout of Bob Ross seemed to mock us, his paintbrush always in hand. All this time we were putting out beautiful client work. We built dozens of websites and completed monumental app builds. But our site remained undone. Until now. Four years after starting, we launch a new Volum8 website today. Perhaps it is a good time to look back on why it took so long.
Perfectionism is a symptom of a deeper disease.
Most people in creative professions suffer from some form of perfectionism. Designers and developers both suffer from it, though in different ways. A designer is often provided a blank canvas and told, “Make something pretty, please.” And so we set off to make lots of pretty things without any idea what pretty really means. But we don’t know when to stop. We keep making and making and making until someone takes Adobe away. A developer will stray from the path the same way, if not given clear strategy and blueprint for what is to be built. He or she will grow frustrated by constantly rebuilding the same thing over and over again, never knowing when success has been gained. Perfectionism is caused by lack of confidence in oneself or structure. The antidote to perfectionism is process.
An incomplete discovery.
At Volum8 the foundation of our process is discovery. It is the Measuring Step, where we measure twice before making any cuts. But we had a process. It had been refined and proven through dozens of successful client projects. Why wasn’t it working for our own project? Had we missed something?
When we began our redesign we had already done quite a bit of self-discovery. As a team we had discussed our envision future, identified our archetype (the Magician), created a manifesto, and distilled our values into eight succinct statements. We were a close-knit team, but we were also a young company and changing quickly. When reviewing the projects on the old site, it is clear we have come a long ways these past four years. Our brand experience has deepened. We have built several huge apps and matured as partners to our clients. The pandemic made us reexamine how we work together, and challenged how we can remain connected. We have aged. Perhaps the site was waiting for us to grow up.
A settling of intention.
Today we not only have more confidence in who we are, but we have more clarity on what we want to do. We are a design and development agency that wants to build things that last. We want to inspire each other, connect with other creatives, and lend our thought leadership to the outside world. We want to share the great clients we’ve had, to cheer them on, and to attract new and exciting relationships. Volum8 is entering its ninth year of existence. Nine is significant in numerology. Among other things it is the number of service to humanity, destiny, generosity, a higher perspective, inner-strength, responsibility, intuition, influence, and strength of character. We can only hope this website helps us realize those things in greater ways.
The new Volum8 website is a moment in time where we stand up as a company and show you what we got, so that we might connect with you and make something greater than either of us can do as individuals. It is meant to highlight our great clients and the great work we’ve done with them, inspire future collaboration, and attract new opportunities. But it is also for us. It’s a place for our team to rally when times are tough, and a place to remind us we got each other’s backs. It’s a gift to ourselves. We certainly had to wait long enough.