When we set out to create ConceptShare we understood the pain, it needed to be fixed.

The three of us had all worked with each other in different roles previous to our lives as ConceptShare. All of which required us to communicate back and forth on elements of design centric projects. This allowed us to come at CS with a real understanding of how the process was broken when it came to communication over visuals. It was far too laborious.

• Scott’s company designed for Bernie’s company
• Graphic Design
• Print Layout
• Production
• Bernie has been a contractor for Scott’s company
• 3D animation
• Web Design
• Chris and Bernie worked together in PM<>Lead Developer way
• Interface design
• Web Design
• Scott and Chris have worked together -Account Exec >creative director<>Programmer
• Web Design
• Multimedia

Understand that we did this took place over a number of years and we never really identified it until we started encountering the problem between the three of us at the same time. We started to look at the inefficient work flows that we had created to cover for the lack of suitable alternatives. We would carry on conversations regarding designs over a number of different channels, Email, Instant Messenger, Web project services. Since describing changes to a visual design are pretty hard to communicate in text. We often found ourselves adding to the work flow as we would go into other products to mark up the visual, save and forward. We wanted to create a place for conversations over project visuals that evolve over the life of the project. We are continually hearing about how this pain is relevant in so many industries and in so many countries. Albeit in many different languages and many different types of visuals. It seems that our message has gotten out and around the world.

We have paying customers in 30 countries worldwide:

USA - Canada - United Kingdom - Mexico - Brazil - Ireland - Scotland - Italy - Sweden - Ukraine - Russia - Italy - Indonesia - Philippines - Australia - Czech Republic - Netherlands - Israel - France - Malaysia - Spain - Denmark - Hong Kong - Belgium - China - Japan - United Arab Emirates - Argentina - Columbia - Venezuela

Quick List of Usage Types

Architecture - Toy Design - Movie Storyboards - Web Design - Graphic Design - Pre-Press and Print - Engineering - Display Design - Landscape Architects - Environmental Design - Logo Design - UI Design, Instructional design, Product Design, Packaging Design ….. there are so many, but you get the idea.
I have had a great time being able to talk to our customers. I love to hear about what they do and how they do it. It is so interesting to hear how different we all think we are in this industry but there is alot of pains that are completely similar …..described differently but the same at the core. I have also come to realize that people are infinitely creative in building ad-hoc systems to handle image related feedback.

An unnamed client
One large corporate client used this method prior to ConceptShare. It was described to me by an account exec as a the merry-go-round from hell. This company is not unique …. there are lots of systems that create as much chaos and pain as this.

• Project Established
• Creative Brief
• Designer Creates
• Shared internally via pdf, typically 10 copies shared with various internal stakeholders
• A comment logs are created in either word or excel with each user sending a different file to the originator
• Comment logs from reviewers compiled into one document
• Comments then forwarded back to the group
• Changes made by designer and the process repeats until done.
• When the project had gone through internal checks the client gets involved
• Once the client has signed of in principle these ideas then get floated past a focus group of clients.

Now with ConceptShare the process is much easier

• Project Established
• Creative Brief
• Create CS Workspace with relevant team members
• Designer Creates
• All designs posted to the CS workspace
• Internal review
• Add more people to the room as applicable

They have found that ConceptShare has allowed them to move projects from the inception to final product faster. There has been an increase in the quality of the feedback. Early idea and mock-up sharing identify issues early on in the design. Over all there has been an over whelming response to it.

We love the great outcomes of companies that are adopting the ConceptShare way. We have a lot of companies that are using ConceptShare across their organizations. They have spread out the system to their entire teams and are now experiencing the benefit as they use it to for all of their projects. We look forward to hearing more stories.
Cheers

Scott

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