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dynamIt was featured in last Friday’s Columbus Business First in an article about the changing agency model.

Here’s a snippet of the article:

While some traditional agencies have cut employees or gone out of business altogether, small, local, nontraditional ad firms are growing. The key the upstarts say, is keeping rates and overhead low by offering just one service.

Check out the full article here.

There’s  a lot of conversation about agencies - Can digital agencies lead? Or will traditional firms continue to have that role? Who is best suited to handle emerging media? Where should budgets be devoted? Regardless of where it nets out, what we’ve learned over the past few years is that leading with strategy, executing for a reason and being a business partner that can wrap themselves around a client results in great work and sustained relationship.

Like the Business First article says, its about doing what you do really well and cutting the other fat - whether it be overhead, or unrelated services.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 9, 2009

Arena District Firm Continues Growth Amidst National Recession

Columbus, OH, November 9, 2009 — dynamIt, a Columbus-based web engineering and digital strategy agency, is pleased to announce the addition of Kevin Pfefferle as web developer and Jamie Timm as strategist.

Kevin joined dynamIt in September bringing a wide range of experience in web design and development. In his most recent position as web manager at COSI – recognized as the top science museum in the U.S. by Parents Magazine, Kevin managed the daily operations of digital strategy, design, and development for COSI’s web presence. Kevin also collaborated on COSI’s social media strategy, which has been recognized nationally for excellence in the educational science industry. The COSI marketing team was named Outstanding Marketer of the Year by the American Marketing Association’s Columbus Chapter.

Kevin holds his BA degree music from The Ohio State University.

Jamie Timm joins dynamIt after a career in public relations and marketing at the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, Bob Evans Farms, Inc., and Highlander Logo Products. Jamie most recently was the director of marketing and communication for the Columbus Chamber where she supported the Chamber’s mission to lead and support economic development by developing integrated communications campaigns to attract new business and help existing businesses expand. During her time at Bob Evans, Jamie was one of the first communicators in the country to collaborate with a CEO on an internal blog and has spoken to communicators on the subject of social media in business nationally. Jamie was named the 2007 Rising Star by Central Ohio PRSA.

Jamie has her BA degree in communication arts from Ohio Northern University.

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Based in the Arena District in Columbus, Ohio, dynamIt combines technical, creative, and business perspective to create strategic digital solutions with corporations, non-profits and international organizations. dynamIt’s core services include: digital brand strategy, information and application architecture, database design, graphic and user experience design, content management and application, database, intranet and website development. In addition, dynamIt crafts and executes integrated communication (PR and social web) initiatives and digital campaigns with experiential components. For more information, visit www.dynamit.us or call +1.614.538.0095

Each week, The Columbus Chamber features one member company in their spotlight. This week, they chose dynamIt. Pretty good choice if you ask us! The full feature is available here, and below we’ve posted our response to the question, “Why We’re Members.”

Columbus is a leader in the Midwest. The city can boast a culture of growth and business know-how where people, ideas and capital are coming together. The Chamber is and should be the expression of Columbus’ economic hub. dynamIt is a member, first and foremost, because of the opportunities afforded to participate in the local economy and thinking. In a business era of interdependencies and quickly-dying vertical solutions (regardless of industry), businesses should commit to creating an environment of opportunities for all economic players. dynamIt truly believes that if this city and economy succeed, we will too. Through membership, we also benefit from the programming, events, and connections which the Chamber facilitates.

In case you missed it, dynamIt was also featured recently in two university publications - Xavier Magazine, and the Miami University Farmer School of Business.

In cooperation with our friends at Sync Creative, we put together a project for McGraw-Hill that was noticed by the Times. It’s always thrilling to see our work as a part of a bigger picture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/education/22textbook.html?_r=1

Now that dynamIt has moved to the Arena District we are surrounded by great food, entertainment, and of course design! Our office is coming together nicely, we are just missing the odds and ends, but we needed some nice black and white photos to hang on the walls. So, Steve and I took it to the brick streets and alleys with a camera to find some artistic shots to fill the frames. We stumbled upon numerous examples of found typography on our hour and a half excursion, and quickly realized that the area was a photographer’s dream. I also realized that we often overlook some great examples of typography as we go about our daily lives. Those subtle examples, like bumper stickers and posters, as well as dramatic ones, such as signs and graffiti. There is good design all around us conveying messages, holding meaning, and telling us where to park. So I wanted to showcase some of the great examples that we found right here in the Arena District. I’m sure that I overlooked some, and I’m positive that I could max out our Flickr account if I walked through downtown Columbus (that post in the future!). Below are a few quick crops of the typography in action, but you can browse the dynamIt Flickr account and see full size versions of these as well as other shots!

After much deliberation in the dynamIt War Room, we decided who would be the next member of the team. We submitted our pick and stood calmly as the commissioner strode toward the podium, “With the first pick in the draft, dynamIt selects Michael Paull, Web Developer, The Ohio State University.” Flash bulbs twinkled from every direction and the crowd let out a triumphant roar as Michael quietly accepted their applause…

Ok, so that is not exactly how it happened. At any rate, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the dynamIt team, Michael Paull.

Michael recently received his degree in Journalism from The Ohio State University, which means he brings yet another interesting perspective to the table. But his knowledge and experience do not stop there. He is, of course, well versed in web having worked as a both a web developer and project manager. He specializes in web standards compliant design and coding for accessibility, adaptability and backwards/forwards compatibility, so yeah, his code validates. He is no doubt very detailed oriented, he does hold a green belt in Six Sigma. All around, Michael is very resourceful and a welcome addition to the team. Plus, we certainly approve of his hobby of brewing his own beer. He shared an excellent batch with us last week. Learn more about Michael by visiting his blog at http://www.michaelpaull.com. Also, follow him on twitter: @fricto.

So, what do we look for when it comes time to up our development capacity?

Well, we look for developers who write graceful xhtml and css that works across the gamut of browsers, are well versed in PHP and mySQL, are comfortable setting up a relational database. We want our people to be efficient, spend their hours wisely, be self-managing. We expect a developer to be friendly and approachable, to be able to sit down in front of a client and confidently explain what we do.

Sure, those are the obvious ones, but one thing that we’ve learned even in the short time of having employees, is that there is more to it. What really counts, what really sets someone apart can be summed up as follows:

A dynamIt team member must be one who:

• is passionate about web, lives in web and enjoys doing so,
• has both the willingness and the ability to learn,
• fits into our culture well.

Luckily for us, Michael seems to have all of these things covered. But, we are always looking for new talent, we have filled our current needs with Michael, but we do not plan on slowing down anytime soon. So, if you think you can handle what I’ve laid out above, get in touch. We’d love to see what you’ve got.