Design team Doc4 LLC runs an organized studio where getting to know new members of the team quickly matters. Read on to learn more about how Doc4 works, what’s important to their culture, and how Kin helps them keep everything rolling.
Who are you, what’s your role, and your favorite hand-held food?
[DC] My name is Dale Crum and I am the Owner of Doc4 LLC. My favorite hand-held food would have to be the churro.
What’s the story of Doc4?
[DC] Doc4 was founded in 2005 by myself and Hunter Sanders. Our original intent was to set up shop as a print agency, but we quickly realized this wasn’t the direction the company was headed in when more than half of all incoming business was web-related. While the company has varied in size over the past decade, we are currently a small design team, partnered with a local development company (Mill Creek Software). Our office is located in a recently renovated 1920s feed store in the heart of the booming Northwest Arkansas region, in a town called Rogers.
As a design studio, we cover the ‘traditional’ print and brand design, though our focus has turned more toward web design, web application design, and mobile application design. We have been published in a number of periodicals and design inspiration books including LogoLounge and Make Magazine. Our work has crossed many mediums from business cards and billboards to mobile phones and video games. While we are versed in many mediums, we don’t claim to be masters of all design, but what we do know, we know well.
What’s great about working at Doc4?
[DC] Keeping the team small has a lot of advantages: we get to be a little more choosy with the clients we work with, which has led to some great relationships. We also get to know each other pretty well, which has been a lot of fun.
Please share some insight into Doc4 approach to employee and workplace operations. How has Kin played a role?
[DC] While a lot of design studios pride themselves on irregular hours and lax schedules, we’ve always preferred to run a slightly tighter ship – it helps our customers know what to expect (and when to expect it). Kin has been a great resource for us as a company. We utilize Kin’s onboarding process which helps new recruits get to know other employees as well as understand what is expected during their first few days. We feel it allows for a much smoother transition, helping everyone involved to feel more comfortable. We also use Kin to keep track of software and hardware. We use it similarly to a library checkout system which make it easier to find all of the monitors, trackpads, product licenses, and mice.
Anything notable going on lately?
[DC] We are about to launch a redesign of our website and newsletter in the coming months – our first updates in several years! We’ll also have a dozen or more new projects added to our portfolio when the site launches and we’re excited for everyone to get to see all the new work.