Company profile: The Wonderfactory, New York City

By Kelly Kass

Just stepping off the elevator on the eleventh floor at 28 West 25th Street, you know you’ve entered a unique office space. What awaits you aren’t the typical glass doors and reception area common to most multimedia agencies. Instead, visitors are greeted by bookshelves and a push cord that they’re required to pull to enter the premises. Yes, you have arrived at The Wonderfactory.

The web design company opened its bookcase – er – doors five years ago and is the brainchild of Creative Directors David Link and Joe McCambley. With a growing staff of 20 employees, The Wonderfactory team is responsible for creating content for  notable sites like NationalGeographic.com, Life.com and FoodNetwork.com.

I caught up with Link in Manhattan at the office space where he works…and plays. Entering his office, I was amused to find his beloved muppet collection and was quite tempted to play with the figurines myself.

Working on high-profile projects with tough deadlines and creative challenges might lead to stress for most agencies, but it’s evident that Link and his team maintain a workplace that fosters creativity and dare we say, fun?
 
“When we moved into this space it was just a white box. We decided to do all the interior design on our own. We wanted a mix between Disneyland and Las Vegas. The philosophy behind it was that you spend so many hours at your desk in front of your computer just typing away or using your mouse or designing websites and other media, that we wanted a lot of different small environments that got people away their desks and into a whole new mindset. We figured if we put interesting places in front of people, it would inspire more creativity,” he remembers.

Speaking with Wonderfactory employees, Link’s theory seems to be working. Just ask Project Manager Emily Walker.

“Just getting up from your desk and being able to take your laptop around the studio, you get to experience something new every day if you choose. It definitely gets your creative spirit going.”

(For an inside look at the innovative spaces at The Wonderfactory, click on my video tour at the end of this article).

Brainstorming with a twist

At The Wonderfactory, tossing around ideas for a project is not limited to the office. Link often encourages his employees to go out into the field to come up with creative solutions for their clients.

“When you’re at a stage where you figure out what a client wants, what goes on each page on the site, what the experience will be like, we sometimes send people out on photo assignments to take pictures of things that relate to the issue that we have to solve. We try to mix it up where you look at things in different ways because that’s the only way to come up with a new idea. It’s about giving a challenge to people and letting them go off and think about it: looking at all the influencers in your life and coming up with an idea that will work in a unique way.“

Always make time for fun

Also unique are the endless opportunities for fun that The Wonderfactory provides to its employees. It’s not uncommon to see a project manager playing ‘Guitar Hero’ or hanging out in the cheerfully-colored lounge. Employees also compete in The Wonderfactory Olympics, taking part in elevator races, scavenger hunts and food eating competitions. There’s even a puppy to play with.

Walking around the office, it’s obvious that it takes a certain type of person to be able to balance down time and productivity. Does Link ever worry that the escapism he provides will be too much of a distraction?

“If you loosen up your environment and people do overly take advantage of that, they’re probably not the right people for your company. You should be able to gauge how much work and play they should be doing and how much play should inspire their work. I think it’s a good way to find out who should be working in your company.

“As far as people playing too many video games or spending too much time (in all our different rooms), I don’t think people do it enough. Once or twice a week we’ll see people playing video games or sketching things that are completely irrelevant to a project but it has not been an issue at all. We’ve been so busy these past 6 months. During the times we weren’t busy I think people were a little bit afraid, they didn’t want to play as much; but I’d like to inspire more play.”

Keeping employees engaged

Link says achieving a smart mix of work and play is a great way for companies to keep employees engaged and motivated, particularly during these challenging economic times when morale has taken a hit. He also practices transparency, a critical factor when trying to maintain a solid rapport with staff.

“In these hard times, it’s important. People are having trouble financially, they’re worried about their jobs, their finances, their personal lives. The way we handle that is to be completely transparent. We talk to employees about every new business pitch – what the potential is, where we are financially with the company; we’re very open about that.

“It’s important that people know if we’re struggling; when things are looking good, they should know that as well. It’s important for them to know we’re all in this together. It’s not the company vs. them. We care very much about our employees; we want them to know where we stand as a business so they can make the choices they need to make.”

Don’t take yourselves too seriously

If you’re expecting to see corporate speak – or “yada” as Link calls it - on The Wonderfactory website, you definitely won’t find one.  Nor will you see any pages linking to the company’s vision, mission and values.
 
“We don’t have a mission statement because we don’t believe in them. You have to have a focus and philosophy. We try not to take ourselves too seriously but serious enough that we are taken seriously. Clients appreciate that we’re not a ‘buttoned up’, corporate company. Since we’re a creative company we really shouldn’t be,” Link points out.

A different kind of sell

Another factor that differentiates The Wonderfactory from other agencies is that they don’t hire account managers. Link explains:

“We find in an agency in our size, they get in the way of the work and what the client wants. We prefer to put the Project Manager, Art Director, UI specialist and the Creative Director in front of the client and not have a middle-man come between them. We feel there’s a lack of communication that gets in the way. 

“A lot of account people are also very sales-y. During our pitches, people who will be working on the project actually do the pitches; we don’t have a sales team, we don’t have a new business team. What we hear time after time from our clients, they appreciate that we’re not doing a show in front of them. We’re very honest and blunt about what we can deliver and what our thoughts are.”

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Talking web design with David Link

KK. What advice can you give to companies who are planning to redesign their intranets?

DL: If you can, spend as much time on the design of your intranet as you do your extranet. It influences how employees feel about your company in terms of how much care you take with it and how it represents your brand. Give employees tools on which they can collaborate, rather than merely providing a messageboard. You should also give them the opportunity to create groups. The more collaborative tools you can offer on an intranet, the more productivity you’ll see out of the people using it.

I also think you have to update your intranet often.  It gives people a reason to come back to it every day and it’s a great way for a company to message events and other things that are happening inside the company.

KK. Any tips on style and navigation? 

DL: Navigation should be simple. The same rules for consumer/client-targeted websites should hold true for intranets. People should find things easily. From a color standpoint, it should just reflect your brand. In short, your intranet should be simple, easy to use, and act as a dashboard to the workplace. 

KK. What’s your take on social media? How important is it for the user experience and to build up a company’s brand?

DL:  I think some people want it just because their competitors have it. I think that’s the wrong way to go. We’re doing a Twitter feed for our own company right now. To me, it’s really one-way communication: you project something to the world and rarely do you get stuff back. It’s really about seeing what other people are doing. I don’t think people care about what we’re having for lunch here at the Wonderfactory. We do use social media use for recruitment and site launches, but I find it challenging to post content every day. I don’t think there’s something interesting to say every single day in the life of an agency.

Internally, I think employees should be able to maintain their own internal blogs. Even if that means just posting family pictures or photos from company outings, it really is a record of your company. If you look at your intranet over a 2-5 year period, you will see the history of your company through that intranet. It’s important for employees who have been there to see where they’ve come from and for new employees to see where the company has been.