Constructive

I'm the former project leader at a nonprofit when I worked with Constructive.

We didn’t have any kind of visual identity or website that really aligned with our organization's new direction.

Constructive conducted a discovery phase and intensive research to learn more about our organization and some of our competitors. They did that in order to develop our visual identity. As a result of their efforts, they created our logo, fonts, and color palette. In addition, they created a guide on how we should build our graphics as well as the style of photos we should use. Overall, they helped us establish a design guide that we could use for the organization moving forward.

We worked with at least 10 people, including Matthew (Founder & Director). We also collaborated with their project manager, designer, content strategist, digital marketing expert, and a few website developers.

We sent out an RFP, and Constructive was one of the companies that responded to us. We chose Constructive because they had a tremendous amount of experience in developing websites and creating visual identities. We also liked the approach that they proposed. On top of that, the price they offered was reasonable.

We spent around $200,000.

We worked together from January–November 2021.

The Constructive team finished our project on time and within budget. More importantly, the website was well-received by our board of directors, staff, and key funders. In terms of other metrics, it would be hard to say anything because the website was only launched two weeks ago.

They had an excellent project management process; Constructive kept everything moving on time, and they were very open about discussing additional budgets if needed. They were also able to explain their process very well, and they were friendly and responsive. We communicated through Zoom or Google Meet.

We were impressed by their creativity and their helpful insights into various problems that came up along the way.

No, they didn’t have any areas to improve. Our project went great, and I really loved working with them.

Be upfront about your expectations for the project.

I am the Former EVP of Policy of PHI

PHI works to transform eldercare and disability services. We foster dignity, respect, and independence—for all who receive care, and all who provide it. As the nation’s leading authority on the direct care workforce, PHI promotes quality direct care jobs as the foundation for quality care.

We met at a conference for communications startegists, CommNet.

2-5 Employees

Constructive designed and built PHI’s website in 2017–2018, and we’ve worked with them ever since. Our work covers research, policy analysis, workforce interventions for the direct care workforce, which means we produce a lot of complex material. We needed a site that could hold that complexity without feeling dense or inaccessible, and Constructive really understood that balance.

The collaboration with Constructive had tangible impact both on our digital presence and on how effectively PHI was able to advance its mission. From a website performance standpoint, the site became significantly more usable, navigable, and engaging for our core audiences, which translated into stronger traffic, longer time on site, and more consistent return visits from advocates, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners. The interactive features Constructive built — particularly the worker story gallery, national resource center, and state index — drove higher levels of engagement with our content and made our research and data far more accessible and actionable for external users.

They managed the project very effectively. Deliverables were consistently on time, well-organized, and clearly communicated. When needs or priorities shifted, Constructive was responsive, flexible, and proactive — quick to problem-solve, align with our goals, and adjust course without losing momentum.

Their quality of work was truly exceptional. What stood out most was their rigorous, step-by-step approach, which not only kept projects on track but also generated thoughtful insights along the way. Equally impressive was the depth of their team — they had people who clearly understood every facet of smart website design, from strategy and storytelling to technical execution and user experience.

Not that I can imagine.

I’m a professor of medicine at the University of Washington.

We wanted someone to help us think of the structure of an online toolkit that would enable users to create a good public message about serious illness care.

Constructive helped us construct an information architecture in the form of a website with a navigation, and marketing collateral.

We mainly communicated with a lead designer, lead story writer, UX specialist, and project manager.

They were referred to us by a colleague.

We invested about $80,000.

We worked together from January 2022–January 2023.

Since launching the website, we’ve received outstanding feedback from our partners, citing the website as a useful and valuable asset they’re excited to promote and work with.

They were highly responsive and delivered everything on time. We mainly communicated with them through Teamwork.

We liked how they combined the background and social change nonprofit messaging into the final design.

They did a terrific job, so I don’t have any constructive feedback.

To get the most out of your engagement, I would advise you to be clear about your goals.

I’m the senior media manager at FrameWorks Institute, a nonprofit communications research think tank. We’re approached by other nonprofit advocacy firms in the social justice space, and they provide us with grants so that we can do research to figure out where the public exists on certain issues. We then try to map the difference between the normal cultural understanding and the expert understanding to create a language that bridges the gap.

We were working with a different creative firm, but we were having issues with their turnaround times to create certain deliverables. This firm was also located in a different time zone than ours, making it difficult to work with them. Thus, we started looking for a creative partner that made more sense for our project.

Constructive provides us with design services. In 2020, we created our brand, but it was a little underwhelming. Thus, they’ve helped us tweak some of the colors and assets to make our branding more refined.

I mainly work with two project managers and a designer from Constructive on a daily basis. A senior designer occasionally steps in, and I’ve also talked to a developer about the website development project. Additionally, I’ve worked with Paul (Director of Strategy & UX) and a few other people from their team.

When we first started looking for a creative firm to join our company, we interviewed Constructive and the other firm we used to work with. This other firm gave us a better price, so we went with them. However, we weren’t satisfied with their services. When we decided to change providers, I remembered Constructive from those first interviews as a company that stood out, and I brought them into the vetting process again. In this second process, we interviewed several firms, and Constructive was the best fit.

First, we paid $30,000 for a three-month services period, which helped Constructive evaluate the amount of work needed. Since then, we signed a partner services agreement that costs $110,000 per year, which includes the retainer for all of our design needs. So far, we’ve spent around $200,000.

We started working together in March 2021, and our engagement is ongoing. As a matter of fact, in July 2022, we signed our partner service agreement renewal.

We’ve been extremely pleased with Constructive; changing vendors was very positive for us. Their quality of work is way better, and they work very quickly. They’re also a very responsive thought partner for us, so we’re very happy with them.

Constructive’s project management has been great. Occasionally, we need to meet very tight deadlines, and Constructive is very responsive in moving things around on their end to ensure meeting those deadlines. They’re very willing and available to bend to meet our needs.

Constructive is very willing to meet our budget and provide us with the services we want. The thing that has stood out about them the most is the promise of an HTML-first publishing approach, which we’re very excited about. It will help our content and positioning a lot.

Not really. It would be great if they didn’t charge as much as they do, but we get what we pay for; they’re great.

Focus your collaboration on making Constructive a thought partner for your company. They’ll work with you and ensure to meet your needs in your best interest. They’re great at strategic thinking, which makes the collaboration very efficient.

I’m the director of the public history research laboratory at the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). AASLH is the national professional association for history museums, historical societies, and other related organizations, along with the professionals and volunteers that work with them. In other words, we’re a membership association providing professional development and research advocacy for the public history field.

Over the last couple of years, we’d worked on a project called Reframing History, a research project aiming to create more effective communications about public history and why it should matter to society.

During the project, Constructive worked regularly with Frameworks Institute. The team designed all of the institute’s reports and toolkits. They followed baseline requirements and ideas on how these reports get designed.

We worked with at least two designers and one project manager. They were the main people that collaborated with us throughout the engagement. Some other people worked behind the scenes.

Our engagement lasted from January–February 2022.

The social media engagement we acquired from this project was greater than anything we’d ever posted on social media. In other words, we created a big splash when the project came out, which was exactly what we wanted to achieve.

We had a tight turnaround time for this project, and Constructive did a great job of delivering our needs quickly. On top of that, they responded quickly to feedback. We used Teamwork and Google Meet to communicate and manage the project.

Constructive had a truly fast turnaround time, and they were accommodating in terms of the parameters we set when it came to design possibilities and timelines. Their project manager and designers had a high degree of professionalism. Our team felt that we could speak with them in our language, and they’d transform it into a design that reflected what we were thinking.

There were some small copy-editing tasks during the design process that they should have taken care of on their own without our prodding.

Go for it. We truly appreciate Constructive’s work, and we’re ready to work with them again on a similar project if we can.