We’re a new online services company committed to listening carefully to our nonprofit and small business clients and helping them achieve their goals.
If your company or organization needs help with online strategy, design, development, or implementation, we can help.
Whether you need to raise more money, increase sales, or collect more signatures for a key campaign, we have the expertise to help you out.
We’re fluent in the tools and strategies that’ll help you get more out of your investment in the online world. Whether you need advice about social media, help writing more engaging emails, or assistance selecting the right technology, we’ve got you covered.
Need to upgrade your website’s look? Starting a new company from scratch? Need an eye-catching email template for a new campaign? Our team can help!
We’re savvy in visual design, from logos and branding to complicated, multifaceted websites. Our approach blends creativity and innovation with an understanding of your audience’s needs to produce work that’s beautiful, memorable, and effective.
We have the skills to turn your ideas into reality. We’re savvy with code and experienced with a variety of platforms and technologies.
Drupal, WordPress, Convio, Salsa, NationBuilder, MailChimp? No problem. Responsive design, Javascript, CSS3, HTML5? Every day. Facebook App? Been there, done that. Our familiarity with different solutions lets us implement the one that’s right for you.
We believe in empowering our clients and providing great training, but we’re also happy to help with copywriting, software and security updates, email campaigns, ongoing support and the like — whatever helps you keep your online presence humming along.
And although we find it easiest to service and support what we’ve built, we’re also willing and able to assist with pre-existing systems.
We’re not here to get rich; if that was the case, we’d go into investment banking or found a startup with missing vowels in the name. No, we’re here because we love helping people achieve their goals. We know it’s not our clients’ jobs to be tech-savvy like we are, and that’s cool: we recognize that our clients bring their own insight and expertise. We respect your perspective, and respect the contraints — time, budget, etc. — you work within.
We prefer lasting relationships with our clients over one-off, “fire and forget” work (which isn’t to say we won’t do one-offs, mind you). We’re more interested in clients who are looking to build long-term relationships with their customers and constituents and can see the big picture; sometimes it takes a little more investment up front to craft more flexible, future-friendly websites.
We’re a small team, and each of us has our own values and needs. We’re interested in working with clients who treat us as equal partners, not just the “hired help.” We’re not interested in working with organizations and causes whose values and goals conflict with our own beliefs (sorry, Tea Partiers). While the success of our clients is incredibly important to us, so are our families, and we aim to maintain a healthy work/life balance that keeps us energized and happy with our jobs.
We work to ensure that we’re doing everything the right way, from how we bill our clients to how we write our code to how we credit others whose work we rely and build upon. It’s about giving back to the communities we draw upon, and leaving the world (wide web) a better place than we found it.
We identify with and respect the folks who use the sites we build, and we aim to create services and experiences that make sense to them. It’s not that sites need to be simple and engaging because people are dumb or don’t care; it’s that we’re all busy and have a legitimate expectation that things be easy to use. We acknowledge the realities of what users want and need, and fine-tune our work until it makes our clients (and their clients!) happy and engaged.
At the end of the day, we strive to do work that’s really, really good and that we can be proud of. It’s not just about being “good enough” that our clients are satisfied — it’s about taking care of the little extra things and subtle details that make a big difference in how successful a project is — whether before, during, or after it’s done.
Ira has more than a decade of online communications, advocacy, and fundraising experience, primarily planning and executing campaigns for hundreds of nonprofit organizations. Ira’s expertise is with coordinating campaigns using online marketing platforms such as Convio Luminate Online, Salsa, and Blue State Digital, to name but a few.
Prior to founding Cornershop Creative, Ira was the Senior Project Manager for Firefly Partners, where he managed hundreds of online projects including website design/builds, CRM deployments, and online strategic planning. Prior to Firefly, Ira served as the online community organizer for Free Press, where he was responsible for executing online campaigns, leveraging social media and social networking sites, and providing innovative online organizing tools for supporters. Ira has executed several award-winning campaigns, including projects that won a People’s Choice Webby and a Convio Innovator Award.
Ira lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife, son, and two friendly cats.
Ben has a BFA in Graphic Design from Iowa State University and has been designing professionally for nearly 13 years. In order to found Cornershop Creative, Ben recently left his position as senior front-end designer for New Signature, where his extensive experience with languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript were put to good use implementing his designs on several CMS platforms, including WordPress and Drupal.
Prior to joining New Signature, Ben worked as the lead graphic designer and web developer for Firefly Partners. Before that he was at Free Press, where he rolled his own CMS in addition to designing countless brands, brochures, and websites (one of which garnered a “People’s Choice” Webby award).
He has presented on the difference between print and web design, on web typography, and on WordPress widgets to various groups, and recently presented on front-end performance optimization at WordCamp Albuquerque in 2012. Ben is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico and co-leads the local web professional group HTTQ.
Lesley has an MBA from the University of New Mexico’s Executive MBA program and an English degree from UNM, as well. She’s been working on the web since she was in high school, and ran her own small web design shop before she could drive. To found Cornershop Creative, Lesley left her job as the Web Manager for one of the largest school districts in the nation, overseeing the main district site, 62 department sites, and 140 individual school sites.
Lesley has extensive experience identifying business needs, selecting technologies to meet those needs, and helping organizations adopt those technologies to achieve their goals. She believes that a website, social media presence, email marketing campaign, or mobile app can transform an organization into one that enchants customers. In August 2012, Lesley and her family began a new life in Grenoble, France, where her husband is pursuing a Ph.D. in Business.
Ben Byrne and Ira Horowitz are two of my favorite former colleagues. They’re a great team with a combined knack for online strategy, sharp eyes for design and boundless creativity. I highly recommend them to any organization looking to keep their online efforts fresh, functional and forward-looking.
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