More About Gaslight, Less About Software

Today we’re launching a new identity for Gaslight. We’re
dropping ‘Software’ from our name, and we’ve created a new mark, thanks to our
design team. We’ll continue to roll out these changes as our new website takes
form. We’re excited for this change and the things that have happened over the
last year at Gaslight that have led us here.

Good design is essential

Since its beginning, Gaslight has primarily been known as the top Ruby on
Rails shop in Cincinnati. Our team originally consisted almost exclusively of
developers, and this software-heavy focus was evident in the type of projects
we worked on, and the work we produced. We often relied on our clients to
provide design for our web applications, or we just added new features with
the existing look and feel. However, it increasingly became apparent that we
needed to add competent designers to our team. This was most obvious to us as
we planned for QCMerge this past spring. We talked
about a theme for the conference, but as soon as we had a book of branding
concepts, our ideas really came to life. The same is true for the work we do
internally, and the work we do for our clients. Good design is essential, and
it’s hard to bolt on at the end of a project. We want to treat design as a
primary concern on every project that we work on, and our team is now able to
do this.

Refining the Process

Over time we’ve learned the level of communication with our client is the best
indicator for project success. We’ve designated a guide to help facilitate the
engagement between the client and the rest of the team. Joe Cope, a whitewater
rafting guide, says about his job, “I just try to give people the most
aggressive, intense ride they can handle, while keeping them safe, of course.”
We want our clients to have the same experience with projects they bring to
us.

Our designers, developers and (most importantly) clients are all on the same
team. We value the happiness of our whole team. Like whitewater rafting, our
Project Guide is deeply vested in the success of the overall trip but is
mainly there to make sure everyone has a good time.

More than just Rails

Lastly, the projects we’ve been working on often use tools other than Ruby on
Rails. Currently, we’re building solutions with
Backbone.js, embedded systems with Ruby, and mobile
applications for iOS devices. We still love Rails, but we’re mostly interested
in solving the needs of our clients the best way we know how, and having more
tools at our disposal allows us to build the right thing.

Let’s Build Great Things

We’re excited to share more about what we’ve learned during our rebranding
process. We’ll be posting more about the creative process of developing our
new logo. Expect to also see posts about the workflow decisions we’re making
on our projects, and lastly, how we integrate design into our project
workflow.

Better yet, bring us your projects and we can level up together.