More than an agency.

I don’t particularly like agency websites that claim to do absolutely everything. Usually you get halfway down the services list and start wondering whether they also fix boilers.

That isn’t what I mean by more than an agency. Awove is Brand + Web. That is our centre of gravity. But the relationships we build do not always stop at the edge of the original brief.

A client comes to us for an identity and a website. We spend time understanding the business, develop the direction together and get the work out into the world. Later, something else comes up. A new offer. A more complicated platform. A partnership they want to approach. Another business they are starting.

They come back because we already understand the story. They don’t have to start with, “Right, let me explain what we actually do.” We were there when they worked that out.

The relationship after launch

The year of support in our full brand-and-website engagement grew in a similar way. It started with the practical business of looking after websites. If something wasn’t working, or a client wanted to change something and wasn’t sure how, we wanted them to ask rather than accidentally dismantle the place.

Over time, those conversations became broader. A question about a social post. A new idea. A presentation that didn’t feel right. Sometimes a client had simply lost sight of the direction we had found together.

I enjoy those conversations. Occasionally someone needs a reminder of what made the business worth building in the first place. Sometimes they need an honest challenge or a bit of a kick up the arse. Quite often they need someone who knows the context and will give them a considered answer, rather than another opinion to add to the pile.

I get something out of that, too. Seeing the fire come back in someone matters to me. I’m not going to pretend the relationship is irrelevant once the final files have been delivered.

That does not mean unlimited new work or a team permanently on call. The agreed support has boundaries, and regular consulting or another project needs its own scope. You can care about the relationship and still be clear about what has been commissioned. In fact, I think you have to.

Some clients launch and need very little from us afterwards. Then they return much later with another brief or introduce somebody they care about. Others stay closer. There isn’t one correct way to be a happy client.

The right people for the next brief

Our capabilities have grown alongside those relationships. We build websites, but we also take on more involved digital products and systems. We develop identities, but we also develop creative ideas for marketing teams to execute. Sometimes the new brief needs a piece of design. Sometimes it needs a different way of thinking before anybody makes anything.

We are clear about what our team can deliver and where a specialist should be involved. Understanding the whole project is not the same as pretending every person in the agency can do every part of it. The important thing is knowing who is responsible for what and keeping the direction connected.

We also know what we are not offering. We are not your daily social-media team, your media buyers or your outsourced SEO department. We can give those people an idea and work worth using, without trying to become them.

So “more than an agency” is not a claim that we have an answer to every possible request. It describes a relationship in which the understanding survives the first project.

I’d like us to be the people you call because you know we understand what you are building. Whether the next thing needs our team, another specialist or just a proper conversation, we can start from there.