An honest directory of Indianapolis Web Designers and Developers

The Start of a Directory

A few days ago I read an article written by Paul Graham called “Mean People Fail”. The gist is anyone that spends their time fighting with other people are unlikely to achieve long-term success.

Somewhat unrelated to that, I’ve had two potential clients approach me this week with a need for website design help. One wanted a site to assist with reselling tickets for events and another for an online radio show. In both cases SuperPixel just wasn’t the company for the job.

And in both cases I politely declined and said why I thought they were better off elsewhere. I also made sure to direct a few people who I thought were better suited for them their way. It was good for the customer, but it was just a nice thing to do for others within the web industry here in Indy.

When you’re better served elsewhere

A lot of stuff gets missed in the murky waters of Google search results and from the people who have SEO’d their way up and in front, legitimately and not. I think it’s worth noting a couple things.

One, this company, SuperPixel, focuses on a market segment a lot of people do not want to focus on. We help small businesses, individuals, nonprofits, and small government. By “small” we mean places who don’t have a marketing person, PR people, a budget to support an in-house development team, or the money for big ad-buys and billboards. We’ve built our pricing structure around being the kind of people I myself would want to hire, and a company of professionals I could actually afford to hire.

Two, a lot of other people are probably in that same market. But most I have run into fit entirely different markets. There are people who do nothing but government websites and have relationships and RFPs at the ready to do it. There are people who do nothing but work with people who have budgets in excess of $30,000. There are also people who work primarily with marketing teams inside organizations.

The unfortunate thing is no one really knows that from the outside. I do when I meet people. Which is why I’m starting this running directory of web designers, developers, video producers, and graphic artists. It is by no means an exhaustive list. It is by no mean a direct reflection on anyone’s abilities except to say I myself would refer someone to them if I had someone who fit the bill for them. Some folks probably deserve to sit in multiple categories, and the order at which they appear is purely coincidental. If I’m just flat wrong or you want to talk about being here, by all means get in touch.

The thing about this list, though, is that I have personally met the owner or one of the team leads.

For bigger projects and bigger budgets

Indianapolis-based web design agencies

Years ago I put together this rag tag meetup group called Refresh, back when meetups were a hip thing. There I met Ryan Ours, who has gone on to work at Springboard Marketing. Located downtown on 11th street, Springboard has an impressive portfolio and some surely talented individuals. But I know that Ryan is good people and he views problems as things that were meant to be solved.

For Madison-Avenue style experience right here in Indy, consider Y&L. A former classmate, Luke Meyer, works there and has for years. He’s a classy guy for classy work.

I met Job Wise, the accounts guy at Swellfire, at a networking event held by the Indianapolis Chamber about a year ago. I didn’t talk to him too much at the time, but I’ve casually followed their work over the year. They like to work directly with marketing teams and PR folks inside organizations.

Jeb Banner, who has a stake in just about any web project that happens within 50 miles of Indianapolis, is a community-minded guy. He’s been a sponsor of re:build, a conference about building the web my friend Tony and I collaborate on. He’s also a smart guy with good business savvy at Smallbox.

Indianapolis-based videographers and editors

Several years ago I knew someone who worked at TrendyMinds in their prior location. They’ve since moved to Market Street, and I don’t know anyone that works there today, but before Ryan moved he spoke highly of his colleagues. They do more than video, of course, but not a ton of places in Indy support video.

Another shop, this time up in Fishers, that does interesting work in all kinds of media, but competes quite a lot in the video production space is MediaFuel. I’ve known people who have worked there in years gone by and respected their talents and energy.

For smaller projects or small projects that will be big

Indianapolis-based videographers and editors

A good friend and a great person, you couldn’t do much better than to work with Sean Donelson if you’re looking for some video work, especially in a serious, business-friendly style.

Another friend and excellent video producer, Jeremiah Nickerson has been on my short-list for video projects anytime a project deserves something highly artistic, offbeat, or dramatic.

Indianapolis-based photographers

While he may not be with us here for long, there’s only person I’d trust with my own event photos (and have done so). If you’re looking for a great photographer, contact Jon Brewer.

Indianapolis-based web designers and small web teams

I’ve known Jack Shepler longer than he’s known me, and he has a Friends List to show why. Jack’s company, Ayokay, is probably most in direct competition with us, but I like Jack’s style and respect his work.