We recently had the chance to catch-up with certified NationBuilder Architects Seth Douwsma and Zach Grantham who head up Eden Creative. In addition to guilty pleasures such as bubble baths and 90's boy bands, we got to learn a little more about their history and the projects they've worked on since becoming certified as Architects. Check it out:
Who is Eden Creative and how was the company formed?
Eden Creative is a small design and development shop located in Northern Indiana / Southwest Michigan. At Eden, we evaluate your ideas, ask the right questions and problem solve through design to achieve a distinguished status which guarantees separation from competitors and connects to your desired audience.
After we completed our undergrad, Zach and I felt that we wanted to take a risk and tackle client work together. We knew the traditional role of job searching wasn’t for us. Between the two of us and our design, development, and strategy skills we felt that would could service clients all in one stop. At the end of the day, we simply want to work with fun people on fun projects! More importantly, we felt strongly about creating a culture of our own and wanted to live out our passion of building relationships and making a difference in people’s lives.
What interested you in becoming an Architect?
Anyone who's had extensive exposure to NationBuilder will understand the passion they have for genuinely helping companies, organizations, and individuals build their “nation.” That’s what immediately attracted us to NationBuilder. We’ve had the privilege to work with 4 or 5 different NationBuilder organizers now and we’ve been amazed at their willingness to equip, train, and serve their clients with this incredible, feature-packed service. At Eden, we’re all about equipping our clients with the tools they need to help them market and grow their business or organization, and with NationBuilder, it allows us to take that mission to another level.
What kinds of NationBuilder projects have you worked on and what was intriguing about them?
In our short time with NationBuilder we’ve had the opportunity to work with a broad range of clients. We’ve worked in the higher education sector with Columbia College Chicago, in the political activist sector with Open Primaries, and in the Christian nonprofit sector with Ndoto. We were intrigued and impressed by how each client’s build utilized NationBuilder in a completely different manner. Columbia used it to engage their alumni community with events, the latest alumni news, and donations tools, whereas Open Primaries utilized features such as scannable data sheets, volunteering, and a variety of other activist action items.
Who or what inspires your design?
Seth:
I’m inspired when I think about the results or impact our work could have on our client and their audience. We built a website for a client last Spring that provides education to Kenyans in the local community they work in, and within 20 minutes of launching the site, we were able to attract a new donor to sponsor a student. A sponsorship is lifechanging, because without education, that student would more than likely live in poverty for forever. So to be able to indirectly impact those students and change lives, that’s what inspires me.
Zach:
Everything inspires me. Everything I see, whether perfect in nature of imperfect by human, everything I see inspires me as a designer. I look at all things, study visuals and draw inspiration from everyday things.
Any guilty pleasures?
Seth:
Fantasy Football, Starbucks, nighttime baths, and beating Zach in FIFA.
Zach:
Backstreet Boys music, video games, and searching my Flight Aware app to see where airplanes are flying.
