/ Case study
Creative Dept
Four months after kickoff, Creative Dept's talent platform was ready to launch, and everyone who saw it called it awesome.
Fri3nds project record, 2023 to 2024
Who Creative Dept is and why it needed a platform, not a website
Creative Dept is a membership platform that connects companies with senior creative talent on a fractional basis: motion designers, character animators, product renderers and strategists who have worked for some of the world's best known brands. Its founder, Kevin Robinson, is a former executive creative director at Juniper Jones, and he designed the platform himself in Figma. Creative Dept is curated on both sides, so artists apply to join and clients apply to hire them. Kevin needed a Webflow build that could carry a growing roster of artist profiles and still feel as crafted as the work it showcased. After one call and a proposal, he was ready to go.
"Let's do this dance!! Give me next steps."
— Kevin Robinson, Founder, Creative Dept
The challenge: an MVP that had to scale with every new artist
Every artist on Creative Dept is a CMS record, with a profile, a body of work and tags that let clients filter by craft. Before he signed, Kevin raised the question every platform founder on Webflow asks. We answered with experience: Webflow's CMS had moved on, and we already ran collections of more than 300 items on another client site. The plan was six weeks of production, one page design per week from Kevin, with our feedback before each page went into development.
"I've been told that webflow CMS slows down at about 100 items. It's been suggested that in building this platform, even as an MVP that a workaround is used."
— Kevin Robinson, Founder, Creative Dept
How we built Creative Dept on Webflow
We worked page by page. Kevin shared a design, we came back with notes, and development started while he moved to the next one. The plan covered the landing page, the artist profile and the filter page. On the landing page our team proposed micro-interactions to match Kevin's reference, and the profile page went through a redesign before Kevin signed it off in writing. Along the way we helped with the details a marketplace needs before launch, like a copyright notice on the pages and terms that members accept at Stripe checkout, with Kevin's lawyer reviewing the final wording.
"Confirmed and Approved!"
— Kevin Robinson, Founder, Creative Dept
How we launched Creative Dept and handed over the keys
By February 2024, four months after kickoff, Kevin confirmed the site was ready to launch. We shaped the handoff around what Kevin needed: an assistant who could create artist profiles without calling us. Kevin had already been showing the platform around.
- 4 months from kickoff to a launch-ready platform
"Well, I gotta say this man, for everyone that's seen the site, I haven't totally launched yet, but everyone who's seen it is like, it's awesome."
— Kevin Robinson, Founder, Creative Dept
What changed for Creative Dept after launch
With applications about to open, artist data lived in two places: Typeform and Airtable on one side, the Webflow CMS on the other, kept in sync by hand. Kevin asked us to make Airtable the single source of truth.
"I want to make sure that it's actually going to save a lot of time"
— Kevin Robinson, Founder, Creative Dept
We scoped the change with him, mirrored the site in a test environment, and connected Airtable to the Webflow CMS with Make, so artist and asset records flow into the site's collections instead of being typed in twice.
"I just keep getting such good feedback from the site, from everyone who I shot with."
— Kevin Robinson, Founder, Creative Dept
Credits
Client: Creative Dept. Kevin Robinson (Founder; former ECD, Juniper Jones), who also designed the platform
Webflow development, CMS and Airtable sync: the Fri3nds team. Project management by Camila Ardila; development by Richard Reynolds; account by Esteban Muñiz and Marcelo Russo
Services: Webflow development, CMS architecture, design feedback and micro-interactions, handoff documentation, Airtable to Webflow sync (Make)
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