A web site, a CD-ROM, a billboard, a business card, a radio commercial, a tv spot: no matter how sophisticated the medium, everything we do starts with a conversation, a pad of paper, a pencil, and the germ of an idea.

Our first response when you call will be to listen, and to ask a lot of questions. What do you need? What form do you think it should take? Whom are you trying to reach? How much would you like to spend?

As we begin to work together, other, more challenging questions will come: Are you sure you need a billboard? Are there other CD-ROMs that are already offering the user what yours will? What makes your product or service unique? Given your time frame and budget, what are reasonable goals for the media you'd like us to create?

These conversations usually take only a few minutes, but asking the questions is vitally important to the success of any creative venture.

Once we've arrived at a definition of the final product, we start brainstorming, throwing out ideas from the mundane to the outlandish, firm in the knowledge that even the most reserved, polished product has to grow out of an original flash of raw, unconstrained creativity.

As the ideas start to flow, we'll float them back to you. You might find yourself a little overwhelmed when we fax you a sheet with 54 possible logo sketches, or when you have to choose from nine distinct interfaces. But, as Mae West once said, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful."

We involve you to such a great extent at the beginning because you're our first point of access to the product's final audience. If we think Sketch Number 54 looks just dandy, but it looks like a broken egg to you, chances are it's going to look like a broken egg to someone in your target audience. We take your input seriously.

Once we arrive at a desired final project together, you can take a break while we get to work on production, developing a quick prototype for your review. This is true no matter what we develop, whether it's the wording for a radio commercial or a working prototype of a Web site.

Often, the experimentation ends right there and we move right into final production. Sometimes we just need to go back and refine, tweaking colors or rewording a sentence. Sometimes we act on a flash of creativity that promises to transform your project into something different, but better than we had all hoped for.

Whatever the project, our process ensures that you're not going to be confronted with a long list of unapproved expenditures or excessive hourly fees. Our rates are reasonable, and our fee structure is modular: we can bid on each portion of a project, we can bid on the entire project, or we can just work hourly.

At Stone Circle, we give you options all along the way because, like you, we've been on the receiving end of the creative process. We know it's difficult to know exactly what you're looking for when you ask someone to create a product to represent you, and it's equally difficult to know what you're paying for.

We give you so many options because we know our business isn't about us: It's about you.

Fees:

We sometimes bid by the job, depending upon our familiarity with clients' needs and tastes. We prefer to work by the hour. Since 1994, our rate has remained a very competitive $50 an hour.