The innovative marketing staff at Extend Group listens to organizations, hears their challenges, and implements solutions to change the way they are perceived. The job the company does for its clients, it also has to do for itself — starting at home in the office.
Extend Group, which was founded in the fall of 2007, designs websites, mobile apps, and social media sites for its clients, as well as many other technological innovations. The company services multiple clients, such as redesigning the Vanderburgh County Sherriff’s Office website or completely rebranding the Evansville Voice Project, and maintains clients in various industries such as the automotive aftermarket, nonprofits, economic development groups, municipalities, and more.
“We are making the statement that they are dealing with a professional creative organization within seconds of walking through the door,” says Shawn Collins, founder and CEO of Extend Group. “It is what we preach to our clients, so we have to do the same.”
While Extend Group educates clients about branding, Collins says company leaders took careful considerations of their own branding message when designing their office space a year and a half ago on the second floor of the Walker Building, site of the former Welborn Baptist Hospital.
Walking through the door to Extend Group, clients enter an open space facing a white wall and to their left is a yellow wall behind their chairs as they wait for assistance in the reception area. The curved desk area remains vacant, because Collins says they haven’t found much need for a front-door receptionist.
“We didn’t want it to be overly white,” says Collins, who also works with his wife Melissa. She joined Extend Group as director of operations in 2013. “We put the color of our brand in it. We wanted our brand colors to be presented so that the work and the people in it could shine as well.”
The yellow wall also runs through the hallway by the open workspace desks, employee’s offices, and lastly Collins’ office. Above the open desks is a quote written on the wall by Albert Einstein that says, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
The office has the ability to quickly transform from one with six employees to one with more than 40 people when hosting Extend Group’s Inspired by Innovation film series. The reception table transitions to a buffet table and the two glass conference rooms, which allow for natural sunlight, can serve as film rooms with Apple TVs mounted on the walls. Colorful artwork by Sharon Spillar, a St. Louis artist, also decorates the walls.
“We want it to be a collaborative space, have energy, and it be inspiring enough to create creative work,” says Collins.
For more information about Extend Group, call 812-205-2106 or visit theextendgroup.com.
