Why Pixel Perfect?
I initially chose the name “Pixel Perfect” because my dream was to actually build people that design beyond the pixels i.e., People who are great with interfaces but also have a lot of soft skills handy. Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen circumstances which you would see as you keep reading the article, we had to change the name.
I didn’t want to deviate from my initial dream and so started looking for how to cooperate the meaning into the brand name. This was how Perxels came to light. I chose it because I felt it was still a reflection of the brand — designing beautiful interfaces but also taking a step further to build numerous soft skills.
The Initial Branding Process
Perxels (Formerly Pixel Perfect) is not my first start up. It wasn’t even my first vision. I had tried to start up a lot of businesses that failed but left me with a lot of lessons. A lot of people wonder why Perxels has grown so much in just a few months — it is all because I have worked with different teams before, I have related with various types of people, I have had my fair share of battles with money and I have fallen many times. I have had a whole lot of experiences in dealing with businesses and startups. In most of my failed businesses, I realized that the branding was poor and they made me realize the importance of having a good business appearance. I decided I was not going to be the one to design the logo, this is not because I couldn’t (It takes me sitting down for a while with illustrator to come up with a smart logo) but because I wanted a feel of another person’s idea. So I hired a good designer (Temitayo Alamu) to design the logo for Pixel Perfect. Don’t get it twisted, I was very much involved in the logo process — I was carried along in every process. It was an iterative process.
I didn’t have my team members yet but I was sure they were going to consist of my mentees because I believe they had an understanding of the vision. Just because I wanted many opinions on the design, I involved all my Cohort 1 mentees in the iterative process. They all gave their opinions before the decision was finally made (Remember that it was still Pixel Perfect then.).
The designer — Temitayo Alamu, who I hired for the logo design, was chosen because of his interesting portfolio and I had known him from my university days. Don’t discard people just because you have moved to a different phase — you’d never know when you’d need them. Networking cannot be overemphasized. You can reach out to him if you need help with your logo design. (His Instagram Page- @thealamu )
To continue the story on branding, one day, while discussing the branding with Tayo, I was trying to explain something to him and I entered “Pixel Perfect ” on Instagram and VIOLA! a friend of mine had a start up with the exact name. We had to start another set of iterations for the Brand name and this took sometime. Everyone started panicking, the logo was already ready, the color codes and fonts were already chosen. Why did it have to be the name? If we changed the name, did the logo have to be changed too? That was like going back to the beginning!
The team had already been formed and so I told all the team members to suggest names. We started testing name, coming up with new suggestions like ProdUX (Product UX), PelPerfect, MindsBridge, Pixel Byte, Pitman, Colart, Pixxels, Pixwell Designs and a lot more I can’t recall. They were either taken by foreign companies or registered as Nigerian Businesses. Until a team member, Bukunmi Shonde suggested that we turned the previous name over to “Perfect Pixels” which she later joined to become “Perxels”. The similarity between Pexels (The community for photographers) and our brand Perxels was a little bit bothersome for me but I was already tired of the merry-go-round with the Brand name and so we decided to stick to it. Moreover, the name still suited well to our vision and the logo as well.
The Communication Manager
I don’t particularly see myself as ‘strict’ but as a goal getter and when I am dealing with people, I aim at making sure they are consistent with what they do. People battle a lot with consistency and for you to build your dream, you need to really look organized to the public. A lot of things have to be done right at the back end and this led to the need of someone who is emotional and can understand people in an empathic way, so that when they cannot reach out to me (especially when they aren’t able to meet up to a particular task), they can comfortably reach out to them (the communication manager). I needed someone who could be an intermediary between me and the team, the students and the community when things are not going as they ought to.
This was why I chose Olabanji Ewenla (Popularly known as Banji). It feels amazing to know that the team members reach out to him to pour out their feelings regarding issues and he has an amazing way of settling them out. Also I see him as someone who balances out my personality — While I watch out for the tasks, He watches out for the individuals.
The choosing of team members
I initially had about ten team members who consisted of my mentees and Banji. I chose them according to their level of smartness, how responsible they were based on assignments I gave them and the good traits they exhibited. Based on the fact that we were just starting out, there were a lot of back and forth. There was so much to do and a lot of them were not familiar with Teamwork, so this made it quite difficult for them. I tried to train some of them to be better at teamwork while some thought I was being strict with them. I’m pretty sure when they look back at that time now, they would understand the effort I was putting into them.
At some point, I felt some of them were no longer capable of bearing the workload and some weren’t delivering the way they should deliver. Whenever I reviewed their work, they weren’t happy and I had to tell them to excuse us in the process. I had to bring new people into the team.
I presently have six team members which I chose based on trust, integrity (of time and in work). I won’t say they are perfect and they initially didn’t even understand the dream. I love consistency and try to support them anyway I can to help improve their work. We have also begun to enjoy the outcome of our big wins together and this has helped to align them to the dream better.
See you in the next article!
I would talk about the team members and the various roles they play in Perxels.
