nclud, the digital web and mobile design agency located in the District, recently expanded to a new 7,000-square-foot location on K Street. The new space has allowed the agency to be as inclusive as its name suggests, holding events large and small, such as last month's
design battle and an upcoming event on September 12 featuring Jeffrey Everett of
El Jefe Design.
"Our name is nclud; it's part of our DNA to include everybody," explains Maxim Leyzerovich, senior UX designer for the company. "We're nothing without community in D.C."
According to Leyzerovich, nclud was founded as a boutique agency in 2007 by Martin Ringlein and Alex Girón. When Ringlein and Girón left the company in June 2012 for positions with Twitter, Kerry Gunther, nclud's current CEO, stepped in to run the agency. Since the change at the top, Leyzerovich says, the company has shifted and is now a "real-time agency. nclud has changed with the times," he explains, "[We now have] a collaborative team and direct designer–client interaction."
With 25 people working full time for clients large and small—NASDAQ, Rosetta Stone, Discovery Channel and Oracle are a few—nclud needed larger digs. A bigger space makes it easier to host events that Leyzerovich says are part of the culture at nclud. "We host events where people can rub shoulders and have a beer," he says. Those events range from free weekly meetups for design professionals to larger events such as the planned discussion on being authentic in a creative space with Everett in September and a fireside chat with
Tige Savage, managing partner of Revolution Ventures, in November.
"We do more than just party," says Leyzerovich. "I'm a design mentor at 1776, representing nclud, which is part of our [goal] of helping out the community." The community building is "one part of what of what we do," he continues. "Our clients are the most important thing—building kick-ass websites and kick-ass mobile sites [for them]."