Koncept Design Studio Reviews

Clients are all in the multi-family industry for the most part. Projects lack creativity and follow no process. There is not real digital web department. They sell web design and development but they are not set up to support that level of work. They are simply a production shop so don't expect your portfolio to grow and your work won't be appreciated at all. The president of the company is one of the worst people I have ever worked for and promises the client everything with no regard to project timelines, staffing limitations or what can actually be delivered. They have a total identity crisis and want to be everything to everyone making it completely impossible to be consistent and good at anything. They do design that is never very creative, web with too few resources, print projects that take too long, promotional items that no one needs and interior design which makes total sense in a marketing and design company. Its just a hodgepodge or odd and awkward. Several people recently have left because of their health and stress cased by the company's owners and president.

Koncept Design Studio’s three partners run their “business” with less planning and self-awareness than a clutch of drunken sorority girls ordering Taco Bell at 2 o’clock in the morning. The only creatures in the office that are possibly less self-aware and more poorly socialized than the partners themselves are the filthy, malevolent curs they bring in on a daily basis to torment their employees and any clients unfortunate enough to set foot in the office. The partners are too lazy to do the hard work it takes to lead, too arrogant to take a step back and follow the lead of their employees, and too insecure to simply get out of the way. Their priorities are made clear by their actions: they rarely show up before 10 A.M. and usually leave by 3:30 P.M.; they cancel or just don’t show up for meetings without a second thought; they task already-busy employees with irrelevant, last-minute pro-bono personal projects for themselves, their friends and family while billable client projects are inexplicably pushed to the side to be rushed through and stressed over another day. The partners’ pigheaded refusal to adopt or follow any kind of process ensures that even the simplest tasks are rife with the chaos and drama that they seem to relish over any real success. The daily reality of running a business in relation to the needs of employees and clients alike always takes a back seat to the partners’ endless vacations to mountain and beach houses, wine with friends, family drama, yoga classes… the list is endless. However, they always find plenty of time for passive-aggressive emails about taking out the trash, cleaning out the dishwasher, and replacing toilet paper rolls. The partners are fond of saying KDS is “like a family,” but it becomes apparent fairly quickly that they’re the family and you’re the servant in that simile. Not only do they show no interest in getting to know their employees, they often don’t even know the names of some employees who have worked there for several years. We’re talking about a company with less than 30 employees. Not surprisingly, the turnover rate is absolutely stunning, and employees run through KDS like water through a sieve. In the time I was there (a few years) more than 50 people came and went. The failure of Koncept is ultimately bound up in the baffling pathology of the partners. Unable to innovate, they continually turn back to the same tired client base, the same poorly-thought-out business practices, and the same half-step solutions to endemic problems. They never actually change their mindset, honestly accept or act on constructive criticism, or pay attention to the daily needs of their business.