AI and what
makes us human
A proposal prepared by Mess for the Center for Humane Technology.
- Introduction
- Campaign Point of View
- Conceptual Direction
- Tech Stack
- Proposed Timeline
- Proposed Budget
- Work Samples & References
- The Team
- Contact Information
On behalf of the entire Mess team, Jack and I are salivating at the opportunity to help tell this enormously important story.
Hello, and thanks for hearing us out. To call the work that Center for Humane Technology is doing important is underselling just how vital it is. We're quickly approaching an inflection point in human history where nothing may be ever be the same again, and seats at the table to steer this ship are not exactly easy to come by. This will affect all of us – not just a handful of billionaires who will make trillions of dollars and the elected officials falling over themselves to get out of their way. We strongly believe in your mission and your game plan, and we want to help – with all hands on deck – at Mess in any way we can.
When we started Mess, we were a technically-minded designer and a programmer with an art director's eye. That tight integration continues 20 years later. Our lead developers are in creative kick-off meetings and our designers are involved in final QA. We all collaborate around one table and it shows. There is a level of equal parts polish and experimentation that you just won't find in a more typical agency that may outsource their development work.
As we've grown, so has our client base. We consider ourselves blessed to work with civic institutions and mission-driven organizations in addition to businesses that run the gamut from startups to the Fortune 50. In a city (Chicago, specifically) rife with creativity and talent, we are pleased to stand out as a design and development firm known for both our focus on collaborative partnership and our exceptional projects.
We believe our background and core competencies make Mess well suited to be a great partner; we also know there are a lot of firms that can build a great landing page. This subject matter resonates so hard, and hits in so many different and specific ways among our entire team; It's such a complicated and nuanced issue, the one thing I KNOW for sure is that the passion, care and intentionality we'd bring to the table will set us apart from a typical build partner. We're so excited to share our initial thoughts with you and hope to continue this conversation soon.
Sincerely,
Jack Shedd
Partner / Interactive Director
Rob Robinson
Partner / Managing Director
This is far too complicated to distill into a tidy little headline.
Before we even get into thorny weeds of AI, I think it's useful to take a beat and look at the world around us. Between never ending global conflicts with ever-moving goalposts, inequality soaring so dramatically the economy won't be able to reasonably even be called "k-shaped" for much longer, and well... you know- all of it? Everything is just kinda weird and shitty right now. That is the backdrop we're working against– a weird and shitty one.
Enter AI– and the doomers, the optimists, the opportunists, the linkedin grifters. A dizzying amount of discourse, dancing around questions that none of us are capable of knowing the answers to. And that's just the big broad stuff, out there. Closer to home, we're wrestling with where AI fits into our small business and its culture. We all agree mandates are stupid, and want people to figure their own work flows, but now there are new problems– some staff are so overworked they don't have time to explore these tools, while the ones that do have time to build fun things end up creating resentment alongside whatever it is they vibe coded.
On a personal level, it's not been any less weird or complicated. I'm having a blast staying up late on weekends building software I have no business building, while at the same time thinking about how I now pay rent to use my own computer. Never mind devaluing the craft that is the backbone of Mess, the craft that supports my family. And while I'd like to think that Anthropic is the better, more upstanding alternative to Open AI and the like, they turn around and buy a zillion dollars worth of compute from Elon– is that compute coming from that data center in Memphis with all the "temporary" generators wrecking environmental havoc on a black community? Since January, a non-insignificant amount of time in therapy has been spent discussing AI-related bullshit; the highs, the anxieties, recognizing the constant contradictions and attempting to reconcile what I can.
CHT's content has been helpful in two major ways. First, it's been key in reframing AI as a product; it's not magic, it's not a black box, it's a thing that some people made and marketed. Understanding that was both easy and important. The second takeaway, while just as important, is quite a bit trickier– and that's not letting cynicism sideline us. Between Silicon Valley's heel turn of late (we're well past "don't be evil") and the rampant corruption and self-dealing in our government, it can feel so much easier to think this is hopeless, give up with our heads down, and hope for the best. But we can't. Now is the time we have to put one foot in front of the other and do the work. Working atop the foundational steps CHT has laid out, we want to help build a world where this technology works for everyone, not seven weird, anti-social trillionaires. We are so ready to help do this.
We modernized a Chicago cultural institution for the digital age.
We're cool with any headless cms.
We strongly believe code is code at Mess, and don't push any one platform based on "partnership" programs with vendors. We do have opinions, some of which are fairly strong– we like NUXT on the frontend, and prefer Google's Kubernetes on the back– but ultimately, we'll work with whatever tech stack your content and engineering staff prefer. We're also happy to help evaluate and will share honest, candid thoughts and feelings.
We plan on roughly five weeks tip-to-tail.
Week 1: Kickoff (6/17)
Week 2: Design (6/22 - 6/26)
Week 3: Design / Development (6/29 - 07/03)
Week 4: Development (7/7 - 7/10)
Week 5: QA (7/13 - 7/17)
Launch Friday 7/17/2026
This will cost $48,850
DISCOVERY: $3,850
DESIGN: $14,000
DEVELOPMENT: $14,000
QA: $7,000
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: $10,000
Pricing is based on senior-level resources working through a five week sprint; all staff is dedicated to the project with the exception of the producer, who is dedicated 2 hours/day over the course of five weeks. This budget includes labor only, and assumes project will be hosted on client's existing infrastructure. Client is responsible for any external charges, including but not limited to font and image licensing and third party software / services.
We overhauled the online experience for a tech company's blockbuster conference.
UNBOUND is HubSpot's dynamic three-day conference dedicated to the latest trends and tactics in marketing, sales and AI. With inspiring keynotes, educational breakouts, HubSpot product announcements and demos, hands-on workshops and unique networking and entertainment experiences, it's a can't-miss event for anyone looking to elevate their personal growth.
HubSpot reached out to Mess to overhaul the digital presence for the conference, beginning with their 2024 event. After a deep discovery process and collaborating with their event production partner on the overall branding and design direction, Mess spent weeks optimizing user flows and optimizing key processes in the wireframing phase.
Since that initial launch, Mess has partnered with HubSpot to iterate, refine, and enhance the digital experience for conference attendees, adding new features and capabilities each year, while keeping the brand treatment freshly honed on the cutting edge.
CLIENT REFERENCE:
Stephanie Kelch
Director, Global Event Production
HubSpot
(303) 518-6669
We overhauled the online experience for a tech company's blockbuster conference.
UNBOUND is HubSpot's dynamic three-day conference dedicated to the latest trends and tactics in marketing, sales and AI. With inspiring keynotes, educational breakouts, HubSpot product announcements and demos, hands-on workshops and unique networking and entertainment experiences, it's a can't-miss event for anyone looking to elevate their personal growth.
HubSpot reached out to Mess to overhaul the digital presence for the conference, beginning with their 2024 event. After a deep discovery process and collaborating with their event production partner on the overall branding and design direction, Mess spent weeks optimizing user flows and optimizing key processes in the wireframing phase.
Since that initial launch, Mess has partnered with HubSpot to iterate, refine, and enhance the digital experience for conference attendees, adding new features and capabilities each year, while keeping the brand treatment freshly honed on the cutting edge.
CLIENT REFERENCE:
Stephanie Kelch
Director, Global Event Production
HubSpot
(303) 518-6669
We transformed a Chicago cultural organization's digital presence.
Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) has had an ongoing awareness problem. While they're well known for their architectural boat cruises and Open House Chicago festival, the vast majority of residents and tourists had no idea that CAC also offers a physical space filled with fascinating exhibitions, hosts a plethora of programs, events and camps for both youth and professionals, runs a variety of daily walking tours, and offers a wealth of online educational resources.
With the need to radically re-think their digital presence, Mess established a new strategy to prioritize the "what's happening right now" content while making sure that the free, educational content was still easily accessible. We completely rethought their city tours UI, offering multiple ways to find the right tours, times, and dates that fit your schedule and interests.
Rather than developing native iOS and Android apps, Mess' Open House Chicago approach was to instead build a progressive web app, allowing us to work more efficiently using a single code-base and without the costly maintenance that native apps require due to frequent operating system rollouts. The app allows users to discover and explore neighborhoods, architectural sites, tours and special events, all while using the embedded map functionality to navigate to their chosen destinations.
CLIENT REFERENCE:
Lauren Bakos
Sr. Director, Marketing & Membership
Chicago Architecture Center
(504) 812-4003
We transformed a Chicago cultural organization's digital presence.
Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) has had an ongoing awareness problem. While they're well known for their architectural boat cruises and Open House Chicago festival, the vast majority of residents and tourists had no idea that CAC also offers a physical space filled with fascinating exhibitions, hosts a plethora of programs, events and camps for both youth and professionals, runs a variety of daily walking tours, and offers a wealth of online educational resources.
With the need to radically re-think their digital presence, Mess established a new strategy to prioritize the "what's happening right now" content while making sure that the free, educational content was still easily accessible. We completely rethought their city tours UI, offering multiple ways to find the right tours, times, and dates that fit your schedule and interests.
Rather than developing native iOS and Android apps, Mess' Open House Chicago approach was to instead build a progressive web app, allowing us to work more efficiently using a single code-base and without the costly maintenance that native apps require due to frequent operating system rollouts. The app allows users to discover and explore neighborhoods, architectural sites, tours and special events, all while using the embedded map functionality to navigate to their chosen destinations.
CLIENT REFERENCE:
Lauren Bakos
Sr. Director, Marketing & Membership
Chicago Architecture Center
(504) 812-4003
We reimagined a philanthropic endeavor's category-defining story.
Chicago Beyond is a non-profit organization that aims to back the fight for youth equity. They have a powerful mission, but their plans and ideas are so big that it seemed nearly impossible to communicate them on their website. That's why they came to Mess for help.
During our immersion into their organization and brand positioning, we uncovered a common truth that many non-profits face — the language they use to talk about their goals didn't resonate with an outside audience that doesn't speak the same dialect as they do at Chicago Beyond.
With a clear strategy in hand, we went to work completely overhauling the UX of the site so that their mission and offerings were clear and intuitive to anyone who might find them on the internet. We also brought that same perspective to their brand visuals, crafting a new look & feel that delicately balances the gravity of the issues they battle with levity and the hope of a brighter future for the next generation.
CLIENT REFERENCE:
Lauren Bakos
Sr. Director, Marketing & Membership
Chicago Architecture Center
(504) 812-4003
We reimagined a philanthropic endeavor's category-defining story.
Chicago Beyond is a non-profit organization that aims to back the fight for youth equity. They have a powerful mission, but their plans and ideas are so big that it seemed nearly impossible to communicate them on their website. That's why they came to Mess for help.
During our immersion into their organization and brand positioning, we uncovered a common truth that many non-profits face — the language they use to talk about their goals didn't resonate with an outside audience that doesn't speak the same dialect as they do at Chicago Beyond.
With a clear strategy in hand, we went to work completely overhauling the UX of the site so that their mission and offerings were clear and intuitive to anyone who might find them on the internet. We also brought that same perspective to their brand visuals, crafting a new look & feel that delicately balances the gravity of the issues they battle with levity and the hope of a brighter future for the next generation.
CLIENT REFERENCE:
Katie Hickey O'Leary
Director of Creative & Communications
Chicago Beyond
(312) XXX-XXXX
A dash of circus freaks, wine nerds, and dungeon masters — and that's just our producer.
Jack Shedd
Partner / Interactive Director
Twenty years building digital things that work. Insists on doing it right.
As with most senior engineers, LLMs have quickly become a force multiplying addition to Jack's daily workflow, and he looks forward to the day he can run them locally on a Mac in his closet.
Nick Grygiel
Creative Director
Makes it beautiful and makes sure it says something. Usually the same thing.
Fairly neutral, but mostly because he's too busy doing real work to play with Claude. While Nick does see some value in offloading rote tasks, he's not incredibly thrilled to see AI shoved in everywhere.
Shannon Lorenz Desmond
Production Director
Former circus producer. Turns out agencies and circuses have more in common than you'd think.
The biggest skeptic on the team, Shannon doesn't think we should give fun jobs to machines. She sees the benefit of automating some stuff via Asana and Notion's APIs, but if it magically went away she'd be just fine without it.
Rob Robinson
Partner / Managing Director
Finds the clients, keeps the studio pointed roughly north.
Trying to find the right balance between productivity and sustainability. Rob's having fun and taking care of business with his $100/mo Claude plan, but doesn't always feel super great about it for... you know– reasons.
Thank you for your consideration.
We appreciate you taking the time to review our response to your RFP. CHT's mission is incredibly important, and we really, really would love to work on this project. Seriously. It's not about money or prestige, we want to work with Tristan and the entire team at CHT to help build real, lasting change.
If you have any questions about our proposal, please don't hesitate to reach out to Rob directly at (312) 504-5385 or via email at the link below. We hope to hear back from you soon!
rrobinson@thisismess.com