Less is more: cApStAn’s new website goes live today

A few months back, a client said he had spent 20 minutes on our website and still wasn’t sure he understood what cApStAn does. I am genuinely grateful for this unsettling report: it gave us the right impulse to reflect on what we do, how we do it, why we do it, and to formulate it. While we were at it, we packed the outcome of this process in a new logo.

Four icons, four core activities: Guide, Translate, Certify and Share.

Visit our website and you’ll agree that it is clear and coherent. And short. Everything you always wanted to know about this mysterious linguistic quality assurance concept is only a couple of clicks away. The site doesn’t give you all the technicalities, but it frames the activity, sets it out and, hopefully, will make you curious.

It took some work to prune the text, to simplify the visuals and to agree on the essentials (thanks to all involved: the coach, the graphic designer, the task force, the reviewer and many others). It was worth the effort. There was an inherent contradiction between how well we know our work and how challenging it seemed to explain what we do. Today, we believe this is resolved.

The picture, taken this month, shows a determined cApStAn team, walking uphill. One senses the dynamics at play, the sense of buoyancy. Today, twelve nationalities are represented in our Brussels and Philadelphia offices. This team is strong enough to handle (very) large projects, such as OECD/PISA, and small enough to be vibrant, flexible and reactive.

cApStAn is on track to guide the localization process; to translate sensitive documents so that they hit the mark; to certify that your source text is ready (for translation in a given set of languages); to validate the output; and to share best practices: we are proud to contribute to raising the standard of our profession.