100% Local Team
Est. 2005
5.0 About Us
Twenty Years of Putting Rhode Island Businesses Online
Started in 2005 as a logo shop. Rhode Island owned, and we still answer our own phones.
Black Door Creative is a Rhode Island web design and marketing company, founded in 2005 and Rhode Island owned ever since. The promise has not changed in twenty years: we build the website, we run the marketing, and when you call, the person who owns the company picks up. No account managers, no ticket queue.
Since 2005
Twenty plus years in Rhode Island, Rhode Island owned the whole time.
500+ websites launched
For restaurants, plumbers, law firms, manufacturers, and most things in between.
5.0 rated
Rated by businesses you can look up, on both of our Google profiles.
How it started, and what changed
Black Door Creative opened in 2005, the year Rob Arel finished college, as a small branding and logo design shop he started with his friend Kevin Belmont. The work back then was helping new Rhode Island businesses get off the ground: a name, a mark, the first thing a customer ever sees.
The clients got bigger and the work followed them. With a marketing background behind it, the company added web design, then social media, because both had gone from optional to the daily engine of how a local business gets found. That is still the shape of it today. The website is the front door, and the monthly marketing is what keeps people walking through it.
Now Black Door is run by Rob and his wife Jae, who heads up the social media side, along with a handful of employees. More than 500 websites later, our clients are still mostly Rhode Island businesses, and the reason they stay is the reason they came in the first place: they can get a person on the phone.
Along the way we have launched sites for restaurants, plumbers, law firms, manufacturers, and just about everything in between. DesignRush recognized our attorney website design work, a nice nod, though the client reviews mean more to us.
Web design is usually how a client finds us. The reason they stay is the monthly work: SEO, Google Ads, and digital marketing that keep a site earning long after launch. The tools have changed a lot since 2005. The model has not: plain answers, local accountability, and work you can point to.
Part of the community we work for
Black Door is Rhode Island owned, based in Cranston since 2005 with a second location in Providence. Both profiles are 5 star rated on Google, and many of those reviews name the person who did the work. We are part of the community we work for: the businesses we build sites for are the same ones we drive past on the way in every morning.
5.0 What clients say
Verbatim from our Google Business Profile. Names are real and you can look every one of them up.
“SOS Plumbing & Heating has been working with Rob at Black Door Creative for almost a year, and the experience has been excellent. They've handled everything from our marketing and website to improving our day-to-day customer flow. It's been a huge benefit having someone local and genuinely accessible, especially after dealing with larger companies where communication gets dragged out and nothing seems to move forward.”
“Rob and his team at Black Door Creative really knocked it out of the park for my company!!! We are now on solid footing with SEO, development and Google Ads and we cannot thank you enough!”
“We had the pleasure of working with Black Door Creative to build a new website. We couldn't be more pleased with the results. From start to finish, their team excelled in communication.”
“We couldn't be happier with the amazing job Black Door Creative did with creating our new website. Rob was responsive and always updated our website whenever we needed it.”
“Rob and Thalia at Black Door Creative surpassed every expectation we had when we set out to rebuild our website and digital presence. Their communication, marketing insight, design skills, and affordability are second to none.”
“I was looking to hire a designer to help redesign a website for my landscaping & construction company. After much research I found Rob and he wasted no time in setting up a consultation with me. His attention to detail and knowledge was what made me comfortable moving forward. I cannot say more about his customer service and patience.”
Built for the business that does not want to become an expert
If you know your website or your marketing is underperforming and you have no interest in becoming an expert to fix it, you are exactly who this company was built for. Get in touch and talk it through with the person who will do the work.