At that time of this conversation Russell was Creative Director of Dave, the brand consultancy (Part of the Engine group). He is now Design Director at Ico Design. Russell has delivered workshops to FdA students and through conversations such as this one has made a significant contribution to the development of the FdA.
Here is how Dave describe themselves:
'Dave is built on a fundamental conviction that the old way in brand consultancy isn't working. It is slow, arrogant, full of pseudo-science and, worst of all, it isn't making an impact. In 2003 we set out to do things differently.
We believe that successful brands act as an organizing principle. They deliver a compelling promise to customers that they can easily identify and buy into, and create a powerful internal culture where employees are energized and focused on common goals.
We work closely with our clients to not just set these goals, but also help to achieve them. Developing robust strategies that are obsessively focused on measurable results, we create brands that cut through the clutter, drive performance and transform organisations from the inside out.
We have clients of all sizes in every industry sector, but they all have one thing in common: they're going through change. They want to launch new products, break into new markets, integrate an acquisition, or completely turn around a failing business.'
Derek and Russell began by talking about why it is beneficial for industry work with interns:
RH: This is a young industry and ideas move so quickly that somebody at college could provide a really useful insight into things like social media and be much more web savvy than a 40 year old like myself. Young people provide insight into new ideas and new ways of thinking.
DY. Why would Dave want this?
RH. This is true across the industry. Young people have grown up with digital media and use things like Facebook, Youtube, Vimeo and Flicker every day. Now the web is not just another medium, it is THE medium. Their are new ways of communicating that an agency like this just has to be in the loop with.
DY. Are their forms of work based learning that you would be interested in working with other than placements?
RH. Absolutely, we would be interested in coming in to set projects, not just to sap students ideas but in all honesty, it is just really useful for us to get a direct tap into how people under 20 think. In return we could run workshops and portfolio surgeries. Even a tour of this building would be useful for students to get them used to a design studio environment. A really important thing with placements is that they adapt quickly and feel comfortable in an environment like this. They also have to be very proactive and understand how to get the most out of the people that they work with. Its really important that they are not intimidated by how cool or not cool it is here.
We really need people that can work with other people. A student needs to take a brief away and produce a piece of work that’s appropriate with somebody looking over their shoulder. This is something that students sometimes find difficult as at college they are often working on their own or on their Mac in their bedroom.
2 things that really shock student s are the speed that work needs to be produced at and the level at which work is criticized/ They really need to learn when and how to fight battles for their ideas - its a democratic process so you need to understand when not to criticize and when to criticize. You cannot work in isolation. Only about 2% of designers can ever take a piece of work away and just do it in their style. You really need to deal with the fact that the person who approves you work will be wrong. You know they’re wrong, everybody on the job knows they’re wrong, but you all have to deal with their decision. It might be quite interesting to set up this scenario in a college environment. ie get students to crit and make corrections to each others work and give these recommendations to another student to put into action.
DY. Some people have argued that college should be a sanctified environment where students are given total freedom. They argue that too many limitations restrict creativity. What do you think?
RH. I think this is possible but you need a balance because when it comes to producing real work you need a knowledge of what works in context.
“A really successful placement happens when you get somebody who is really creative and pushing the boundaries, who realizes that this happens at college and puts it in its place while realizing the advantages of the freedom he is getting”.
“A good placement should prepare a student for the real world without beating their interest in design out of them”.
DY. What do you think of students attitudes to things like branding? Some talk about it as if its a dirty word.
RH. I think students need to understand that we are all part of an economic system. Graphic designers, home-spun illustrators and even public sector workers like yourself are all indirectly paid by things like branding. Even fine artists work is bought by people who have made their millions in things like branding and advertising.
DY. Do you think its possible for students to have an experience on a placement that will enable them to avoid the bottle-necks we have at certain ends of this industry?
RH. A majority of students still come out of college with similar portfolios. ie. some typography, a bit of layout and some logo design........ is that what the industry want to see? No. We want to see somebody who can have an idea, implement that idea, but also to be able to explain why that idea works and why they made the critical decisions that shaped that idea. Graphic designers love doing logos and layout, that’s a give, but there are many more roles that somebody needs to fulfill in a studio. We need somebody who is much more rounded. People that can do moving image, copy writing, create ideas and think through creative strategies.
DY. Yeah but would you really employ somebody who was rounded?
RH. Absolutely. James is a furniture designer. He had no design work in his portfolio but had loads of great ideas. The business model that we employ uses lots of senior creatives. There is a model that uses lots of art workers and a couple of creative directors. This is very financially efficient but quite bottom heavy and as a result, quite slow moving. At Dave, our designers have a real range of skills and abilities and this enables them to work on a far greater range of projects. We obviously have particular gaps that come up and would first and foremost look to employ people to fill these gaps but we would then give priority to somebody who could offer us other options. Somebody who could grow into lots of different roles. The senior middle-weight junior model isn’t useful for a company like Dave. We don’t really have a hierarchy.
DY. Is this something that is changing across the communication design business?
RH. Yes. There aren’t that many juniors. Middle weights and seniors enable a fast moving, agile business that can turn work around quickly. Projects get handed around the studio so that we can use the skill sets that we have. We, like most design businesses do not have the luxury of big budgets and so can’t afford to foster specialists. So, to function in our studio, a junior or a placement would have to interpret the needs of different jobs and adapt quickly. For example, it might be that when they are asked to go away and put down some ideas this might mean some pencil sketches or more elaborate worked up computer renders. The student would need to be able to make that judgment. Students need to learn very quickly what they job they are doing is for. They need to understand what their position is in the chain. In the time since we left college we have seen the advent of the Mac, the digital camera and color inkjet printing. Students can now, in their bedroom, produce something that looks as finished as something produced by a really expensive repro house in our day. This is very seductive, they can style something up really quickly, and maybe because of this they don’t think enough about what it is for. They also don’t think enough about what it is meant to be saying and as a result, find it difficult to make a decision. They can just make another and each version looks professional so it doesn’t matter that it isn’t saying anything.
“You can get locked into the gloss but at the core of everything we strive to have a really good idea because ideas are the things that capture peoples attention”.
Agencies like North, Farrow and Cartlidge Levine produce beautiful work that is governed by a visual dogma and they do it really, really, really well. But these agencies are few and far between and if a student is seduced by the production of a beautiful visual gloss, they better make sure that they are the best at it. At Dave lots of our business is about strategy. Every visual decision needs to be justified through a piece of research. Some brands are intentionally ugly and shouty. Look at Go Compare or Confused.com. They look like this because this is right for their audience and right for the sector of the market that they inhabit. A strategists makes this decision for these brands. Strategy is actually a really good option for graphic designers. A totally different route that involves wearing a suit and presenting to the board but a majority of strategists have got graphic design degrees.
DY. This is interesting because with the amount of students coming out of college, graduate need to know their options. Not everyone is going to do layout, design logos and create posters.
RH. Very few, in fact. Graphic design at its heart is a very good training for lots of things. Its not just a cool job, it can be the best and worst job in the world. It would be really interesting to trace what people do 10 years after they leave college and see if there are any trends. At its best, graphic design education teaches you how to think about the world, structure information and solve problems. You can take something very complex, take it apart and present it in a way that people can understand and to do this you learn to summarize, edit and simplify. This is useful across a range of fields.
DY. Absolutely. For example Graphic designers make excellent educators.
RH. Graphic designers also can shape the profitability of a business. The presentation can be the business. Look at comparethemarket.com. I went to the zoo recently and stood next to the mere cat enclosure as one by one children and adults shouted “compare the mere cat .com” in a russian accent. That’s the power of branding, and that’s the power of graphic designers - not doing pretty layout and designing a nice poster.
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