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Following his extensive work on the New York City subway signage in the late 1960s, Massimo Vignelli, inspired by Harry Beck’s 1933 London Underground map, simplified New York’s tangled subway map into a clean, readable system. Idsgn writer Skylar examines Vignelli’s map and how the Metropolitan Transit Authority scrapped a true work of art for an over-engineered mess.
“I think the real reason is space. But not because Manhattan is too small, it’s because they want to put too much information that doesn’t belong in the diagram. That’s why. All of a sudden there is …and there is no reason. I mean, all you want to know is [how] to go from A to B,” explained Vignelli at Navigating the Labyrinth, an AIGA/NY event hosted in February.
While it has been criticized for being geographically inaccurate, this was by design. “On purpose we rejected any visual reference to nature or landmarks,” Vigenlli told Men’s Vogue in 2008. “People expected a map instead of a diagram. But diagrammatic representation is common practice around the world since the London Underground map of the thirties.”
Vignelli had actually envisioned the map as a four-part complimentary system: the stylized map providing the basic route information; a geographic map showing the surface and the relationship between the subway and the city; a neighborhood map providing information of the area around the station and surface connections; and a verbal map to provide instruction on how to reach a destination from a particular station.
It’s also worth noting that the original Vignelli map, “has a near-cult following—with vintage maps selling for upwards of $200 on eBay, a place in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, even a designer dress. In 2008, an updated version was commissioned by Men’s Vogue magazine to raise funds for charity.”
Via idsgn.
I got an e-mail from a reader yesterday that asked me for advice on marketing her in-house design team. Unfortunately, she didn’t provide too many details on her exact situation, but thankfully there are a lot of ways to do this.
The first thing to keep in mind is that generally, in-house creative services will be cheaper to your in-house clients than if they use an external agency. Your department will also know your company’s product/services/brand better than any agency ever could, and the product you turn over to your client will most definitely reflect that. Turnover time on a given project will most always be quicker if clients go in-house, as opposed to using an agency.
Things like this are what you need to communicate to your in-house clients. I’ve found that putting notices on a company Intranet or newsletter work to let your company know your group’s talents, capabilities, and service offerings. If your company is big enough, you can even hold informational sessions (complete with short presentations and collateral material marketing your department) for the people in your company. Again, you can use this time to highlight your services, turnaround times, people, and past work.
Next (and this is something that works in companies large and small) is to network!
Get out of your department and meet people face to face. If you’re working on a project for someone, take the time to go to them instead of responding by phone or e-mail (if they’re in the same building). Not only does this give you a chance to ask a ton of questions (which will ultimately give you a better idea of their thoughts and goals on that particular project), but it will show the client that you’re a real person and not just a faceless person responding to them by phone or e-mail.
Something that I’ve been thinking of a lot recently is the importance for in-house designers to not only know the product (or service) their company is selling, but who is purchasing those goods or services. A lot of times, in-house design is just that; creatives supporting the external operational functions of a company. Unfortunately, a lot of creatives tend to get burnt out by this type of work rather quickly- most times it’s because they don’t ever get to see how their efforts contribute to the big picture.
So here’s my solution; get out of your cubicle and get into the field. Get to know how the different departments of your company fit together, and *gasp* try to get out and meet some of your company’s customers.
A few years back, I was the jack-of-all-trades marketing/creative guy for a company that provided jet fuel and concierge services to private/business aircraft and their passengers. Our corporate offices were housed within our largest base at a fairly busy airport, and on a busy day, we had a few hundred customers in and out of our building. For as much time as I spent in the office supporting the creative/marketing needs of my company, I found it beneficial to be out in front of the customer to get a better sense of their personalities, spending habits, lifestyle, and needs.
The way our building was set up, it was very easy for me to grab a cup of coffee every morning and walk around our executive terminal to observe (and meet) our customers. How did they utilize the amenities in our terminal? How were their interactions with our customer service staff? By spending 15 minutes a day doing this, I got an instant idea on if those new point-of-sale displays I designed last week were effective. I got to see if any customers paid attention to our notices and discounts advertised the LCD ad screens in our lobbies. I took note of what magazines our customers carried with them so I had a better idea where we should advertise. I got to see how our customers truly experienced our brand, and if we really were living up to our claims that we had the best customer service.
Doing this always gave me a sense of ownership in the company, and it got me thinking about how I can improve my product, and more importantly, about how I could better position my creative/marketing services to my company to meet the needs of our customers.
Granted, not all industries will allow for the same freedoms, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask your Marketing Director if you can spend a day or two out in the field to go take a look at how customers are seeing your brand “in the wild”. Ask to accompany a salesperson on a call to get a better idea of how you can improve your collateral materials, or ask to attend a trade show where your company is exhibiting to hear the sales pitch of your business development people, see how your branding elements are being used, get a sense of what potential customers are looking for, and see what your competitors are up to.
Get out of your cubicle and get to know your customers so you can see first hand how you fit into the bigger picture, and why in-house design is so valuable to a company.
Brendon Derr of Cella Consulting describes it as “the elephant in the room that nobody knows is there until it moves in the wrong direction.”
“A healthy corporate culture”, Derr explains, “can be one of the most, if not the most, valuable assets to a Creative Executive. The quantifiable outcomes of a healthy corporate culture can be tied to increased productivity, higher employee retention, accelerated learning, and more consistent innovation. If the culture is healthy and has been that way for a long period of time, you may never even realize how much you’re benefiting from it. However, when the cultural health of a creative organization goes south, you’ll quickly begin realizing its negative impact.”
Derr also points out that the creative industry has always had a problem with defining career paths, noting that “creatives tend to reach the highest rung of the corporate ladder much more quickly” then their counterparts in Human Resources, or Accounting, for example. This is something that I’ve experienced first hand; I was hired on at a company in 2005 as a Marketing Coordinator, and in about a year was promoted to Marketing Director. A promotion in title wasn’t possible, so it remained the same (but my salary grew) through my tenure there. To take Derr’s point a step further, when one is promoted quickly and has nowhere to go, one’s learning curve plateaus. Once this happens, morale drops (almost infectiously), and culture is negatively affected.
In Derr’s post, he chats with David Olson, President of Walton Consulting, Inc., who suggests,
“The key word is not ‘advancement’ but ‘contribution.’ Most companies from every industry under the sun have this problem. Intrinsically, employees want advancement so they can feel like they are growing and contributing. In an organization that is flat in the area of advancement, you need to engage the employees in other forms of growth, measure the contributions, and encourage them and reward them when their contributions grow.”
Furthermore, Olson explains that when a creative department is feeling isolated from the rest of the company, that fixing it is a leadership discussion.
“It is the leader’s job to show how each department plays a role toward helping the organization succeed, hit its goals, win the game, reach its vision, fulfill its mission, etc. It’s also important, when relevant, to show each department how they serve one another so they feel like they’re on the same team. Bottom line, leadership in any corporate function needs to define company and departmental objectives and then become evangelists in the effort to communicate it on a regular and consistent basis.”
Both men mention that keeping an eye on the culture of a team (and the organization as a whole) is something that should be done at all times.
Via the CreativeExecs Blog.
According to Tom Dorresteijn, chairman of the BNO (The Association of Dutch Designers) and initiator of the research:
“We can now prove the economic-commercial value of design with independent, scientific research. More attention for design within organizations increases financial performance and the quality of product experience. There has been a lot of research on design, but never before did research show a causal relation between investment in design and commercial return.”
…and one other note from the results of the study:
“Involving designers during the development of a new website or house style for an organization, strengthens the image of that organization in areas such as social responsibility, emotional likability, financial success and good employership.”
CEO’s: Have you thanked your design team today?
Via Edenspiekermann.
I’m pleased to announce that I just finished The Corporate Creative: Tips and Tactics for Thriving as an In-House Designer by Andy Epstein. I had the pleasure of attending two of Andy’s seminars at the 2009 HOW Design Conference in Austin, and it’s worth reporting that Andy is responsible for my current quest for knowledge on the intricacies of running (or being a part of) an in-house corporate design department.
I’ve described a few of Andy’s points that really hit home for me:
One of the most powerful actions you can take is to consistently forge strong personal relationships with your clients and upper management. Embrace the tenets of customer service! Your clients will be the biggest advocates for you (and your department) when you provide them with great service. Want some real-life proof? Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail my in-house team got yesterday:
“Hey marketing geniuses, our meeting with [name omitted] could not have gone any better! The book you all prepared for us made the meeting go incredibly smooth… It’s one thing to have a good program and talk about it, its another to back it up with the style and class you put forth… Thank you again! [Department name omitted] would still be in the dark ages if it weren’t for Marketing.”
Practice the Three-R’s: Retreat, Reflect, and Respond. Whatever that zinger is about to slip out, either mentally or physically withdraw from the situation, think about what result you’d like to have come out of that situation, and act appropriately to achieve that result. Us designers tend to wear our hearts on our sleeves… my current boss even told me once that I have no poker face. (This further explains why I don’t really care for poker.) Be professional, be polished, and be proactive.
If a client asks for something to be completed in an unworkably short period of time, don’t use the word unreasonable, which could be interpreted as your seemingly self-serving option. Use the word “unworkable” and explain why it’s unworkable. Technical constraints? Quality concerns? Need time for the creative process to happen? Tell the client, be specific about it, and over-communicate your progress!
Remember, it’s who you are that matters. Andy suggests remembering these four points:
1. It’s not enough just to be a good designer when working in-house.
2. It’s not enough to satisfy your creative muse through the practice of design.
3. It’s not enough to coast through your job.
4. And it’s definitely not enough to skirt the big issues regarding your career and blow off taking the time to really determine what you want in your professional life…As an in-house designer, you need skills that your peers in agencies and studios don’t.
As a designer, you are one of the “experts” of your brand. Andy advocates avoiding “brand blindness” by asking yourself these three questions:
1. Who buys our product?
2. Where is the first point of contact made?
3. Is the brand message clearly communicated in our design?
Focus! Interpret what the client is saying (ie. “Make the logo bigger!”) into something that will make the design better (“The client is telling me that our branding needs to be clearer to the end user… making the logo bigger may not be the best solution, but I’ll think of other ways to achieve this goal.”).
Define the problem before you offer any solutions! Whenever your client starts to art direct (and they will), move the conversation back to the marketing goals. As I mentioned in a previous post, ask questions… ask a ton of questions!
Don’t forget about quality: in your work, in your relationships, in your environment, and in your talent… if you don’t effectively advocate for quality in your companies, you and your team are destined to become mere order takers with fixed inputs and outputs, devoid of quality thought and design, that add no real value to your company.
Don’t give up! We all have our bad days, but remember to stay positive; your mood will be reflected IN your work, and in your performance AT work.
When your job beats you down, or your clients disrespect you, when you get little support from upper management, and all your peers are constantly complaining, it’s easy to throw in the towel and become just another apathetic disaffected in-house designer. If you’re unfortunate enough to get to that point, you should either quit (your job) or start taking positive action to improve your environment. Otherwise, you’ll end up far worse professionally, creatively, and personally.
Be a creative consultant; think differently than your nondesign peers and contribute perspectives and insights on nondesign problems that will be innovative and valuable. What else can be said? Make yourself available, and make yourself known as a knowledgeable and talented resource to your clients!
Andy’s book is full of very useful, and incredibly relevant information on all aspects of building, working in, and maintaining a successful, productive, and respected in-house design department. This book is so comprehensive that I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone: a current in-house designer, a designer switching over from an agency, a student, or perhaps most importantly, the Vice President of your company (who’s probably not exactly sure what the heck it is you do).
In the meantime, go buy Andy’s book at Amazon.com, or at MyDesignShop.com. While you wait for that to arrive, visit Andy’s blog, the InHOWse Designer Blog, which offers daily posts on in-house design.
Throughout my career, both as an in-house designer, and in running my own design business, I’ve seen businesses that seem to take great joy in the design-by-committee mentality… everyone wants to be part of the process, and there are never benefits to this. Think of it this way: if you hire an electrician, do you follow him around all day and tell him how to rewire your house, or do you just trust his expertise and let him fix whatever is wrong?
“My nephew is good at the Photoshop… why don’t you call him? I’m sure he can help… he’s ten.”
“My wife really likes blue. Can you make the red more blue?”
“I really need this to “pop”. Really jump off the page at the reader. Can you bold and underline this whole paragraph?”
Designers, by nature, are problem solvers. We go to school, we attend seminars, and we work tirelessly to perfect our craft, so why do outside departments feel the need to over-supervise us? Here’s my advice. Whether your client is internal or external, ask questions that go beyond the creative brief. Ask questions until you’re blue in the face. You’re working with this person; make yourself an asset to them.
What are the client’s motives?
Why is this project important to them?
What message is most important to them?
What does the client hope to accomplish with this project?
Can you or the client define a measurement of success? Is it a sales goal, a customer action, etc.?
Even if you’re not familiar with the client’s industry (or business), you can use that to your advantage:
“I’m sorry, I’m not really familiar with your field… can you explain it to me?”
“I’d like to get a better understanding of how you see this project fitting in to your overall sales process…”
Show your client that you (and your team) are a valuable resource to the company by communicating, taking the “high road”, and meeting the client (more than) halfway. Most times, the client will see that you’re truly expressing an interest in their project and they’ll let you be the expert when it comes to design.
Speider Schneider from Smashing Magazine explains,
“The sensible answer is to listen, absorb, discuss, be able to defend any design decision with clarity and reason, know when to pick your battles and know when to let go.”
As Speider mentioned, I suspect that with the proper amount of communication (I’m a trained professional), a little push-back (this is why bold-ing the whole paragraph won’t work), and a lot of patience we might just have a shot at changing things.*
Read the inspiration for this article by Speider Schneider here at Smashing Magazine.
*Of course, there are those “clients from hell” that are probably beyond help…
Produced by the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University (my alma mater), and Harvard Medical School at Harvard University, the above infograph was built using over 300 million tweets and shows density-preserving cartograms for each hour of the day (EST), by U.S. state. According to this data, us New Englanders are indeed a cranky bunch, only tweeting happy things in the early morning and late at night! (It also kind of makes me want to drop everything and move to California.)
Download a high-resolution PDF here.
My Role(s):
- Art Direction (100%)
- Design (100%)
- Copywriting (10%)
Project Description:
These collateral pieces were designed for a new value-added service of Shawmut Design and Construction focusing on green building practices. The Energy Conservation group’s sub-branding started off with a clean and modern color and type selection, then icons for the collateral pieces were designed. The branding was designed with printed collateral pieces, bid packages, web graphics, and PowerPoint slide decks in mind. To further emphasize the group’s environmentally-friendly mission, a Rolland Enviro100 80# cover stock was chosen for the digital printing (contains FSC certified 100% post-consumer fiber).
In addition to the main sales piece, a smaller note card was designed as part of a direct mail campaign to prospective clients.
Project Date: July 2010
Programs Used:
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