We don't do that here

So what kind of design do you do? That’s the question that almost always comes back after I tell someone I’m a designer (because they asked, I don’t go around proclaiming this fact). It’s a long and complicated answer to that question so I usually just say I design logos.

Our last studio was a shop unit in Glasgow City Centre and we certainly caused some confusion in that context. Before we started locking the door we had some folk actually walk in and sit down at a computer thinking it was an internet cafe (remember them)? Other times people came in and just wandered over to peruse the bookshelves thinking we were a bookshop. Locking the door kind of helped but still people would knock and ask, ‘what is it that you do here’? Actually we did gain a couple of great clients this way! But we were also treated to a lengthy pitch for an innovative new kind of brick, which as far as we know, is yet to revolutionise the construction industry.

There are a lot of things that we don’t do. Our inhouse team consists of Directors and Designers. We are all also Producers. That’s it. It became clear to us early on that actually, every project we undertook was very different and addressing each one in the same way with the same set of individuals wasn’t going to yield the best results for our clients. However a super-niche position also wasn’t right for us, we value the variety in our work and feel it benefits our clients.

We take the view that a design project is a design project and that finding the right outcome isn’t to do with having direct and specific experience of that exact type of project already, but to do with bringing a process to bear that helps unravel the issues and find new outcomes in the right ways. This is better as the same outcomes, over and over, lose power and definition. Things get bland and muddy and hard to recognise.

So rather than try to develop a jack-of-all-trades service offering in house we chose to develop our cosmos of collaborators, making sure that everyone fits of course. 

They may be from the usual roster, like Manufacturers, Photographers, Stylists, Copywriters and Developers or possess less obvious skills like Strategists, SEO experts, Digital and Content Marketing specialists.Of course it’s important that we maintain an overview understanding of everything from our central point, but this model means we can find the right experts to collaborate with and build our team to bring the best possible results for you and your project. A tailored garment rather than something off the shelf.

We know that the needs of a specific client or project will change over time. In a recent article I mentioned this idea that most projects are never ‘finished’ as such but just go through developmental stages in a kind of cycle. Our model means that we can service the needs of a project in different ways at different stages of this cycle. We can use our learnings as things progress to best plot a course for the future with you.

But of course it’s not all about clearly defined ‘service’ is it? Sometimes it’s fuzzy and vague, you just need to bounce ideas, get another take, an outside opinion. We often get involved in discussions about all kinds of things. Just this week, what music to select at an event, whether a T-Shirt would be a better giveaway than a tote bag, or how a particular product might make a better first impression. None of this really falls under this service or that, it’s peripheral but actually really important. It fills the spaces between the strategies, it’s where the light gets in and the connections are made.