CORPORATE RELATIONS
Last December, Applied Arts interviewed four corporate communications professionals, all major purchasers of design services in Canada, about their thoughts on the designer/client relationship. Following is an edited version of those conversations.
Applied Arts: How often do you look for a new designer?
David Coll, Petro-Canada: Everything is driven by company strategy. When there's a change of direction in the company or we feel we need a new direction, we'll look for a new designer. Sometimes printing will determine where we go we switched our printer last year from Vancouver to Toronto, so we were looking for a designer in Toronto. All things being equal we'd probably look every two years anyway. I don't like to change every year. I don't think that's beneficial. I like to build up a certain synergy if it's working well.
Helen Reeves,
iRecognize Inc.,: Depends on the project, but for a recurring project
like an annual report, I rarely change designers every year. Once you
find the right fit, a long-term working relationship works best. The
designer begins to understand your goals. It's an investment on both
sides. Some people do reviews for competitive budget reasons. I know
what the rates are. I don't make the designer jump through hoops for
the business.
Roxanne Pearce, Telus Communications
Inc.,: We don't have a formal review system. I tend to rely on the same
ones. They re not bound to accountability or our bottom line like
agencies are. Within the past three years we've used three design
firms.
AA: How do you identify potential new firms?
Ted
Rideout, Nestle Canada Inc.,: We have a very broad experience inside
Nestle. Word of mouth comes not from the street, but from people's
experiences here. Design annuals are also a great way to stay current
in the design world. When we're looking for a design firm, we want to
meet people we've heard of. Then we narrow it down to a shortlist.
DC:
I look at design annuals, and Canadian, American and European awards,
and I read design magazines. I get about 300 annual reports. I'm not
going to lie and say I read them but I look through them and put sticky
notes on them. I may get a few content ideas, but largely I look at the
design. But my main source is design annuals. I look for new names,
ones I've never seen before. One other unique thing is that I look for
companies who have designed books in French as well. We've gotten ideas
in the past from looking at leading reports like Molson's and Bank of
Montreal, and taken examples from other industries. If IBM does
something that's a little out of step a little unexpected a lot of
companies will notice and a lot of designers will notice, too.
RP:
We always have a shortlist in our head. When there's a change in
relationship or when there's a project where you need some fresh eyes,
you call the people on the shortlist. There's also award annuals,
listings in magazines, a little bit of word of mouth. But that works
more for agencies than design firms. Direct mail is another way to get
on the virtual shortlist, but it doesn't have as much an impact as the
annuals or the awards. Still, when people send me stuff in the mail I
do file it. Direct mail, advertising in industry vehicles, entering
annual contests and award shows, it's all part of the designer's
approach to their marketing of themselves.
AA: How often are you approached by design firms? Does persistence work or are you annoyed by repeated calls and letters?
TR:
I get phone calls and direct mail weekly, but I tend not to put a lot
of weight on them. I'll take a quick glance at a client list, but I
find the client list is a bit of a red herring there are a lot of
design firms who put Nestle on their client list, and they haven't done
anything for us in years.
I have no problem with a phone call. I
understand people have to build their business fair enough. I'll
generally ask them to send something to me. But persistence doesn't
work. It just gets in my way. I'd prefer to receive something in the
mail first and then I don't mind the follow-up phone call. Quality work
is the only thing that stands out. It's quite interesting when
companies write a little something about the challenge and solution and
processes they've gone through on a specific project. That background
stuff is almost as important to me as the great picture of the package.
DC: My phone starts ringing off the hook in mid-August. I
get approached a lot, and I'll look at everything that crosses my desk.
I ask for references. I have friends who are analysts and will get
feedback from them. With some firms, persistence pays off if the person
is professional about it. If I believe they believe what they're
telling me, I don't mind persistence. I don't want to alienate anyone
for trying. But when a company is parachuting someone into town to try
to do all your business with one phone call, it's obvious. I did have
one bad experience. One firm had a young fellow who was making phone
calls and he was fairly aggressive. I told him to send me some stuff
and I'd be happy to look at it. The material wasn't too bad but he had
such a cocky attitude, saying things like, "We're an award-winning
company." He was really trying to put on the flash. It was
embarrassing. At one point he actually called me "Dude" on the phone.
That sealed the deal.
HR: They haven't found me in my
new job yet. (laugh) In my previous two (as VP corporate communications
at Noranda for 11 years until February 1999, and then at Ontario Hydro
Services Co. for just over a year) I got a lot of phone calls and a lot
of mailers. I don't think I ever worked with someone who sent me direct
mail or called me. Because I keep up to date on who's doing what and
what I like, if it was one of those I would call them. The DM and
marketing never really influenced me. Not to say that some of the
marketing isn't good, but I know I've never followed up actively on any
of those.
RP: Between Web developers, designers and
media types, I get several calls a day. I find this very annoying; I'm
in meetings all day long every day. The fact that someone thinks
they're going to get me at my desk to have a conversation on their
schedule I find pretty short-sighted in today's world.
AA: What do you look for in a designer?
TR:
When we select a designer, it's both a business and a design capability
process we go through. Because we enter into a relationship that's like
a partnership, there has to be compatibility all the way down the line
for Nestle. It's not atypical relationship it's very much viewed as a
partnership. We look to add value to each other's businesses. We have
two formal reviews during the year, but it's not just us reviewing them
we review each other. From a communication point of view, they're asked
to make sure everything they create is compatible with the packaging if
they create point-of-sale stuff it has to be compatible to what has
been communicated on package. All the visual properties must work well
together. The design firm has to ensure that.
RP: I look
for someone who listens well and doesn't bring an elitist approach and
has a passion for pure and true design. It's a fine balance: someone
who holds true to what they believe in and yet doesn t forcefeed it
down people's throats who maybe can't live in that pure world.
Listening skills are really important. I look for a systematic approach
not only to their thinking about design, but also to their approach to
a project. I always find it wonderful to talk to a designer things that
are on seven pieces of paper suddenly become a flow chart. If they're
good, they bring a clarity of thinking. People who rely too much on
technology as opposed to relying on their sense of design make me
nervous. It makes me nervous to see designers with a mouse in their
hand instead of a pencil. I really look for thinking. There's a sense
from some clients that you're paying for the output or the product as
opposed to the thinking, which I find disturbing. They say things like,
"We didn't run that, so we re not paying for it." That's horrifying.
We're paying for the designers' brains. Great work is an output of
great thinking, and you can't always demonstrate great thinking by just
showing the final product because you don't really understand what the
objectives were. They have to understand the world clients live in: we
do have bottom line accountability, we have to explain budgets to
senior management. The designer has to understand it and assist in
that. Oh, and we also look for someone who does good work.
DC:
We're looking for design that I feel is compatible with the direction
of Petro-Can we're a fairly conservative company in a conservative
industry. We want to present the company in the best light. A classy
design, but it can't be overdone bright colours are generally out.
Everything I do here I have to sell to a committee as well as the
executives. They need to generally see some kind of precedent. That's
why I get all the other reports. They help me to explain my ideas.
Everything has to be backed up with rationale. You really have to tie
it in to the strategy. The challenge is to work within that framework
and try to make the most of it. We're maybe a little biased toward
boutique firms because of the personal service aspect, but the danger
is that they're too small sometimes. They have to have the staff. A lot
of Calgary companies will outsource production; that scares the hell
out of me. I need stability. We also want to be the No. 1 client when
we're working with a designer. We don't want to deal with a firm that's
churning out 60 annual reports. And because we're Petro-Canada, we
wouldn't even consider a designer in the States.
AA: What is your review process like?
TR:
With the companies that are on the shortlist, we start by having a
couple of face-to-face meetings with the principals, to find out about
the company and its business philosophy. Then we put them through
pointed questions about how they do business, their financial status,
what added value they could bring to Nestle. Find out if the chemistry,
experience and quality of design is right. Typically we have three or
four meetings. Then we ask for a business proposal. By that time we've
narrowed it down; we like the design end of things, it's just whether
or not we can do business together. The final bid is a combination of
price, service, how much resources they're willing to put into our
account, and the quality of those resources.
The whole
relationship comes down to how committed both designer and client are
to get involved with each other. The best designers see through what we
tell them we want and identify what we need. It's a commitment to be an
extension of the eyes and ears into the communication world. We're very
good marketers and business people, but our number one discipline is
not communication. We rely on the designers for that. The commitment
they put on that is very valuable to us.
RP: We would
call a firm we're interested in, have a meeting, talk about their
philosophy and then ask for a presentation. At that point it becomes a
bit of a pitch. When looking for a firm, reputation is the most
important; experience and reputation go hand-in-hand. I wouldn't even
talk about money when deciding between firms. I wouldn't mind having
some sort of hourly rate card type of discussion, but I try not to make
decisions based primarily on price. We're one of the largest companies
in Canada. We need quality work. I'm not going to be successful if our
partners aren't successful. I mean, I don't want to get hosed. But if
someone is successful they have a sense of what the market will bear.
Once we've picked someone I need a sense of timing or a workback
schedule, and an estimate.
HR: I'd probably meet with
four or five design firms, to see what they're doing. Of those I like,
I never have more than three do a quote. I don't ask them for spec
work. I'm able to judge by the quality of their past work. That's
enough. I don't think with a short brief they'd be able to give the
spec project their best work anyway.
Of the three who give me
quotes, I know I like all their work and could work with all of them. I
take all of them seriously, and I don t go for necessarily the lowest
quote. When I've selected one, I have a meeting with my boss and the
company I'm recommending, to make sure the relationship works. The
designers have to be able to make presentations to management teams and
executive boards.
DC: This past review I looked at all
my usual references. I had narrowed it down to six Toronto companies. I
interviewed all six and narrowed it down to three, and then asked all
three for bids. It is our usual policy to invite three bids.
All
three were very strong candidates, although I always have a favourite
going into the bid situation. But Bhandari and Plater, the firm we
wound up going with, weren't my first choice. Before even meeting any
of the designers I had virtually made my choice. But I went in and
right away Sunil Bhandari and Laurie Plater and I started talking about
ideas. We probably spent a lot of time very casually talking about the
company and what we could do, and I found that they thought exactly the
way I did. By the end of the meeting we were talking about the actual
words that would go on the cover. I was very impressed with the two
others, but it boiled down to chemistry. Meeting them in their office
was key sometimes when you go to an office their staff looks very
stressed, or they don't introduce you around. That tells you something
about them. (Bhandari and Plater) just struck me as a real team. You
could feel the creative energy was there. Part of it is just a
gut-feeling and chemistry that you can't explain. They have to be able
to convince me that they can think strategically, that they'll be
flexible about making changes, and I won't have to feel guilty for
phoning them after hours or early in the morning. We've had the odd
cover that's been scrapped at the last minute; an executive didn't like
it for whatever reason, and he's on holiday for two weeks, so there's
no time to debate it, it just has to be changed. A good designer will
enjoy that challenge.
AA: Would you ever hire a design shop of, say, only a few people?
TR:
Size does matter. We need someone who can deal with the capacity of
work Nestle does. They'll be working with all our divisions retail,
foodservice and they have to be capable of taking on sizable projects.
The designers that we choose tend to blur the line. We don't just look
at them as designers; we look at them as brand communicators, and that
sometimes spills over into other disciplines.
RP: For a
single project I have no problem with a one- or two-person operation.
But for a long-term relationship it would make me nervous.
Sometimes
we can give designers the luxury of lots of lead time, but sometimes I
need something done right away. Size gives flexibility to a design
firm. I think depth of bench strength gives a little bit more comfort.
If a small shop loses one person it can really change the dynamic.
AA: Do you look for designers who have done work in your industry?
RP:
It's not important that they ve done work in our industry. That brings
preset thinking as opposed to clarity of vision. It's not a bad thing
necessarily, but I don't go looking for it. I try to approach
communications from the point of view of disrupting the category, so I
don't want people who will look at it in the same way they always have.
TR: We do want someone who has worked in our industry.
It's not that someone who is new to the industry wouldn't be able to
bring a design capability to that, but the executional part has proven
to be very unsatisfactory when that's happened. We expect them to
manage our projects literally start to finish. They need to know how
our factories work, how our printers work. We ask all of these guys to
not only partner with Nestle, but also partner with each other.
DC: I don't want a designer who has done 20 other oil patch books. We're looking for innovative ideas that we can adapt.
AA: Would you consider a designer who had never done the type of design you're looking for?
HR:
I actually prefer working with designers who do a lot of different
things. If you go to a company that only does, say, annuals, their
creativity isn't the same as companies that do all kinds of stuff. More
can be brought to the table. I always like to do annuals that have a
fresh approach. If you re not doing them all the time you haven't
developed a pattern.
DC: With a firm our size, we
wouldn't take a chance on someone who had never done an annual report.
It's just too big a job. What I would do if I was interested was get
them working on a smaller project.
AA: What do you look for in a presentation to you?
HR:
I'm looking for the scope of their work. I'm looking for them to
explain the communication strategy behind the piece of work: what was
the client trying to say and how did the designer get that across? I
like to know the suppliers they use. Do they do their own typesetting?
What kind of photographers do they like? Do they know writers?
Sometimes they can t reach into other areas. If it was a big job I'd
want to know they had contacts. If we're doing a Web site, do they know
other people in that industry? I like designers who have a bit of an
edge I don't know what that means. I want them to be able to express an
opinion even if it's unconventional or not mainstream. There's a
positive tension that I look for. I don't want someone who's going to
give me back my own ideas. I want someone who is going to challenge
those things and take them to the next level. And it takes a certain
personality type to do that.
AA: Once they start designing, how does the process go?
RP:
We have a very thorough process for both marketing communications and
design. We have a formal document called a "communications brief."
Anything prepared internally we ask to review. We have three points of
presentation. One which I call the concept stage where we want to see
the thinking and directional approaches to things. The second is some
recommendations. And I never send any more than one recommendation
beyond me and my team. We discuss options and once we both the
designers and us agree on one as the recommendation, we present it
internally to stakeholders in the organization. I avoid testing. But
when we do test creative externally, we try to do it in one-on-one
situations. When we were redesigning calling cards, we produced
mock-ups, put them in wallets and showed them to people one-on-one on
the street and videotaped it. The design firms help us with that
one-on-one, person on the street testing. We do that with three or four
options before getting to the final one. If it's appropriate.
AA: At the first presentation, do you like to see several potential solutions to a project?
TR:
I think given the process we've set up, and the amount of learning the
designer puts into our brands, we're not a mile away from the solution
when we come to the table. But I do prefer pencil sketches rather than
a final recommendation. I need the designer to be able to explore the
full potential of their creativity but also be well aware of what the
brand s positioning is. They have to bring their strong recommendation
to the table. It does compel a great degree of creativity, to work
within tight parameters and still create packages that are different
and will sell when they get to the shelf. But it's harder to be
creative if there are no rules set down. They have to pay very close
attention to the brief and what the marketer's intentions are. Rarely
is it design for the exercise of design.
HR: I like to
see things as a work in progress, and I don't think it's realistic to
ask someone to come up with the perfect answer, or to think you can get
it right the first time it may be esthetically wonderful, but does it
address the needs you have? Unless the designer was working with you
developing those, it takes time.
At Hydro, I saw about 40
different logos. They tried to capture a number of attributes, to show
us we could go in different directions. We ended up testing about eight
or 10 of them. Whenever I've got a new designer, I tell them if the
final end product is exactly the same as the initial proposal, to me
that is a failure. We didn't take it to the next step. If the boards
are the same, it didn't work. Sometimes you get hooked on an idea, but
in a good process it will automatically change.
RP: At
the first stage, if there's one (solution) I'm happy, if there's three,
that's fine. I don't pay for how much people produce. Sometimes the
more they produce the more frightening it is. What I love is when a
designer says, "Here are the directions we can go: one is more
emotional, one more functional. Within that, here are some of the
directions we can take." They don't have to be that well developed. It
just allows us to put a bit more dimension into the brief; we're really
just fleshing out the brief at this point.
AA: How hands-on do you like to be in the design process?
DC:
You have to be hands on but you have to know when to let the designer
do their work. Knowing their role is an important part of my job. You
have to work together or it's a disaster. Copy is written in house, by
me, so I'm really involved in that sense. I present what the designer
does to the committee. Occasionally the designer may be involved, but I
think people here feel more comfortable critiquing stuff without the
designer here. I also take them around to meet Petro-Can's executives,
and try to sit them down with the execs and have a discussion about
where the company is going, so they're hearing first hand. Later, when
I say someone wants a change, they may be a little more understanding
about it. When I'm looking at photos, I don t say, "Cut this one out."
I always talk about why. I'll always make my opinion known but I'll let
them make their choices and defend them. I don't say, "I want to see
that tomorrow." You have to give people time to produce something
that's well thought out.
AA: When you hire a design team, do you want to deal only with the principals of the company?
HR:
I want to work with the person who's doing the work. Whenever designers
come in during quoting I always ask them to bring the designer who's
going to be doing the work. But that doesn't mean I want to see the
principal during the quote and never see them again, which has happened
to me before.
RP: I'm pretty comfortable working with
juniors on projects. Sometimes juniors are really great designers that
are just new in the industry. That said, if I had any concerns that we
weren't getting the quality, I wouldn't hesitate to go to the
principal. But I don't think you necessarily get the best work out of
the top guys.
TR: When we're establishing the
relationship we need to be involved with the principals. On a
day-to-day basis we look to someone who is a senior account manager.
We're quite willing to work with junior account managers as long as
they are clearly working under the wing of a senior person. So there's
clear accountability at the design firm for every project at a senior
level.
AA: Have you had any really bad or really good experiences with designers that you'd like to share?
HR:
I haven't had a lot of really bad experiences. But I've heard about
some. One story a friend told me was that she was working on an annual
report and the company decided to change its whole business strategy.
She called the designers and told them and they said, "That's okay, we
can still use the same design strategy." That would have driven me
crazy. I've also heard of corporate clients that see the design team as
someone to implement this person's ideas. They try to bully them, and
that's not right. The best experiences I've had with designers have
been where everyone respects and knows each other's role. When that
happens you can come up with some really great work. I don't like when
designers say they can't do something and I know they can. Or when they
get stuck on an idea, but it's not going to happen the CEO doesn't like
it or something but they don't let it go. It's knowing what to fight
for and knowing when to let go. Some designers can't let it go. One of
the things that's really important for the designer is follow-up or
check-in. I've worked with some that are so good the principal would
call to see how it was going, was there anyone we were having a problem
with? I was really pleasantly surprised about that. It's also nice if
they keep in touch after the project is over. I like to see work
they're doing.
RP: I had a really bad experience with a
design firm that wasn't sure of what its core competencies were. Design
firms who want to be ad agencies are as bad as agencies who want to be
designers. It's really important that people know what they are. I
recognize that sometimes it's hard to say no to something you think you
can do, and you want to be able to broaden your scope, but we all
struggle with what our brand understanding is. If we start to change
that brand promise, then we just confuse the customer. We had an agency
and we had a design firm. The designer wouldn't sit at the table with
the agency because they saw them as competitors. We went into a focus
group to look at creative directions, and the designers slipped in
advertising concepts without us even knowing it. We're sitting there
behind the glass and they're testing TV spots. It was very
disrespectful of us and our agency.
It's our job to help everyone
understand their job and give them the confidence to know their role
isn't at risk. Let's get on with it and do great work. Brands are too
important and too complicated to not be able to do that. You can't have
all different groups working separately and autonomously or you're just
not going to have the strong brands that we need today.
TR:
There are times when personalities just aren't going to work. I don't
mind an arrogance that might be put on in terms of a company's creative
capabilities. But an arrogance about who we are without any time spent
learning about us is certainly not helpful. And it becomes fairly
obvious fairly quickly. I've talked to hundreds of designers in the 20
odd years I've been doing this. It's apparent where someone is
interested in true communication and getting at the consumer. It's
mostly a sign of inexperience when the horn gets tooted before the car
arrives.
About this article
The above article by Sara Curtis is reprinted from Applied Arts Magazine, with permission. (c) 2001 by Applied Arts Inc.
About Applied Arts
APPLIED ARTS is Canada's leading visual communications magazine, targeting graphic designers, art directors, new media designers, photographers, illustrators, and corporate communications professionals.
Published bi-monthly, including the prestigious Awards Annual, Applied Arts informs and inspires its readers by offering insight into the techniques and challenges behind outstanding Canadian design work.