Recently a prospective new client asked us some rather pointed questions about the nature of what we provided as brand designers, the difference between branding and marketing, as well as some other rather insightful queries. This client was a privately owned, relatively young company experiencing success and growth in their industry, but recognized the need to raise their game and present themselves with marketing and communications in a way that better reflected who they are—or who they wanted to be. But they had very little experience working with a brand design consultancy like ours and wanted to better understand us and what we could offer them. These questions are often on the minds of many who consider hiring us, so I felt it beneficial to reproduce that dialogue as it transpired via email:

What is a brand anyway? And what is the difference between branding and marketing?
Terrific question. To be successful, a brand must consistently provide quality and satisfaction; it must meaningfully distinguish itself from the competition to create customer preference; it must be relevant, convenient and easily accessible to its target audience; and it must appeal to their individual lifestyles, attitudes and beliefs. A successful brand is one that generates loyalty and affection because it provides a level of quality, trust, convenience, assurance and allure for which the audience is willing to pay a premium.

Marketing is more about the planning and execution of the concept, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods/services to create satisfactory exchanges. Marketing most often involves translating the idea of a brand essence down to something practical or tangible to its audience, whereas a brand is a living organism that is built up or torn down in the minds of your customers over time—sometimes by way of a thousand seemingly insignificant gestures or experiences.

For example. if you think about a city, here are some examples of one of the thousand small gestures that might contribute to its brand: The condition of the roads, reports on crime, calibre of the buildings, events and activities on offer, reputation of the police, proximity to other places, ease of transportation, economic viability, etc…Businesses locate in, people move to and travel to places that are friendly, interesting, dynamic and provide advantageous conditions for their needs.

What happens if we have an inconsistent brand?
This question a little flawed. I understand what you’re asking, but assuming the quality of your product and service are unwavering, there really is no such thing as an “inconsistent brand”, just inconsistent delivery of the brand (promise)…or a brand breakdown. Remember, it’s the consumer perception of the elements that comprise their impression and that make up your brand. Thus, you are in control of consistency.

If your products are known to be highly functional, beautifully styled, reliably made and supported by friendly staff and a terrific service support, then what happens when a customer experiences a product failure and calls in, only to speak to a rude, inexperienced call centre employee in Manilla? That is not technically a breach of your brand quality or promise, but it places you at terrible risk. People love to talk. And word of mouth is not only a powerful way to build a brand, but perhaps the fastest way to bring it to its knees. It used to take significant effort to write letters to companies or newspapers to complain about a company, but these days the immediacy of publishing to the Internet and social media can result in PR nightmares for companies who don’t respond quickly.

Why rebrand? What are the benefits of a current, consistent and positive brand?
Very often the trigger for a rebrand by an organization or company is that the existing identity and other elements are dated and no longer reflect the products/services on offer. Essentially, there exists what is referred to as a “brand gap”, which is the difference between what is portrayed/perceived and reality/your aspirations.

There are many examples of successful rebranding in the civic realm. A recent example is Moosejaw, Saskatchewan. They recently went through a full branding initiative, retiring their tired old city crest and creating a terrific new logo and tagline “Surprisingly Unexpected” to better position the city as a great place to live, work and play. A bit of info and background on the process and results can be found here: http://www.moosejaw.ca/branding.shtml

What process do you take a company through when they come to you for help?
We have a design process we’re very proud of—but so does everyone else. Descriptions of process are a dime a dozen and reduce methodology to rhetoric. For us it all starts with ignoring assumptions, asking smart questions and listening carefully. We like to start with a “phase zero” exploration of the context of the situation, immersing ourself in your company so we can thoroughly audit the current health of your brand and identify real opportunities before making any sweeping promises about what we can do to help.

Once engaged, we take our clients through a comprehensive brand discovery, which involves a series of interviews, exercises and explorations as we work together—with the client—to identify who the client really is, what they stand for, and what they aspire to become. Comparing this with the initial research work, often including preliminary research interviews with staff and customers alike, we then identify any gaps between where the client is now and where they want to be.

Once a truly core expression of the company’s brand essence has been established and agreed upon, we convert this to a series of simplified questions that test the core attributes of any marketing or communication initiative. If client stakeholders can’t agree that something meets those brand filter questions, then it doesn’t belong in the brand universe. Simple as that.

In the end, like John Jay of Wieden + Kennedy says, there is no one proprietary process that anyone can claim works best and we must not impose our style onto our clients. The greatest thing we can offer to our clients is to listen carefully to them with empathy, explore their situations thoroughly to understand their truth and their soul, and then offer an expression of their true essence in a way that is relevant to a greater number of people. If there is a better way to express this, I’d love to hear it.

What are the core traits of a brand design firm we should be looking for?
There are a thousand ways to answer this question, but I will defer to Alina Wheeler’s book Designing Brand Identity, which posits that there are 12 traits that the best brand identity design firms have in common:

1. Strategic imagination. An ability to understand and align business goals with creative strategy and expression is critical.
2. Process focus. A disciplined process is used to foster collaboration, build trust, and ensure responsible decision-making and results.
3. Design excellence. Reducing a complex, meaningful idea to its visual essence requires skill, patience, and unending discipline, whether the endpoint is a symbol, a look and feel, or an integrated brand identity system.
4. Irrefutable logic. Creating a new system or brand architecture requires an ability to communicate a compelling case for change to any decision-maker, from the CEO to the director of marketing to a division head.
5. Alchemy. An ability to synthesize vast amounts of information and reduce it to a big idea. Also, an ability to cut through the clutter and see the “gold” in a marketing audit.
6. Empathy and insight. An ability to be collaborative and understand the perspectives of all stakeholders, to suspend judgment and transcend politics.
7. Flexibility and humor. An ability to keep an eye on the big picture despite constraints and challenges. A sense of humor always helps.
8. Mindfulness and curiosity. An awareness of what is going on in the wider world and insight into best practices and the branding landscape.
9. Tenacity. Boundless energy and the perseverance of a marathon runner are required to develop and refine key messages, new names, taglines, and branding guidelines.
10. Organization. Phase by phase, email by email, presentation by presentation, file by file, tracking and documentation are key.
11. Focus. First and foremost, the process must stay focused on the customer and their experience.
12. Passion. Passion fuels excellence and inspires brand engagement.

I think this list is quite accurate and feel good about the fact that most, if not all, of these traits can be found at Industrial Brand. But I acknowledge that it is often difficult for business professionals to assess these attributes when selecting a creative partner and “fit” is often a driving factor that is so hard to quantify or even sometimes describe. If we’re not going to have fun working together, we probably shouldn’t.

What do you expect from us during this process?
Another terrific question! First, we expect you to do some due diligence and make sure you choose your creative partner wisely. Hopefully there’s a great fit between our organizations, but if there isn’t, that’s OK if there isn’t. We can help you find the right design firm if we’re not it. We also request that you be as honest as you can with us and trust us as objective external experts.

The ROI and value in what we do relies on you giving us access to key stakeholders and decision-makers, as well as your staff and clients—otherwise it’s difficult for us to truly design a brand strategy or identity that will resonate internally and externally. Of course we also request that you provide us with timely responses and approvals, respect our production management process, and pay your invoices in a timely fashion—we’re not a bank.

What if you provide branding for us and things don’t improve?
This reminds me of a pet peeve about graphic designers—especially those who specialize in identity design. They often act as though they suffer from a mild god complex, as though they are “chosen ones” destined to save clients like Neo in the Matrix. Even the most talented communication designer, capable of producing spectacularly gorgeous logos and collateral, can’t guarantee that all your business problems will be saved with a new identity or marketing strategy. It’s super important, obviously—hell, we argue that it’s the ticket to the dance—but we’re not going to pretend that the secret is a new logo. Anyone who tells you that is full of shit.

As discussed earlier, we can work hard on your behalf to bore into the heart and soul of both you and your customer. From this learning we can use our training, experience and intuition to design a strategy and identity for your brand that will hopefully resonate and be relevant to your audience, but at the end of the day branding is really up to you. Until the day comes that we have complete authority and control over the quality of your product or service, and the way all your staff treat your customers, then we can’t truly provide “branding”. If we work together and things don’t improve, well then it’s likely that we missed something far more sinister than the look and feel of your logo and visual language used in your communications and marketing materials.

Client: I understand now, thank you. When can we get started?

We are concerned about our impact on the environment and strive to create business practices that support sustainability. In our business we strive to reduce our use of paper and take other steps to control our impact environmentally.

In our role as marketing strategists, designers and often as the lead in the specification and vendor qualification process for print production, we are in the position to educate, create and produce on behalf of our clients. Thus, we do so with the smallest possible environmental impact. In these pursuits we are currently taking the following initiatives:

• Communicating via email (invoices, newsletter) where practical and client preference. This not only reduces paper, but also the carbon impact of mail sent via traditional means.
• Convincing numerous client NOT to print excess collateral materials such as annual reports, and if possible avoid printing altogether in favour of producing online materials to be distributed electronically.
• Educating our clients on the benefits of specifying paper from mills committed to sustainable production such as Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC); wind power, recycled content and carbon neutrality.
• Selecting printers who are committed to sustainable practices through FSC certification process and their own efforts to use environmentally-friendly materials and reclamation processes.
• Donation of used computers to schools and deserving charities, or environmentally safe disposable services.

Time and time again when we present websites and online projects to clients we are met with blank stares and questions when we begin talking about the more technical aspects of what we do. From these questions we have developed a few examples of our practice that helps our clients understand why we do what we do.

Why design for 1024×768?

The truth is, this is not a hard and fast rule, but rather a general standard that has emerged based on the quality of resolution of the majority of viewers’ monitors and equipment. While ever-changing, we want to be sure that by designing at this scale we are appealing to the greatest audience and allowing the design to be viewed on multiple platforms by the most viewers without alienating anyone. Designing for this resolution also allows important content to be viewed above the fold and begins to generate a natural form of visual hierarchy. Thinking about how content is displayed is crucial for allowing a user to understand what a website is saying, to navigate intuitively, and how to get to them the information they are looking for efficiently. As mentioned, audience assessment is criticaI in design, and there are other ways to approach this same issue. Notably, responsive web design shifts the one-size-fits-all approach allowing sites to scale infinitely and to automatically reconfigure based on the device it is viewed on. In all cases, we must always prioritize information and balance its placement based on user requirements.

What is a design grid?

Whenever we start a web design project we develop a design grid to set rules and generally try and stick to them. This keeps spacing throughout a site design consistent across multiple pages. Since websites consist of multiple pages and sometimes multiple templates of pages, it is important to set up an underlying structure so that the design stays consistent from page to page and users are not confused or challenged when navigating the site.

Not all successful websites have flashy graphics or intense imagery. Some of the best designs of content rich websites follow a grid structure that organizes, compartmentalizes and allows users to access information as easily as possible. We work with design grids because setting rules is important for achieving consistency on the web, and for a brand.

What is experiential design?

Thinking about the experience a user will have when visiting and navigating your website and designing to maximize that experience is critical to its success. We constantly try and improve on the ways users interact with an online resource or website by researching and anticipating the information they will want when coming to the site and how easily they can navigate to get that information. We research into best practices for UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface) to allow for an intuitive and fluid experience. The simplicity of finding information and navigating the website are key to maximizing its effectiveness.

Why content is important.

Content is what Google looks at when searching a website. When the content of a website is strategically thought about it can launch a website to the top of a google search based on the ‘keywords’ that people use to search. This is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Allowing your content to be optimized to your target audience is crucial in allowing them the best chance to find you. It is important to have a look at the content that is being displayed in the navigation, the headlines and in the content of a website since it can determine whether the site will rank well on search engine results pages on google and other search engines.

Why we design with rules.

Once a rule is mastered, it is time to strive to break it. By having an understanding of what’s possible we can effectively challenge these ideas and create new design boundaries, and push bravely past them with confidence.

I was recently asked to be a presenter at PechaKucha Toronto. Of course it was an honour and, telling myself that these sort of challenges lead to discovery and reward, I happily agreed. As the day grew near I started to fret—OK, I was freaking out a little. Not only was I struggling to find a topic suitable for the evening’s theme of “Design + Think + Passion”, but I hadn’t ever done a PechaKucha talk before and found the format surprisingly challenging. I was nervous.

For anyone unfamiliar with PechaKucha, it’s a presentation format where each speaker is permitted exactly 20 slides, and allowed to speak for 20 seconds per slide before it automatically advances to the next—whether you’re ready or not. It’s a terrific platform which forces speakers to make their point quickly, resulting in succinct, on point presentations the audience can digest easily.

I’ve done plenty of public speaking in my career, and I love challenges that scare me (it forces growth), but I found the restrictive parameters of PechaKucha uncomfortable. Anyone who knows me can attest to how much I enjoy talking and storytelling, but when you have less than seven minutes to take a crowded room full of strangers from “Hi my name is Mark…” through an entire story arc leading to an intelligent final point the audience will remember is a hard thing indeed. But beyond the confines of the format, I still had no clear topic idea and needed help. That help came from an unexpected source.

The week before my presentation, I joined my friend Ryan for a drink one evening. As we hadn’t seen each other in a while, he asked how life and business were these days. I described my PechaKucha woes briefly, but then found myself surprisingly whining a little about worries over the economy, sales and revenues at work, my income and poorly performing investments. One of my smartest and more successful chums, Ryan neither suffers fools nor tolerates whining, so it wasn’t out of character when he brazenly told me to “Give your head a shake!” But I was caught off guard when he leaned forward and asked, “What did you invest in last year?”

Not seeing an obvious connection to our previous conversation about my presentation, I thought for a minute and struggled to form an answer. Between the umms and awws, I said something about a GIC, RRSP and TFSA contributions, and was starting to bitch about crappy mutual funds and the insane real estate market in Vancouver when he stopped me abruptly, shook his head, and said he wasn’t talking about money at all. What the what now?

He then told me about a friend of his who, after a particularly good year with his business, instead of putting a chunk of money into savings or investment vehicles like real estate or the stock market, decided to invest in friends, relationships and community this year. To his accountant’s chagrin and disbelief, he had chosen five people he believed in and was spending his money to go visit them, travel with them to conferences and seminars, and set up meetings with influential people and potential mentors. His theory being that these people were on career trajectories that he could not only positively influence, but benefit from in the long term. He believed that spending his time, energy and money on them would open doors otherwise not opened and be far more profitable (for both parties) than conventional investments. A fascinating story leaving me feel a bit humbled, but I was still confused about the connection to my PechaKuchasituation.

“It’s simple,” Ryan continued, “you may not have the financial means to invest thousands of dollars the way my friend did, but you’ve been making similar investments all year long—and these pursuits will be profitable for years to come. You have significant reach and influence via social media, you volunteer for various community groups doing excellent work, you’re an active member and leader of various industry associations, and you frequently either attend, host, or speak at events and conferences each year. There’s your PechaKucha topic—a new way of looking at investments that others can consider and be inspired by.”

These certainly cost me money, but that wasn’t what he was driving at. As I sat there and listened to a friend’s objective perception of me and my activities, I started to understand. He was arguing that where I spent my time and energy was as (or more) important than where I invested my money, and could equally produce profits in social currency and capital. I started feeling mildly foolish and arrogant for whining about money, but also better about myself as I considered this line of thinking.

Ryan continued, pointing out the various industry events I’ve helped produce or host in the recent past, such as Salazar student design awards, Practivism sustainability speaker series, Graphex national design awards, and Icograda Design Week Vancouver.

He asked me how many pro bono or charity projects I’d participated in, bringing to mind many examples, such as Canstruction (benefitting Vancouver  Food Bank), Half The Sky Foundation (helping orphaned children in China), Dodson Neighbourhood House (providing safe, affordable housing for DTES) and Room To Read (building libraries in developing countries). I hadn’t really considered how participating in charity work could be viewed as a profitable investment.

Ryan went on talking about the leadership and organization skills I lend organizations like DOXA, SIGGRAPH, and Barcamp Vancouver, reminding me also of the various informative articles I’d published, the teaching and lecturing I do for various design programs and professional associations, and the mentoring I provide for students and young design professionals. He complimented me for being the driving force behind inclusive business networking groups such as Likemind Vancouver, which brings creatives together for coffee once a month, Interesting Vancouver, an annual “unconference” featuring interesting people talking about their hobbies, passions and obsessions, and Foodists, a collective of like-minded food worshippers I co-founded with some foodie friends.

Ryan wrapped up his argument by expressing appreciation for the way I volunteered my time and energy to serve as leadership with the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, and for bringing the breakfast lecture series CreativeMornings to Vancouver, reminding me how many friends, collaborators, staff—even clients–had emerged as a result of all of these efforts—not to mention the positive impact it had on my reputation, network and influence.

My friend’s point was more than suitably made, and I felt great. I had never really considered all the various activities that I engaged in terms of an investment, but he was right: I had muddled the meaning of words like “investment” and “profit” by confusing them with money.

The truth is, beyond any feel-good sense of fulfillment, I was indeed profiting from my investments of time, energy, creativity, leadership and unpaid hard work in ways that easily outstripped most financial vehicles available. And in practical business terms, my company receives numerous inquiries, recommendations, new clients and projects, and in fact PROFITS from all of these indirect investments.

So how’d my PechaKucha presentation go? Well, it was still a challenge to put together and delivery succinctly, but as usual the challenge motivated me to step up and overcome my own fear and I think it went OK. According to coverage of the evening, the event was a success and my presentation was well received and memorable. Here’s a link to the audio and slides, so you can judge for yourself, but I feel like the effort was a good investment.

So now I ask you, what are you investing in this year?

Recently the Government of British Columbia presented one of our valued clients with its 2011 WelcomeBC Day Award, in recognition of their innovative website developed by Yours Truly, the talented team here at Industrial Brand.

But never mind about us….here’s what they do that makes them special. The Immigrant Employment Council of BC (IEC-BC) provides a unique service to the community, connecting employers with motivated and skilled global talent, in a way that hasn’t been done before. Through www.tapintotalent.ca, prospective employers now have direct access to a wealth of labour market resources, including opportunities to connect with a pool of highly skilled immigrant talent.

After thoroughly understanding IEC-BC’s needs, we designed their site to be easy to use and visually-pleasing, but also to capitalize on a few key areas like highlighting a job-matching service with a database of hundreds of pre-screened, job-ready immigrant candidates, as well as the ability to post job openings at no cost. Everyone wins (and we don’t just mean awards!). We are proud to have worked on this project with a client that is a purveyor of positive, progressive change in the community.

Check out the IEC-BC case study in our portfolio or visit their website to read more about this amazing organization and all that they do.

We all have reasons for our love or disdain of Twitter.

It’s been around since 2006, which makes it about 400 in internet years—so it’s even somewhat shocking that it remains relevant. I don’t object that it has its share of self-involved, narcissists. I also can’t deny its strength as a tool for grassroots advocacy. In my day-to-day I utilize Twitter as a vehicle to deliver interesting stuff from handpicked curators, but the thing that keeps me tweeting, other than my desire to participate in a like-minded community not bound by geography, is something that Frank Chimero discussed at the Design Currency Conference in Vancouver in 2010- the element of delight in design.

So how is Twitter delightful?

Twitter has all kinds of uses and the organization of social events is one of them. The other day I had been tweeting with a couple of my friends who were organizing an outdoor projected Geena Davis-themed movie night. They were going to show a double feature and were crowdsourcing movie recommendations. I responded with the tweet: “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice?” Immediately upon tweeting that statement a user named @Betelgeuse_3 tweeted to me: “IT’S SHOWTIME!” (If you have seen the movie you know that repeating Beetlejuice three times conjures up a ghost played by Michael Keaton who says the previously delivered response). @Betelgeuse_3 had used Twitter to facilitate a shocking experience exactly as the movie character would have done.

It was so unexpected, so clever, so awesome.

This apparently spontaneous connection made me laugh for about 20 minutes and later upon relating the story, over several occasions, I experienced the same elation. It could be that I have an alternative sense of humour, but I think it was the “delight” created by the combination of surprise & nostalgia.

So how was it done? This experience was mediated by a Twitter Bot designed by Muffinlabs. It uses a keyword search which identified the combination of words and immediately tweets a response with a previously set statement. They have similar bots that are triggered by lines from Robocop, Princess Bride and Office Space. Muffinlabs states on their site that the bots are, “just for fun” and have made the code which they call Chatterbot available to everyone—with the stipulation that it is used for good, not evil.

Contemporary audiences have evolved and are not satisfied by the passive consumption of content—they desire to produce while they consume, to contribute while they connect. Twitter is successful at delivering all kinds of content but what makes it special is that it is punctuated with these witty & playful exchanges—random acts of delight. Some say it is just another medium, a trend that will fade over time, but for now it offers something more than your Google Reader, RSS feeds, newspapers or televisions do. It offers opportunities that yield thoughtful, well crafted, delightful experiences masterminded by real people going out of their way to turn the mundane into something special.

Corporate Identities are generally not known for being delightful—although, some of the best logos are infused with a hint of wit. A logo is just one of many touchpoints that comprise an identity, so a clever designer can find other ways to incorporate intrigue. Chimero highlighted interactive design as one such touchpoint that offers an opportunity to inject a delightful experience—which engages audiences on both intellectual and emotional levels. The key to creating this type of experience is having intimate knowledge of your audience, something that Muffinlabs had bang-on. Identity design is much more than doodles on a napkin, although that may be how it starts. It is a thorough understanding of a company, their clients, the competition, the industry, their aspirations and the best strategies to get them there.

So, do share; has Twitter delighted you? Or even better, in the wide world of design how have you managed to infuse some delight?

CreativeMornings is being brought to Vancouver, by our very own Mark Busse.

CreativeMornings is a breakfast lecture series started in New York by Tina Roth Eisenberg (@SwissMiss) for creative types happening the first Friday of each month. Each event is FREE of charge (thanks to sponsor support), and includes a 20 minute talk, with the added bonus of a proper hot breakfast and coffee.

Events in mornings don’t normally work for me as they tend to run from 8–9am (I’m a busy guy and mornings are normally crazy taking my daughter to daycare) but CreativeMornings/Vancouver is from 8:30–10am, so not even the parents among us have an excuse to miss this inaugural event (September 2, at W2 Media Café).

Logistics aside, Stewart Butterfield (the co-founder of Flickr and named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world) will be talking and telling his story, followed by a  20 minute group discussion. This is going to be a very engaged and rare opportunity to see such a speaker in Vancouver and in such an intimate setting (and remember it’s FREE). The tickets will be released on August 29th and are limited to 150 seats (register at: http://vancouvercreativemornings.eventbrite.com on Monday, August 29th).

It’s awesome that Vancouver’s creative community is getting the credit it deserves and thanks to Mark for bringing this event to our city.

For more information read the article in Design Edge or visit www.creative mornings.com

UPDATE: At precisely 11am on Monday, August 29th 150 tickets for CreativeMornings/Vancouver’s first event became available to the public. By 11:02:50, less than three minutes later, they were completely sold out, with 130 disappointed people on the waiting list. The lesson? Vancouver’s creative community is hungry for this sort of event, and if you want tickets for the next one, set a reminder alarm and be ready!

We recently sent our summer newsletter which covers topics like how to brew the perfect cup of iced coffee, a quick look at a couple recent success stories, an article about how businesses can select the best design partner, and an announcement about a couple additions to our growing team.

Hopefully you received a copy of the newsletter in your inbox, but don’t panic if you missed it, you can still view it online. Please sign up to be added for the next blast due in a few months (we try to keep them to a minimum).

Happy summer!

An article titled Substance over Style by our Design Director Mark Busse was recently featured in the latest issue of Business In Vancouver’s Adpages Magazine about how businesses can more effectively attract, evaluate and select a design partner. The article (reproduced below) argues that procurement strategies such as RFPs can produce unrewarding outcomes and offers some tips and guidance for businesses seeking a relationship with creative firm.

Substance over style: How to find the best design partner for your business
by Mark Busse

With graphic communications increasingly recognized as critical to success, it’s important to find the right design firm for your company.

Yet many in business struggle to attract, evaluate and select design partners. One might hire friends or family, while another might create a contest with a prize for the selected submission. Many others rely on archaic requests for proposals (RFPs) for transparency and objectivity in arriving at competitive pricing. The resulting relationships can be as unrewarding as the outcomes.

Is there a better way?

Seek help in your search

Recommendations from within your own industry or from design experts will almost always be more effective than online searches or RFPs. Consult with design associations on identifying qualified candidates from their certified ranks. Are the candidates thought leaders in design, respected by industry, peers and clients? Or consider delegating the search to a marketing consultant with experience procuring and managing design.

Look beyond portfolios

In addition to evaluating a design team’s portfolio, investigate the company’s skills in business and project management. Don’t judge only on æsthetics or descriptions of process. Challenge candidates to express what was behind their design choices and how their particular approaches solved clients’ problems. Visit their studios and speak to them in person to judge fit. You needn’t become friends, but you should share similar perspectives, goals or ethics and enjoy collaborating together.

Ask for case studies and testimonials

Request comprehensive case studies that outline goals, context, and approach to reveal whether processes are results-driven. Ask for testimonials or contact information for specific clients. If candidates don’t willingly offer these, move on.

Who will do the work?

Investigate each firm’s current employees and in-house capabilities. How many long-term, full-time designers do they employ? How much design or development do they farm out, and are they transparent about this? Inquire how direct a role the senior members will play in your project.

What’s included?

What is and isn’t covered in candidates’ fees? Do they provide working files? Do they use proprietary or open-source solutions? What’s their stance on ownership and copyright, and how do they handle cost overruns?

Will candidates be there for you in future?

The real value of a relationship with a designer is in his or her repeatable process and creative thinking applied to your problem, not merely to your final product. Since the worth of this relationship often emerges over time, inquire about candidates’ plans for growth. Look for indications that firms have been and will be around long-term.

Are candidates asking questions?

Do candidates spend most of their time selling you on themselves, or do they seem genuinely interested in your problem and goals? The best practitioners will be hungry for the details underlying your situation and may push you to reconsider causal factors and solutions. Speak openly about your business needs and expectations.

Seek a consultant, not a proposal

Avoid the temptation to require designers to provide firm cost proposals up front on the basis of your description of deliverables. Instead, share your problem, goals, budget and timeline and engage a qualified designer to work with you to prescribe strategic solutions tailored to your unique situation. After this initial discovery, create a project plan that outlines the specifics of the solution. Write a contract after arriving at an agreement. As to hourly rates, you get what you pay for: prices will reflect experience and efficiency.

Like hiring a senior employee or taking on a partner, choosing the right design firm can be a critical moment in the growth of your business. The best candidates won’t give away strategy to prospects – certainly not before doing the research and diagnostics they’ll need for understanding the situation fully – so don’t ask for it before hiring a team. If the initial discovery phase doesn’t impress you or you dislike working together, discontinue the relationship and move on.

About 20 per cent of our business at Industrial Brand comes from clients who hired design providers ineffectively and have had to redo their identity systems or websites, didn’t understand what they were paying for or found themselves with limited options after their designers vanished. Don’t fixate on deliverables and costs before choosing your partner. What you’re really paying for is a well-considered process. Use the opportunity to start a long-term relationship with a partner you trust.

Mark Busse is design director of Industrial Brand, a Vancouver-based brand, communication and interactive design firm he co-founded in 1997. He’s a certified professional member and B.C. past president of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada as well as member of the Association of Professional Design Firms.

_______________________________________

This article is from Business in Vancouver Adpages 2011, which you candownload as a PDF here. Adpages contains numerous other practical tips and informative articles for the business community and we encourage you to support BIV and buy a printed copy today!

Business in Vancouver has been publishing in-depth local business news, analysis and commentary since 1989. The newspaper also produces a weekly ranked list of the biggest companies and players in a wide range of B.C. industries and commercial sectors, monthly features and industry-focused sections that arm its subscribers with a complete package of local business intelligence each week.

From Adpages, published by BIV Magazines. Copyright © 2011, BIV Magazines, a division of BIV Media LP. Reproduced with permission.

As passionate food freaks, it’s all too common to get caught up in the tastes and exoticism of what we are experiencing, rather than in what makes the most sense and is good. In fact, if you look at what makes something ‘gourmet’ these days, more often than not it’s the item that has taken great effort and care to produce and spent the least amount of time traveling from the farm to your table.

A good example of this in Vancouver is asparagus. Ask around and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who can tell you specifically that they’ve even tasted fresh, local asparagus. Seriously. Most of what people buy comes from Mexico or California with little thought to the seasonality, or what was done to it to get it to grow, or survive the long trip here. In contrast, the local season for asparagus is very short—a few weeks at best. If you’re not quick, and early, at the farmer’s market, you might not even realize we have an asparagus supply here!

Enter Foodtree.

Although manifest as a website and mobile app to share fresh, mouth-watering photos of food in your community in a fun and simple way, Foodtree is a philosophical and fundamental shift in our approach to understanding the where, why and how of the food we consume. If information is power, then this is one of the key ways we as consumers can control our food supply future. Until we empower ourselves in this way, organic and healthy food will remain a novelty and just slightly out of reach of the mainstream.

Yet, mainstreaming this concern about where our food comes from and what’s in it, is precisely what’s required.

Inspired by the symbols, styles and ideology of the Homesteading movement, the new identity hearkens to a simpler time of getting back to the land and a self-sufficient lifestyle. The hand-crafting and do-it-yourself ethic also produced a unique aesthetic evocative of an era past, but also in resurgence.

Our future may very well lie in the successful merger of a new integration of technology with the sustainable methods from our past. This is what Foodtree represents and the logo and its application is meant to evoke.