Chapter 5
Assembling the Team
Teamwork Basics
With the paperwork in order, the job budgeted and scheduled, and the creative brief in place, it’s time to design. The question is, if it hasn’t already been answered in the planning process, who exactly will be working on this project? Sometimes, this question is moot: For a solo designer or a small firm, the choices are limited. However, larger design firms may have multiple teams who can collaborate and who possess complementary skills—such as writers, web programmers, and photographers—to fulfill a project’s requirements. It’s a good way to boost expertise, but it also opens the door to complications, from financial to temperamental, which may need to be addressed. These are not insurmountable problems; they’re just more details to be managed properly.
All design teams, large or small, require these things for optimum performance:
▸ Clear goals and objectives
▸ Unambiguous scope of work
▸ Well-defined expectations
▸ Delineated roles and responsibilities
▸ Relevant information and background for the project
▸ Sufficient time in which to work
▸ Appropriate technological tools
▸ Effective collaboration
▸ Ongoing communication
▸ Meaningful recognition and reward system
▸ Oversight and management support
▸ Consistent processes, from creative to communication
▸ Agreed-upon chain of command and functional authority
Team Composition
Typically, a project has a core design team consisting of a creative-focused and a client-focused professional. In many instances, more designers are added—some to take a hands-on creative role and some to provide more of a production or finishing capability. In addition, team members with a particular skill set may be added—for example, an illustrator or a print production manager. When a design firm gets larger, not only does the team expand, but there is also the option of adding administrative management personnel to help run the firm. They work to directly support creative and client service because they provide financial and administrative duties that make projects and the firm run better and more smoothly.
For any design team to work well together, each person needs to recognize that his or her performance affects the entire group in its ability to solve problems, develop creative, and satisfy the client. The more they understand what their contribution is to the project, the more attainable great results can be. When things are fuzzy and undefined, it’s easy to believe it’s someone else’s responsibility to handle a certain task. Poor team performance often is the result of poor communication and an ineffective collaborative environment.
Optimally, a design firm should have personnel in three areas of focus: creative, client service, and operations. Project managers are typically working on a combination of tasks that could fall under any of these categories. Their role may best be diagrammed as the white triangle at the intersection of all three focus areas.
The Creative Mix
Selecting the right creative people for a team can be challenging. Just because someone has relevant experience and a great portfolio doesn’t ensure a wonderful fit. There are a variety of subjective factors to consider when choosing creative talent:
• Chemistry: Do you like this person?
• Style: Does this person fit in with the group?
• Attitude: Is the person positive or negative, cynical or enthusiastic?
• Design sensibility: Is it the same or different from ours?
• Professionalism: Is the person as buttoned up (or as loose) as the rest of the crew?
• Sense of humor: Does the person have one? (A little humor goes a long way in a stressful situation.)
• Temperament: Is it even-keeled? Will we have harmony with this person?
• Speed: Is the person used to a fast-paced or a slower environment? What’s the person’s approach?
Team Work Flow
Besides these personality-related factors, design teams need the right mix of skills and abilities. Design projects move from big-picture concepting to the highly detailed finished piece. This is achieved through a kind of “relay race,” handing the project from content experts to aesthetic experts to technical experts, as the job moves from kickoff to completion (see chart below). Often, the only person constantly participating in the project is the project manager, who is involved in monitoring every aspect.
Every design team needs to be aware of and constantly be working to improve their teamwork, some aspects of which include
• Reliability
• Cooperation
• Knowledge sharing
Teams have obligations to each other and to the project they are working on. Project managers should bridge gaps and facilitate communication and work flow among team members. Project managers are the conduit that helps ease the difficulties of disparate personalities, expertise, and working styles.
Objects of Affection designed by Sonnenzimmer / Chicago, Illinois USA
Objects of Affection Poster
Objects of Affection was a show featuring painters Anthony Adcock, Barbara Krol, and Jeff Stevenson, all members of the Chicago Artists Coalition. Each artist’s work included realistically painted elements generally focused on one object—hence the title of the show. It was not easy to come up with a striking image that highlighted the show’s concept, while not casting too big a shadow over the artists’ work. Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi, of Sonnenzimmer, rose to that challenge. “How do you advertise an art show you are not in? Our answer: nature!” says Butcher. “We started this poster with a photocopy of a crinkly greenish-brown leaf, using its shape to prime the paper for the following colors. From there, we used textures and painted elements to fill in the small sections of the leaf, creating a patchwork of color and shape.”
RIGHT
The hand-screened poster is created on 19 × 25 inch (48.3 × 63.5 cm) acid-free archival paper and screen printed with nine different archival ink colors. The edition is only fifty prints and each one bears the embossed Sonnenzimmer mark. The piece features a subtle interplay of pleasing and balanced colors. The textures of the ink reveal details of the veins in the leaf and in the designs. “We love Nick and Nadine’s work and trusted them with complete artistic license,” explains artist Barbara Krol. “We simply provided them with the basic information and they took it from there.”
Case Study in Assembling the Team:
Wallace Church / New York, New York USA
Wallace Church, Inc., is a full-service strategic brand identity and package design firm. Over the past thirty-plus years, Wallace Church has helped to launch and renovate many leading brands from a range of product categories. Its commitment to marrying sound strategy with design solutions that stand out from the competition and engage consumers on many levels has contributed to the success of many brands. Stanley Church is the firm’s founder, managing partner, and executive creative director. Rob Wallace is the managing partner and strategic director and is responsible for all brand imagery action plans and consumer research.
Lean Cuisine
One of Wallace Church’s most prominent success stories is its work for Nestlé’s Lean Cuisine line of frozen foods. “Our mission was threefold,” explains Wallace. “Renovate to regain relevance for this stagnant 100+ SKU, $900 million (£623 million), twenty-plus-year-old brand; differentiate the product line to meaningfully separate it from diet food; and create impact by optimizing findability and shopability across multiple price segments.” The charter was to make the brand more relevant to contemporary wellness cues, to determine the optimal hierarchy of product forms and flavors, and to launch a new product form, Spa Cuisine.
OPPOSITE
“Analysis showed that the old Lean Cuisine brand identity was trying too hard. To communicate a series of benefits, the brand perception was cluttered, complicated, and somewhat messy,” notes Wallace. The old packaging did not communicate the strong emotional cues relevant for this leader in the wellness category. The prior design system used a number of fonts, a profusion of messages, and overstylized product photography.
BELOW
A new, cleaner photo aesthetic, a singular, simpler type strategy, a revitalized logo, and a more open architecture proved to best evoke desired perceptions and allow consumers to more easily identify the product at the store.
Simplifying the design architecture revitalized the Lean Cuisine brand, enhancing the brand’s impact at retail and improving shopability. Increased sales prove that this new, simple design connects immediately and emotionally with consumers.
Sketches show the design development of the new branding and package design. Initial sales results indicate that Wallace Church’s revitalized branding strategy was a successful driving force behind one of Nestlé’s most successful product restages. Amanda Bach, Nestlé Prepared Foods Company’s packaging communication design manager, states, “Simplifying the Lean Cuisine identity allowed us to recapture the brand’s equities and drive shelf impact, and by color coding, helped enhance shopability. I believe this new, simpler, cleaner brand aesthetic will help consumers reconnect with the brand on an emotional level.”
Case Study in Assembling the Team:
Wallace Church / New York, New York USA
Green Dahlia
The packaging for Green Dahlia chocolates is lush and artistically appealing. A rich, deep brown acts as a unifying color element to differentiate products and pull the eye toward the packaging. The visual language conveys a sense of being a premium product.
Dell
The Studio Hybrid is Dell’s most sustainable, consumer-friendly and ecologically sensitive desktop computer. Wallace Church’s challenge was to design a packaging concept that looks good, conveys a sense of being a “green” product that functions well on retail shelves, and can be shipped directly to customers in a small, efficient package—a lot to ask of one carton. Wallace Church executed beautifully on the brief, and the team was able to make Studio Hybrid’s packaging from 95 percent recyclable materials so that it is curbside recyclable and closes the loop on the sustainability life cycle.
Dunkin’ Donuts is an international coffee and baked goods retailer that was founded in 1948 in Quincy, Massachusetts. It serves about 2.7 million customers per day at approximately 8,800 stores in thirty-one countries, including approximately 6,400 Dunkin’ Donuts locations throughout the United States. Dunkin’ Donuts is well known for its advertising, especially in its home region. Wallace Church worked with the brand to create special winter holiday promotional packaging.
Wallace Church used the well-established brand language and visual iconography to create the special winter holiday packaging. Donut boxes and coffee cups—the primary way customers experience the brand—were designed with bright circular graphics following Dunkin’ Donuts’ identity system.
“When in doubt: ‘Think big, go small. Be smart, be simple.’”
—Rob Wallace, managing partner and strategic director, Wallace Church
Case Study in Assembling the Team:
Wallace Church / New York, New York USA
Suntory Iyemon Cha
When leading Japanese producer and distributor of spirits and beverages, Suntory Limited, wanted to introduce its new brand, Iyemon Cha, into the ice tea market, it called on Wallace Church to design the distinctive packaging. The brand needed to convey that this is a pure, all-natural beverage steeped in rich tea-making tradition. In fact, the world’s finest green tea or “cha” comes from Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan and the original source of Japanese green tea, which is where Iyemon Cha is made. Wallace Church’s design hints at ancient roots but presents the brand in a refreshing, modern way.
Using a RACI Matrix for Design Team Management
One way to visualize and clarify the interdependent responsibilities of the design team is to create a RACI matrix, also sometimes called a responsibility assignment matrix (RAM). The following chart shows the various tasks required, the people involved, and the specific role they play in completion of various tasks. These roles are coded as follows:
R. (Responsible): Who does the work?
A. (Accountable): Who approves the work?
C. (Consulted): Who provides opinions/input about the work?
I. (Informed): Who gets a progress report on the work?
To make a RACI matrix useful, assign only one individual an “A” per task (i.e., hold only one person accountable). Multiple team members can be assigned “R,” “C,” or “I,” however. These charts work well in a project’s early stages as a planning and communication tool for teams.
This RACI matrix indicates roles and responsibilities for some of the tasks in phase 1 of a logo design project.
Six Characteristics of Successful Design Teams
Virtual Teamwork
Not all design teams comprise members of the same firm collocated in the same office. Lots of design teams consist of people across several geographic locations, time zones, and even companies. Technology makes it possible to bring together interesting combinations of talented people. It’s an exciting possibility, but like every other aspect of the design process, virtual teams require management.
In some ways, managing a virtual team is like managing people face to face, but a few things must be adjusted to make it work smoothly:
• Launching a project with a face-to-face meeting, if possible, is great for setting the proper tone and helping to facilitate a sense of personal connection among team members.
• Written forms of communication, such as email, can easily be shared and subsequently referred to later if necessary.
• Use of technology, especially web-based project management software, is a given.
• Being able to create virtual “war rooms” (i.e., collections of discovery materials held in one location) where people can review visual material and documents is essential.
• At some point, real-time viewing and discussion of work in progress must be facilitated.
• Some activities, such as brainstorming, may be better accomplished with shared physical proximity. Distance may slow certain processes, if not completely impede them.
• Camaraderie in design must be facilitated. Many elusive creative moments come from being in proximity to other creative people. Alternative scenarios need to be provided for this type of interaction to occur in some way.
Technology Tools for Teamwork
Synchronous means working at the same time, while asynchronous means working at different times. Virtual teams are dispersed, while collocated teams are together in one place. This chart offers some ideas for tools that can help facilitate teams, no matter what their configuration.
• Verification of information must be pursued. Not everyone understands text-based messages. Voice inflection, as well as nonverbal communication, can often change the meaning of words. Managers need to make sure the team gets the right message.
• Teams that represent a variety of cultures—based on everything from ethnicity to geography to expertise in allied but different industries—can present a challenge, especially when none of their work time is face to face. Barriers come down when people can interact personally.
• Shared processes and agreed-upon work methods will bond the group. Having a team code of conduct will diminish misunderstandings and make the team more cohesive.
An asynchronous environment, in which team members and the client are not viewing and discussing the work simultaneously, can lead to lots of misunderstandings. Managing reactions and feedback becomes challenging in that context. Certain meetings, review sessions, and conferences should occur with all team members logging in or calling simultaneously. This is particularly important for initial creative concept presentations. Having the design team and the client participate directly with each other will allow real-time discussion, timely input, and group resolutions.
Useful Questions for Screening Creatives
Whether you are hiring a staff designer or selecting a temporary collaborator for a project, you need to interview this person. Many design firms make hiring decisions based solely on portfolios. A lot of relevant information is contained in a portfolio: Style sensibility, attention to detail, quality, and experience are all obvious. But what else can you uncover about the person behind the work that would help you make an informed choice? Here are some openended questions to ask:
▸ What was your last project? What did you learn from it? What did you like and dislike about it?
▸ Describe your work process on a typical project. How do you approach design?
▸ Which pieces in your portfolio are you most proud of? Why?
▸ What kinds of clients do you prefer to work with? Why?
▸ Which clients in your portfolio were like this? Which ones were not?
▸ What kind of creative direction did you have on this particular project? How do you like to be supervised? What make a good boss?
▸ What are your professional goals? Where do you see yourself in five years? What do you think are your strong and weak points? What are your plans to improve your deficiencies and enhance your strengths?
▸ What organizations or activities do you pursue that enrich you as a designer? What professional societies are you a member of and how have they helped your career?
Remember that these questions are meant to aid in discussions that reveal more about the person you are interviewing. However, it is against the law in many countries to discriminate on the basis of gender, age, ethnicity, region, sexual orientation, skin color, or national origin, so steer clear of any conversations that touch on those topics.
Magabala Diary designed by Finn Creative / Kunnamura, Australia
Magabala Diary
Celebrating more than twenty years of publishing about indigenous Australians, Magabala Books, in conjunction with Finn Creative, created a distinctive cross-cultural daily diary showcasing aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytellers, writers, and illustrators through exquisite portraits, book excerpts, and artist profiles. Finn Creative is lead by creative director Kevin Finn. Prior to moving to Australia, Irish-born Finn worked in Dublin and New Zealand with top design studios. He then spent seven years as joint creative director at Saatchi Design, Sydney, winning national and international recognition.
BELOW
The cover represents the aboriginal circular calendar in its simplest form: a finger-painted circle in black and white. The aboriginal annual calendar is often represented as a circle based on seasons and what they bring. The connotations of the circular symbol go even deeper, to represent all Australian peoples’ cultures coming together.
Magabala Diary designed by Finn Creative / Kunnamura, Australia
The Magabala desk diary is both a revenue stream for the company, and a promotional item. “Early in the process, I suggested that we may be able to include a number of other levels to the diary,” says Finn. “For a start, we should look at how indigenous people view the calendar year, and also include dates that have particular significance for indigenous people. Added to this, since Magabala produces books, I felt it would be interesting for users to have access to excerpts to the authors’ works as this would make the diary more engaging (and more valuable) as well as promoting the authors (and, in turn, Magabala Books).”
“One of my goals was to try to make the diary as cross-cultural as possible, as well as perhaps making it a resource to further educate about indigenous culture,” Finn explains. “In addition to this, a key objective is to access people who may not normally see themselves as having an interest in aboriginal culture, simply because the usual portrayal of aboriginality is delivered through painting—dot painting in particular. Creating a diary that on the one hand is smart and sophisticated looking and on the other hand provides a wider look at aboriginal culture through literature, became a critical objective. Above all, the desk diary needed to be practical.”
Since Magabala Books produces books, the visual direction was based in this truth. All the Magabala Books–related information, including the authors’ backgrounds and excerpts, are delivered as though inside a small book contained in the diary. The diary will be produced each year, so it needs to remain consistent but fresh each year. The book idea will be the constant (almost template) for each diary.
“The Western calendar is linear and very fixed, split into days and months,” notes Finn. “The indigenous calendar is circular, fluid, and flexible, split into seasons that are defined by when flora and fauna appear or disappear and are dictated by weather patterns. Even though the Western calendar is specific (365.25 days to be exact), we still commonly use the phrase ‘the whole year round.’ And even though the Western calendar is linear, once December 31 comes around, the next day starts the process from the beginning again, so it also has a cyclical nature.”
