1. Greater control: From the inception of the brief right through to the completion of a project, factors such as quality, timings and costs can all be continually monitored.

2. Increased flexibility: It’s no secret, projects frequently change in direction and priority. In-house design teams have the ability to attend to changing design needs swiftly and easily.

3. Improved communication: In-house design provides the opportunity for constant communication. It brings the client and talent together in person. And we all know it’s easier to communicate with people in person. Well … most of the time.

4. Deeper Knowledge: How many clients mention; “understanding of our business and the environment we operate in” as a factor they consider as important when selecting design agencies? So, there’s probably no real need to say any more about this benefit of an in-house design team is there?

5. Cost reduction: We’d like to share the below story with you. We call it the ‘in-house cycle’, for reasons that will become obvious.

“Instead of outsourcing our design, let’s bring it in-house, it’ll be cheaper. Our new in-house team seems to be quite big and expensive, let’s get rid of a few. OK and a few more. Sod it, we may as well get rid of it altogether. Where’s that list of consultancies we had? Oh my, now that the amount of design work has picked up, these consultancies are proving to be expensive. Instead of outsourcing our design, let’s bring it in-house….”

Too often the decision to operate an in-house design team is based simply on improving the appearance of the balance sheet. As the above story shows, this approach rarely works.

It isn’t a matter of choosing between in-house or consultancy. It’s more a matter of how much of one AND how much of the other. Not only that, it’s making sure the combination of the two can continually adapt to ever changing design needs. Then and only then, will you start to experience the true benefits of in-house design. Oh and you’ll save a few quid too.
 
Until next time …
 
RIMA

Why does it occur?

 
We (with more than a little help from Blair Enns brilliant book ‘The win without pitching manifesto‘) think it all boils down to two main factors:
 
1. The market – There are too many designers chasing not enough design work. There will always be those with less experience, or those with enough fee-paying work, who think free pitching will be worth their while.
 
2. The client – They ask agencies to free pitch as they feel they do not have enough confidence in the agency. Clients are also fully aware of the power they hold within the market.
 

What’s the solution?

 
So, the two contributing factors are the market and the client, but how on earth could we affect them on our own? The answer was in front of us the whole time, it was indeed, us. We needed to change ourselves. Before we tell you how we changed, we’d like to share with you the number one principle we follow when we’re involved in pitching for new business: Talking with the client.
 
Prior to offering solutions to the client, we always aim to engage them in conversation in an attempt to further diagnose the problem. If this doesn’t happen, we won’t free pitch. If it does, we might. For example, if a well-trusted, existing client asks us to explore some ideas for a future project, as long as we’re confident that it could result in some fee-paying work, we will undertake it for free. We know our clients business needs inside out, so we’re sure we’ll produce work they’ll purchase.
 
Now back to the changes we made …
 
1. The market – We decided to limit the amount of alternatives clients had to us. We became specialists, corporate communications specialists to be exact (our previous work and clients allowed us to do so). We knew that by being seen as more expert than our competitors, we would not be viewed as one of the many chasing not enough design work, giving us more power within the market.
 
2. The Clients – Again, specialisation helped us here. It allowed us to give clients something that they previously used free pitching to gain, confidence. Prospective clients can draw confidence from our expertise, shown through our clients, testimonials and most importantly our work.
 
We’d love to say we don’t free pitch, but we can’t. We do. Although, through the changes we have made, we don’t do it half as much as we used to, and we are very selective when we decide to.
 
We’d love to hear your thoughts…
 
Oh, and that book we mentioned, Blair Enns ‘The win without pitching manifesto‘. It really is a must read. To say it helped us is an understatement.
 
Until next time…
 
RIMA

The process of locking groups into a small room; armed with only a white board, felt-tip pens, an hour and… the belief that no idea is a bad idea. This is brainstorming, well, brainstorming at its worst.

We’re sure none of you still undertake idea generation sessions in such a manner. But if you are a little unsure of the best way to arrive at “the idea”, can we recommend an approach? It’s an approach we will openly admit we have stolen, albeit many a year ago. The credit here has to go to James Webb Young and his well-worth-a-read book “A technique for producing ideas”.

The below is a process we have been following for many years now. Yes, it may seem somewhat obvious, but it’s amazing how few people go through every stage. Stages one and three tend to experience the most neglect…

1. Research. Gather everything that has already been thought of on the subject area. Not only will this rule out those initial ideas you have, but it will also give you inspiration and direction to conjure up further ideas.

2. Now is the time to take all of this research and the initial thoughts you have into that meeting room or coffee shop. The best thing to do with them when you arrive is to get rid of them, as quickly as possible. Of course, discuss them with the others and try and see if there is any substance to them. But don’t for one minute think you’ve come up with “the idea”. You haven’t.

3. The next stage involves time; you need to make sure you give yourself plenty of it. We’d recommend a few days, but know this isn’t always possible. This stage is where you give your mind time to subconsciously digest all the ideas that you have been wrestling with.

4. Your subconscious should now be ready to start spilling out some ideas. Your job here is to make a note of them when they finally decide to make an appearance. You needn’t act like Don Draper and scribble them down on napkins and beer coasters. He didn’t have a mobile phone.

5. At this point you are ready to return to the meeting room/coffee shop and reveal your strongest ideas. Between your team (once you’ve all analysed the ideas in terms of the objectives) it will be pretty obvious which ideas should be selected, shaped and shown to the client.

Now, watch the brilliant ideas roll in.

Until next time.

RIMA.

The stigma attached to in-house design is that designers get bored of the strict guidelines and processes that the client imposes.

Really?

We manage a creative services team within a large corporate organisation. You can only but imagine the strict guidelines and processes our designers have to consider. But are they bored? Far from it.

There are, however, reasons as to why they’re not. Here are 8 of them.

1. The working environment –It’s the one everyone talks about, and for good reason. It sounds obvious, but it should be a space designers enjoy being in, and where clients love visiting. Ok, like an agency. There, we said it. Oh, and let them work from home now and then.

2. Show the value – Make the designers fully aware of the direct impact their work is having on the organisation. Placing a value on their work will create a sense of pride and help to further motivate and inspire.

3. Freelancing – We actively encourage our designers to undertake freelance work. Yep, you read that right. It keeps our designers fresh, and often leads to them bringing new perspectives to their in-house work.

4. Benefits – You’d be surprised by the positive effect a lunch time swim (in the company pool) can have on the creative mind …

5. Pushing the boundaries – Our designers enjoy the challenge of seeing just how far they can push the design guidelines. It makes for effective design.

6. Social – Not to be underestimated. Regular team outings are a must. A happy team is a motivated team.

7. New toys – Upgrading hardware and software leads to an upgrade in motivation and inspiration. We recently got a delivery of new macs (other computers are available). The effect this had on the team was quite remarkable.

8. Curiosity – Our designers are given a reasonable budget to spend on satisfying their curiosity. Attending design events, going to museums or subscribing to magazines. New information brings new insights.

We would say it’s knowing when your designers need that little pick up, that’s the important bit.
 
Until next time …
 
Rima

‘We’re corporate communications specialists’. It’s easy to make such a claim. However, it’s another story when trying to prove the claim is real.

Ever since we made our claim, we’ve had a fear of being found out (not that we’ve got anything to hide mind you). It’s just we know we’ll never be able to say, ‘right, that’s it chaps, we’ve made it, we can’t get any more expert than what we are right now’.

It is this fear of never being expert enough that drives us to continually improve. Yes, the clients and work we choose to take on helps, but more importantly, it is the training we undertake that really matters.
The following is our approach to training. Hope it is of assistance…

• Each member of staff is empowered to form their own professional development plan. It should however reflect the goals of the agency and be regularly monitored. The plans have proved to keep staff loyal and highly motivated.

• We support staff with money and time (obviously within reason, and where appropriate).

• We are constantly gathering information on training needs. This is through such things as looking at industry trends, conducting appraisals with team members and gaining feedback from clients.

• Above all, the training we undertake has to have an effect on performance. We always evaluate whether the training has strengthened our expertise.

• Yes, our designers are trained largely on improving their design skills (Lynda.com is a resource we use a lot for this purpose, so thought it deserved a mention). However, it is important they receive training on other things, such as client relationship, creative management and, team building. If the latter, for example, means drunken away days, drunken away days is what we’ll do.

For us, learning is an investment, not a cost.

Until next time…

RIMA

But Shell weren’t going to let a graffiti artist spray paint without the right sort of safety precautions in place now were they…

Our thanks again go out to Media Gang, who produced the eye catching work.

Guest, meet blog. Blog, meet guest.

Welcome. To what we hope will prove to be a valuable resource for you.

So, what can you expect from our blog? Well, first let us begin by telling you a bit about us. Not only are we a 25-year-old specialist creative corporate communications agency (wordy, I know). But we are also Shell Internationals’ in-house creative team, and have been for more than five years now.

As of late, we have been reflecting on our unique position. It got us thinking. Perhaps we should share all the insight and experience that working within both design environments brings? Feedback from colleagues, clients and friends suggested we should. So, through the medium of a blog. We are.

But who will benefit from our knowledge and advice?

Quite simply, everyone involved with the management of design. It could be:

• A creative services manager who may want to know how best to motivate their in-house design team.

OR

• A design manager who would like to know how to demonstrate to the client the value the organisation has obtained through design.

OR

• The design buyer of a large corporate organisation who perhaps wants to identify the key ingredients needed to create a more effective brief.

Yet, that is not all our blog has to offer. The above (which is to be categorised as: creative management will be core to the blog. However, there will be five main categories in total. The remaining four being:

• Design talk (Discussion on the latest trends and issues within the design world)
• The corporate communications world (This is our specialist area. News, views and insight)
• Reviews (We love to read and recommend. Although H.Potter may well be a guilty pleasure. It will only be work related books, articles and events we share with you)
• Our news and personal stuff (Yep, you guessed it. Anything we’ve been working on and achieved. In and out of the office)
  

All posts will be like my 3 year old son. Short and punchy. We’re guessing like us, you’re time poor.

The second blog will be along soon. But be sure not to miss any by signing up and following us.

Until next time

RIMA.