November: Add value, don’t give away your thinking for free The work of creative practitioners the world over is becoming increasingly commoditised, and as a consequence valued less and less by clients. So argued Canadian business development consultant and author Blair Enns. He said that we can stop the rot if we have the confidence to take control of our creative businesses, reclaim the high ground in client relationships and abandon free pitching.
October: Service design: opportunity or threat for mainstream disciplines? We’re increasingly hearing about service design. But do we know what it means? And what does a service designer design? For October’s breakfast we invited two designers working in this relatively new field to tell us more. Joe Smith (lead designer at FutureGov) and Gavin Maguire (senior service designer with Engine) explained how they apply principles of user-centred design, whether based on observation, discussion or (another newish development) co-creation, to improve people’s lives. Service designers are interested in the truth of our everyday experiences, using their research to create better systems for service delivery, including hardware and user-interface design, information architecture, customer communications and staff training programmes.
September: Expand your horizons: Getting business overseas is easier than you might think What’s on your letterhead – London, Istanbul, Bangalore or Qingdao? With UK design talent in demand internationally, now is a great time to seek opportunities overseas. For London Design Festival, we gathered a panel of designers who have recently won business abroad to talk about their experiences. Some have done it on their own initiative and others with support from UK Trade & Investment. Either way, it’s good to know there’s help if you need it and the process doesn’t have to be daunting. UKTI creative industries adviser Christine Losecaat chaired the session and explained the support available. Speakers included Tony Howard, managing director, Transport Design Consultancy (TDC), Andrew Foxall, creative director at Foxall Studio and Nigel Davies, managing director of 300million.
July: How not to wind up clients Have you ever wished you were a fly on the wall at the client discussion post-pitch? How did it go? Maybe a nod wasn’t as good as a wink. And even if you win the work, how do you keep momentum and build successful client relationships? Our panel of two hard-hitting procurers of creative services and an independent new business adviser gave insights into making clients love you by avoiding the usual pitfalls of selling your wares, negotiating a brief and dealing with misunderstandings. With Joe Ferry (SVP Global Guest Experience & Design at InterContinental Hotels Group, previously head of design at Virgin Atlantic Airways), Tom Foulkes (Global Head of Marketing, Buro Happold and former head of retail marketing at Land Securities) and Amanda Francis (Managing Director at Alchemis, a new business development consultancy to the creative industries).
June: Stay true or you will be found out Richard Seymour, product designer and co-founder of Seymourpowell believes designers have a responsibility to get things right for their clients. And as designers, it is only by seeking out a problem’s underlying truth that we find the solution. Richard compared a designer’s duty to the pilot’s prayer and called on us to take an oath to use our creative talents honestly and for good.
May: Wally Olins How do we, as designers, become more influential, operate over a wider span of activities and make more money? As a young man, Wally Olins, chairman of Saffron Brand Consultants, was impressed by hierarchy and precedence – and it was difficult to get to the top in business. But when he got there, he found he could talk straight to the people there. He told Designer Breakfast attendees that you must deal with people at the top; it’s no good dealing with the marketing manager.
April: Saying yes / saying no Why would you say no to new work? Does having firm principles increase your influence? Designer Breakfasts asked three eminent design principals where they draw the line. With Cheryl Giovannoni, president, Global KCR’s, Landor; Sophie Thomas, founding director, Thomas Matthews; and Tim Beard, partner, Bibliothèque
March: How's business? Some Home Truths. Design-sector business consultant Shan Preddy argued that the more a design firm knows about business the more successful it will be, both financially and creatively.
February: There's no success like failure? As part of our 2011 theme of telling the truth, Nick Eagleton, Creative Director at The Partners spoke frankly about failure. He believes that it’s not enough just talking about successes and what designers have done right. “We stand to learn more from being honest with each other and admitting failures,” Nick said. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
January: Revealing the ups and downs of 2010 and projecting ahead Starting off our theme for the year on telling the truth, we put together a panel of four designers to tell us about their experiences in 2010 and their outlook for 2011. Our panel of speakers included: Simon Rucker, Head of Strategy, Seymourpowell, Amalia Brightley-Hodges of the newly established Brightley-Hodges Associates, Heidi Lightfoot, creative director of Together Design and Jamie Ellul of Magpie Studio. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
2010
November: Ian Cochrane Design industry business guru Ian Cochrane, the man chosen by many a well-known design business to take their business to a higher level, talked about the value of engaging with a non-exec at our latest breakfast. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
October: E. Rachael Baird US designer E. Rachael Baird, owner of Baltimore-based Tilt Studio talked about going global and making money while you sleep. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
September: Sebastian Conran The Managing Director of Sebastian Conran Associates talked about brand integrity, focus groups and value - as well as the importance of creating an itchy wallet. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
July: Glenn Tutssel Small is beautiful, big is beautiful, but it’s all about the art of weaving. Glenn Tutssel, executive creative director of the Brand Union, told us how multi-disciplined teams will shape the future. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
June: Liz Wren Liz Wren, former business principal at Wren & Rowe and owner of mentoring and coaching consultancy Through the Forest, looked at how to realise your true value to clients at our latest breakfast. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
May: Bonnie Dean Bonnie Dean of the Designing Demand Advisory Board highlighted the benefits that designers bring to business, seeing things from a user perspective, and being brutally honest. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
April: David Kester David Kester, chief executive of the Design Council, talked about the Council’s Designing Demand programme and argued that design happens in the space between creativity and innovation, giving a wealth of examples. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
March: Franco Bonadio Franco Bonadio, CEO and creative director of Identica and formerly global creative director of The Body Shop gave us a delightfully honest and empathetic account of the conflicts between running a design business and doing the creative businesses. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
February: Maxine Horn Maxine Horn spoke about how over the last decade she has helped designers to profit from their ideas, and the likes of Proctor & Gamble to broker deals with designers. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
January: Sir George Cox Sir George Cox, former Head of the Institute of Directors and former chairman of the Design Council, told Breakfasters that designers can help British SMEs to innovate and are a vast untapped source of work for UK’s small design businesses. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
2009
December: Miriam Rayman - Trendspotting Miriam Rayman talked about 'shape shifters' and 'minivists' and why you need to understand how younger people in particular are living their lives increasingly online and using a range of identities. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
November: Adam Arnold - New ways of making money - How to zag when everyone's zigging BBH’s Adam Arnold kept a packed Designer Breakfasts audience enraptured with his presentation on Zag – the international agency’s brand invention arm. Zag uses a risk and reward model to create brands and take them to market with joint venture partners.Click here to read more about this breakfast.
October: Roger Mavity and Adrian Burton - Free pitching As tends to happen in a recession, free pitching is on the increase again. But attitudes to it are changing, as was revealed at our latest Breakfast with guests Roger Mavity, chief executive of the Conran Group, and Adrian Burton, creative director of Lambie Nairn. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
July: Natasha Stallard and Danielle Cantillon - Vibrant leadership Coaches Natasha Stallard and Danielle Cantillon talked about the importance of leadership, creating a 'buzzing' working atmosphere, and why it is crucial to be the architect not the landscaper of your own business Click here to read more about this breakfast.
June: Ben Terrett - business models Ben Terrett of the Really Interesting Group, a multi-disciplinary post digital organisation, spoke on the theme of business models, both conventional and unconventional, and their approach to risk and reward. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
May: Thinking Big: Mat Hunter, IDEO Mat Hunter from design-driven innovation company IDEO talked about ‘design thinking' and developing a ‘human-centred’ approach to problem solving while taking on work that is interesting and has an impact on the world. “It’s not about making everyone a designer," he said. "It’s about making non-designers more creative business people.”Click here to read more about this breakfast.
April: Designing relationships Ralph Ardill, founder of The Brand Experience Consultancy and former strategic planning director at Imagination, argued that designers should schedule time to ‘design’ their relationships. Internal agency meetings shouldn’t simply be progress reviews, they should be looking at how to design the client relationship. “You have to design successful platforms for long term relationships otherwise you just end up speed dating.” Click here to read more about this breakfast.
March: Edge Thinking “Community building isn’t new," said Claudie Plen of specialist change consultancy Edge Thinking, "but it’s never looked as compelling as it does now." This session gave a set of practical steps to take in order to reap the rewards of the partnership model and, crucially, a checklist of pitfalls to avoid.Click here to read more about this breakfast.
February: Michael Peters - Small is the new big "Clients want the attic, not Mayfair. They want to be with the people who do the work, not with suits," said Peters. "This is they time of austerity. Small is the new big." He identified various problems in the industry including terrible art schools, the unreliablity of research and mediocre talent, then argued that clients want to learn from and talk to creative people: these are problems that the industry has created and it's up to the industry to solve them.Click here to read more about this breakfast.
January: An exploration of skills training - our new course with Design London The new course we are developing at Imperial College will focus on key issues central to the success of smaller design consultancies in the 21st century. At this breakfast owners of small design companies explored skills training to help them speak the language of business and we looked at the importance of building confidence and knowledge. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
2008
December: Run a business business, not just a design business - an antidote to recession Tim Ashton, principal and creative director of ideas agency Antidote, looked at how to run a business business, not just a design business, during a recession. Ashton has a wide range of business interests from brand advertising and design for corporate clients such as Shell to pro bono work for Comic Relief and as part owner, part client for Morrissey Fox ale, an artisan beer venture with actor Neil Morrissey and chef Richard Fox. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
November: Jack of all trades? Or master of one? An in-the-round discussion hosted by Cathy Verrieres, former new business director at Futurebrand and Enterprise IG. Among experts offering their own take were Anita Brightley-Hodges of Still Waters Run Deep and Zdenka Beck-Bauer, former marketing director of Wentworth Club, who gave a valuable client perspective. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
October: Survival of the fittest This special Brunch with business author and motivational speaker Kevin Duncan looked at the ways of dealing with the increasingly difficult economic outlook. It was an intensive three hours, although Kevin kicked off by saying he wasn’t going to mention the ‘r’ word. “I don’t," he said, "do gloomy.” Click here to read more about this breakfast.
September: Olympic procurment LOCOG (London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games) claims that £170 million of contracts have been earmarked for SMEs. But there seems to be a disconnect between publicity surrounding tendering process and the reality of designers’ experience. And do Procurement Executives really understand who they are buying from and what they are buying?’. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
July: Jonathon Porritt The Founder Director of Forum for the Future (the UK's leading sustainable development charity) talked about the opportunity which the current change in the economic climate is giving designers. In this troubled world in transition he saw a need to avoid 'client dependency syndrome' and consider the attractions of ‘elegant frugality’. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
June: Profit from process - the boring bits get interesting Simon White and Jon Hamm from our hosts Momentum argued at our most recent Designer Breakfast that planning + process enables your best creative work. They looked at how love and money can work together, providing much food for thought about research, creative instincts and account management. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
May: Help shape a response to the Government's New Talents for the New Economy report Chaired by Nico Macdonald, design strategist and writer, the breakfast concentrated on New Talents for the New Economy, the Government’s new strategy for a world-beating creative Britain. We invited Government representatives and key design commentators including the RCA’s Jeremy Myerson to debate our response to it and explored how policies can help small design businesses connect with the tens of thousands of SMEs who don't use design. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
April: New business development Rebecca Caroe, business-to-business sales and marketing consultant for creative agencies, knows that designers’ strengths do not always lie in new business development. Her brunch was packed with advice on skilling-up small design businesses to work smart at getting more projects and making better profits. The audience’s mix of relatively inexperienced design-led entrepreneurs, creatives with years of doing it themselves without any support and new business professionals working in design, was rich and useful.Click here to read more about this breakfast.
March: Design thinking, creative thinking. Steven Overman, director of integration at IPG Nokia, says every challenge is a design challenge and the act of creating a business is an act of design. Steven shared his secrets and a series of ‘before and after’ examples that show just what ‘design thinking’ makes possible. Click here to read more about this breakfast. February: How to turn design averse SMEs into your hottest clients. Frances Hinton is an expert in what keeps SME owner-managers awake at night. And it’s not design. The former Business Link design advisor has worked with hundreds of SMEs and even researched SME perceptions of designers for 2006’s Cox report. She says that what worries SMEs is money and people. Click here to read more about this breakfast.January: Sir George Cox Sir George Cox spoke about the future for small design businesses in a slowing economy, offering upbeat observations and arguing that there is a vast untapped market for designers on their doorsteps. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
2007
December: What a difference a niche makes For our Christmas breakfast we enjoyed an entertaining presentation from character branding specialist Dan Good. Dan’s company, Absolutely Cuckoo, creates characters for the BBC and major greetings card publishers. It’s just about to go into a second year of successful trading, having signed three major animation deals in 12 months. But it wasn’t always like this...Click here to read more about this breakfast.
November: Creative partnerships A discussion with business coach, trainer and facilitator Claudie Plen on how good partnerships rely on shared values, shared goals and effective communication (that's internally and externally). So take the time to talk with your partner and make sure you agree what your brand is really about so you can communicate it with your employees and your customers. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
October: To collaborate or not to collaborate: a winning way to work or recipe for conflict? A debate with author and business development consultant Kevin Duncan, Loewy CEO Charlie Hoult, British Design Innovation chief executive Maxine Horn, and Lesley Morris, Design Council skills supremo. Click here to read more about this breakfast.
September: The deep design debate With Michael Wolff, co-founder of Wolff Olins and critic of design by process and demographics. Click here to read more about this breakfast.July: From agency life to top of the games With Theodora Manzaris, creative director of the Athens Olympics
June: Selling your business and buying it back (twice) British born Eugene Bay on selling and buying back his Amsterdam based agency VBAT, first to Young & Rubicam, then to WPP
May: New business clinic Sales experts Graham Rittener of In House Network and Cathy Verrieres of BABS together with business development consultant Kevin Duncan. Chaired by Madelaine Cooper
April: Working with writers A joint event with 26. The Writer's Neil Taylor and designer Rob Andrews of R&D&Co on the five things they hate about working with each other!
March: Sophisticated psychology vs simple straight talking John McConnell and Paul Foulkes Arellano, two commercially successful designers with different approaches to client relationships
February: Refocusing your business Consultant Frances Hinton on taking a step back from the everyday. With case histories from Anita Brightley-Hodges of Still Waters Run Deep and Amanda Tatham of Tatham Design
January: What design can learn from advertising Freddy Baveystock, a former advertising planner with St Lukes, describes what he's brought to its sister company, design agency The Nest
2006
December: Merry Christmas With Brian Webb of Trickett and Webb, doyen of Christmas cards and festive badges
November: A virtual success story Designer and commentator Adrian Shaughnessy on the commercial strategy behind virtual consultancy This is Real Art
October: The business of awards Multi-award winning designer and former D&AD president Michael Johnson of Johnson Banks on his experiences of winning and judging design competitions
September: British design in 2020 - An interactive workshop With futurist Rohit Talwar of Fast Future and John Corcoran of Wire Design for the Design Council
July: Building your brand Jonathan Mercer and Kate Fishenden, principals of Brand Guardians on branding’s most difficult project, defining your own.
June: Creative and commercial Relaxed question and answer session with Aziz Cami of top WPP agency The Partners
May: The power of people Recruitment consultant, Kimberley Kapner training consultant, Fiona Rassell and executive coach Gabriella Goddard in an informal HR clinic
April: Small is beautiful Joe Ferry, head of design at Virgin Atlantic, on the company’s policy of working with small design businesses
March: Client advocate Former Pentagram partner John McConnell on seeing both sides of the client/designer relationship
February: A 10-point plan for successful client relationships With Pam Frazer from Business Link for London
January: What’s your problem? Consultants Rachel Smart and Alan Arnett advise in an expert clinic