Amidst the gridlocked graphics of Washington,
D.C., Jake and Pum Lefebure are armed and ready
to take on the capital’s biggest events.
For both, it was their first job after college, a
chance to live in a great city, and an opportunity to
grow within a large company. But after countless
late nights and weekends working as juniors at a
large design agency, Pum Mek-arronreung and Jake
Lefebure realized they shared something else: a determination
to get themselves on the D.C. design map.
Quickly scoring their own freelance projects, the
duo logged hundreds of hours together, winning dozens
of awards and the attention of the local design
community. Soon they were managing a roster of
clients as well as a budding romance; they married in
2001. When Jake left the agency in 2003 to start his
own company, Pum joined him, and their mission
was underway.
Design militants
To capture their passionate work ethic and direct
style of execution, the Lefebures searched for a
clever name for their new firm. Taking cues from
the patriotic culture around them seemed appropriate,
but they also wanted to incorporate the word
design and their desire to sound big, even as their
shop stayed small.
“After scouring for a URL and not having much
luck, we joked about how two poor little designers—
one from the mountains of Pennsylvania and the
other from the sprawling city of Bangkok—would
ever stand out in the huge D.C. metro design community,”
says Jake. “We said it would take an ‘army’
of designers to do it. So we keyed in www.design
army.com and there it was—just waiting for us to
snatch it up. It was perfect. We are well-trained and
organized, it’s easy to remember, and we plan to conquer
D.C. creatively.”
Design Army was called into service. For this
couple in the capital, it was crucial to cater to the
ubiquitous political audience, yet Design Army’s skill
with concepts and their polished look begged for
more than annual reports. With the glitz of fundraisers
and galas before them, Design Army embarked
on a campaign to bring intelligent design to events.
“There’s a lot of demand on good invitations to
attract the audience or donors who provide money
to the organization,” says Pum. “We saw this as an
opportunity to devote ourselves to specializing in
high-end invitation design.”
Infiltrating the ranks
Invitations provided Design Army with exposure
to the Washington elite: high-rolling clients and an
A-list audience. Many of these organizations have an
international presence and mailing lists that include
former presidents. And since most of these events
are recurring, promoting them provides unique
challenges in capturing the interest of many of the
same people each year.
When concepting a theme for an event, Design
Army will often build an entire identity from the
ground up, including logo and program design. In
the process, they are given the opportunity to spec
specialty paper stocks and printing techniques.
That said, it’s not always frills and full color.
“While invitations are fun, they can also be very
stressful because the names of the sponsors and
honorary list are usually added, deleted, or changed
at the last minute,” says Pum. By working on so
many invitation projects, however, Design Army has
learned to expect alterations and incorporates fl exible
layouts to address the inevitable changes.
Even with the instability that last-minute
changes bring, the stability of the event graphics
business is a plus. Events are slotted ahead of time
and must meet printing and mailing dates, so designers
get a solid deadline—and a solid paycheck. “We
can always count on invitation projects,” says Pum.
Partisan policies
In a town where some companies parade their political
motivations, Design Army has yet to declare
their allegiances in order to pursue new business: All
their clients have come to them by word of mouth.
But Jake notes that an organization’s affiliation
wouldn’t deter them from accepting a project. “We
would never turn down a creative challenge, but we
will reject close-minded clients,” he says. “I am a
designer and regardless of their party I plan to give
them the best creative I can.”
While the partisan leanings of their clients don’t
create ideological conflicts, the Lefebures are still
very selective about who makes it past round two of
their recruitment process. “Anything we feel won’t be
a good fit for our studio, we don’t take the project,”
says Pum. “Anyone who doesn’t click in our first
meeting, we don’t take it. If the first question is ‘How
much will it cost?’ we won’t take the project.”
Design Army embraces a steady stream of work
from nonprofits and lobbyist groups as not only a
challenge, but an important part of living in D.C.
“If you have no interest in politics, you shouldn’t live
in Washington,” says Pum. “I’m a native of Bangkok
and I’ve found American politics fascinating. I
learned to appreciate it. Any good designer should
be able to solve any problem. And good design starts
with a good attitude towards the projects.”
Beyond stars and stripes
Considering some of the most famous graphic
designs to come from Washington—currency, W-9
forms—it’s obvious that political clients favor understated
concepts. Flags, diversity, and traditional
fonts are all popular with this conservative crowd.
But Jake and Pum jump at this opportunity to show
what’s possible beyond the look that’s already on
clients’ agendas.
“We are risk takers and will show a conservative
client the wildest design,” says Jake. “While they
may not select that design, it will often spin off some
great conversations that elevate the more traditional
options they love. It’s sort of like us turning the lights
on for them, but they hit the switch.”
Not surprisingly, many of Design Army’s clients
clamor for a very specific color palette. “Political
clients seem to really like red, white, and blue,” says
Pum, who notes that Design Army will specifically
use a color like lime green to make an identity stand
out. “There are way too many red and blue logos in
this town!”
With so many organizations vying for public
attention, it’s not difficult for Design Army to convince
clients of the importance of looking different,
especially when donations are at stake. “There are so
many political clients these days ranging from the
mild to the wild, and they all are after the same dollars,
so the competition is fierce,” says Jake. “But I do
think that they are taking a bigger look at the picture
and realizing the political landscape is changing and
so must they.”
Staying on target
Propelling political messages beyond the conventional,
Design Army transforms these simple invitations
into beautiful pieces impossible to ignore. But
by meeting the needs of their clients with appropriate
business-savvy style, they’re also changing the
way this not-so-niche market communicates with
constituents. As planned, Design Army’s strategy
for addressing the D.C. social scene is making good
design contagious.
“I think in the past two years we have made
quite a impact on D.C., and we are starting to get
more recognition,” says Jake. “But what’s even better
is that we’re getting more competition, and some of
it is quite good. I know I said that we want to conquer
D.C. creatively and that it will take an ‘army’ to
do it—but I never said they all have to be employed
by us.”
