I was never much of a team player. Sports weren’t
my thing, and I avoided most group activities in and
out of school. The rock club just didn’t do it for me.
But rocking out in a club did.
After watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan
Show, I spent a good part of my life playing in bands
at bars, clubs, outdoor festivals and recording studios,
and on radio and television. I love the camaraderie,
the sharing, the intensity, the musical and personality
conflicts—all the minutia that make it all one big
musical soap opera. It’s like family without the guilt.
A great band, whether it’s rock or jazz or a string
quartet, takes talent, diplomacy, timing, patience,
magic, a lot of luck and a drummer with a van.
So I got to thinking. What makes a great
in-house design team? Talent, diplomacy, timing,
patience and a lot of luck (no drummer or van needed
here). Consistency. Good bedside manner and customer
service. Solid technical skills. The ability to play
well with others. And most importantly, the expertise
to rise to any challenge, create magic and deliver quality
work on time, over and over and over again.
I should know, because I’ve got one of those
great in-house design teams. As director of Creative
Services for Wyeth, I’ve been blessed with a fabulous
team of designers. Over the years synergies between
my department and our internal stakeholders have
helped to create successful results with more and
more projects being “in-sourced.”
Recent achievements—including the development
of new packaging for brands including Advil,
Centrum, ChapStick and Anbesol, advertising
materials, collateral for domestic and international
conferences, newsletters, policy brochures and corporate
communications collateral—benefited from
the exchange of ideas and intersections that occurred
between various business groups at Wyeth and my
team of creative professionals.
I reached out to several colleagues in the inhouse
design community to explore—through a
variety of case studies—how their creative teams
develop ideas, solve problems and work together
effectively to visually articulate their visions and
create magic.
WYETH SURVEY PROMOTION
How can your in-house department measure performance?
One way is to ask your clients. Send
them a survey. But getting them to fill it out is
another story. Add food into the mix and now
you’re cookin’. And that’s just what designers Cathy
Bespalko and Ann Filidoro of Wyeth did as they
brainstormed their way into a promotional campaign
to motivate in-house clients to complete an
online survey and offer up opinions, comments,
criticisms and suggestions.
Free lunch
The Creative Services department at Wyeth already
posted a short survey form on its intranet site, but
only a few people bit at this bait. Bespalko says,
“Simple word associations—such as surveys =
feedback, feed = eat, eat = hungry—led me to the
perfect incentive: Let’s buy ’em lunch, along with
the tagline, ‘We’re hungry to hear from you.’” The
duo then set off to develop a unique campaign that
would award a free lunch to any employee who completed a survey and made a useful suggestion
for improvement.
Big appetites
Bespalko and Filidoro needed something to attract
attention, something fun to engage employees and
motivate them to take action. A standard poster
just wouldn’t do. They needed something big.
“The image of Bob’s Big Boy popped into my
head, with his red-and-white checkered overalls and
larger-than-life presence,” said Filidoro. “As I was
sketching, I had a vision of kids at camp banging
on the table in unison with utensils, which eventually
inspired the idea to use the oversized knife, fork
and tablecloth.”
Real utensils were photographed, printed and
mounted on foam core, then cut out by hand and,
along with the fabric tablecloth, hot-glued to larger
foam core. The display, standing almost 6-ft. tall, was
hard to miss in the entranceway to the department.
The tip
Each week, a collection of surveys was reviewed
at the Monday staff meeting, with voting on
the suggestion that was worthy of a free meal.
Compliments didn’t always take the cake either.
Many surveys, although very critical, provided
worthwhile suggestions that gave the department an
opportunity to re-evaluate existing operating procedures
and improve services.
Employees were especially surprised to receive
a free lunch, as well as see the comments taken to
heart and recommendations put into practice. The
campaign ran for over a year. Although a free lunch
is no longer awarded, most employees are now aware
of the survey and continue to offer suggestions. As
Filidoro commented, “It was a big hit!”
GFS KID DETECTIVES PROGRAM
It’s not often an employee-morale project multitasks
as a tool for enhancing customer relationships. But
the Kid Detectives Kit did just that. For Marty
Lenger, creative services manager of Gordon Food
Service (GFS), one of the largest family-owned and
operated food-service distributors in North America,
this was a golden opportunity for his team to
enhance company morale and have some fun. The
key objective of the Kid Detectives Kit was to boost
the spirit and company pride of employees and their
families, while reinforcing the support of restaurant
customers by encouraging employees to visit local
establishments that buy GFS’s offerings.
Spy kids
The idea was to have children of employees act as
detectives and find which restaurants in their neighborhoods were GFS customers. Clues ranged from
finding GFS sugar packets on tables to spotting
GFS brand packaging behind the kitchen counter.
The kids would visit a local restaurant, put on their
detective hats (nose and glasses too) and take photos
of any GFS products they uncovered after flashing
their official GFS Kid Detectives card at the
door. The kids would then e-mail the photographic
evidence back to GFS, receiving a Kid Detectives
T-shirt as a reward.
Mission possible
By leveraging pre-established relationships throughout
the company, Lenger’s team was able to work
more efficiently and cost-effectively than an external
agency. “The coordination of effort was an enormous
project,” explained Lenger. “The creative
team partnered with many colleagues—including a
traffic and production coordinator, copywriter, web
content specialist, the onsite digital print center,
in-house Media Services and Office Services—to
design, print and distribute the kits to more than
1500 participating children.”
Case closed
A special-edition company newsletter featuring
photos of program participants was distributed to
all GFS U.S. employees after the campaign ended.
“The result of the campaign was not only a lot of
fun for the employees and families, but it generated
a warm response from our restaurant customers as
well,” added Lenger.
FAMILY MAGAZINE REDESIGN
Change can be a scary thing for some of us, but
not for creative director Stephanie Hoare. She welcomed
the opportunity to update and refresh family
magazine, the New Jersey monthly that features
articles on childcare, education, maternity, recipes,
health, kid-friendly activities and also gives readers
the confidence and resources they need to be successful
parents.
When Hoare joined the staff of family magazine
in 2005, the owners were looking for a change. Since
she was the design department, management trusted
her to take the magazine to the next level. “This is
a prime example of a company ready and willing to
embrace change and trust my guidance,” said Hoare.
Hoare’s fixer-upper assignment was to give the
magazine curb appeal and strengthen the brand to
generate more value to the reader and advertiser by
creating a stylish, fun look without losing the brand
recognition of the magazine. She also had to ensure
the company brand remained consistent in new areas
of growth, including ancillary publications, web presence
and events.
Hoare had to do all of this with a small budget,
lean staff, limited resources and an unyielding
monthly deadline. Without ample production
assistance, she was struggling, but eventually found
Alison Pergola—Hoare’s noted “savior.” The two creatives
became a successful tag team, splitting up the
design and production chores.
Playing well with others
As is the case with many in-house departments,
internal stakeholders love playing art director. One
of Hoare’s biggest challenges was to better manage
and persuade other departments to relinquish
responsibilities that belonged to the art department,
such as choosing the right images to accompany
articles. She also succeeded in convincing senior
management to stop using outdated illustrations
and employ more creative photography and dynamic
visuals to support editorial content.
Splashes of bright colors were incorporated to
add energy and bounce to each page, while headline
and body typefaces were updated to give the magazine
a more approachable, friendly and less authoritative
look. She says, “My goal was to bring out and
attempt to illustrate the playful characteristics of the
employees while creating a youthful and dynamic
publication the reader can relate to.”
The makeover succeeded on many levels. By
partnering with editorial staff to develop more
parent-focused articles and reduce longer articles in
favor of short, bite-sized pieces, the creative team was
able to break down bureaucratic barriers. The result
is a more informative, playful and dynamic publication.
“Lots of patience and solid relationships based
on trust and respect are the ingredients for a smooth,
consistent change,” said Hoare. “Heaps of patience.”
PUBLIX WEDDING CAKE AD
Tim Cox and his creative team at Publix Super
Markets—headquartered in Lakeland, Fla.—received national recognition a few years back when
they developed a new packaging design system
for the Publix brand private label that generated
extraordinary success for this supermarket chain.
And they’re still doing great work, as evidenced by
the wedding cake magazine ad (facing page) that
required not just graphic design skills but culinary
design skills as well.
A recipe for success
The objective was to promote the fact that the
Publix Bakery could design and produce wedding
cakes that are handcrafted and intricately designed.
Think Ace of Cakes on the Food Network. Brian
Chambers, Kim Cook and Kristin Ares, the creative
team responsible for this delectable delight, grabbed their markers, put on aprons and came up with a
unique solution.
“Because the objective of the ad was to communicate
that customers could customize a cake, we
didn’t want to use one of our existing wedding cake
designs,” says Chambers. “We needed something
unique.” So the team decided to design a custom
cake. One of their biggest challenges was not how
much flour and sugar to add, but how to incorporate
a list of objectives that grew during the project
without compromising the elegant simplicity of the
design. It’s a common problem facing most designers.
Icing on the cake
The bakery business unit eventually adopted the
original cake design as a new addition to the Publix
Bakery Wedding Cake Book. As noted by Chambers,
creative manager of the project, “The result was a
beautiful ad that not only overcame bureaucratic
and design hurdles but also created a new product
in our stores.”
LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER
SKYSCRAPER EXHIBIT
Liberty Science Center is an interactive-based science
and technology museum located in Jersey
City, N.J. Not only is its new exhibition Skyscraper!
Achievement and Impact the largest existing permanent
exhibition on tall buildings in the U.S., but it
stretched the limits of the center’s in-house graphic,
environmental, media and exhibition designers.
A tall tale
Ann Neumann, director of Design and New
Media, led the team of 2D, 3D and media designers
throughout the project. “Continuity was important
for ideas, materials and design choices to
stay close to the bone of the important concepts,”
said Neumann. Judeann Hook and Elizabeth
Grotyohann initially generated all design developments—including the approaches to info graphics,
panel development and icons.
Content developers, educators and designers collaborated
to develop experience concepts and had the
biggest alliances within the teams and 3D designers.
“We would occasionally put up and compare treatments
for gallery entrances or media interfaces and
create presentations, often using models or mock-ups
of graphics and interactives to communicate what we
proposed to the rest of the science center staff and
solicit their feedback,” Neumann explains.
Vertical thinking
The graphics were designed to follow the vertical
thrust of the skyscraper, with a typical interpretive
graphic as an 8-ft. vertical. These freestanding graphics were framed metal beams, reminiscent of
the steel found on a construction lot. Color palettes
were carefully selected; yellows and oranges fill the
construction site, while greens are reflective of environmental
innovation.
The exhibition typeface is bold, angular and
vertical with hard lines and angles outlining content
while dramatic, neck-craning photographs form the
background of graphic panels. A sense of drama was
key in all the photography, with dark silhouettes and
towering forms creating a powerful urban landscape
within the gallery.
Unlike billboards and other large-scale graphics,
the exhibition graphics would be viewed at a close
distance. Finding images at a high enough resolution
to cover a 28-ft.-tall graphic proved challenging. The
team found by creating photo mosaics of the skyscrapers,
they were able to enhance the photographydriven
style of the exhibition.
In addition to editorial delays that shortened the
design schedule, image sourcing issues and enormous
files that ate up computer memory, the sheer scale of
the project was overwhelming—with 200 graphics
being designed in-house. According to Neumann,
many of the designers had little experience with this
scale of work: “Trusting their talent, helping them
grow and expecting their ability to rise to these challenges
by producing their best work—and they did—was the most gratifying part of design directing this
exciting project.”
BDESIGN 2007—OUR PHOTOGRAPHY
Becton Dickinson’s legacy is built on 100-plus years
of contributions to global healthcare, and the 2007
BDesign Annual focuses on telling part of that story
through powerful, personal and striking photographic
images. Developed by the BD Graphics Lab
under Richard Kushnier, and now headed by Juan
López, the BDesign Annual “represents an opportunity
to speak to our colleagues globally, and to
share best practices in solidifying BD’s brand values,
across all types of communications.”
In focus
The BD Graphics Lab had its humble beginnings
as a one-person department over 11 years ago. Since
then the department has grown to a team of 14 people
to provide full-service agency support to the company’s
business units both in the U.S. and abroad.
Assistant art directors Robert Kerwin and Jennifer
Vana developed the concepts and executed the design
for this fourth edition of the BDesign Annual. As
with any project developed in an organization that requires the involvement of cross-functional teams,
the BDesign Annual required strong organizational
skills, concentrated involvement over a span of time
and top-shelf creative talent to receive the necessary
buy-in of all members and stakeholders.
Senior art director Juan López explains the situation:
“For this annual, the challenges were mainly
conceptual in nature. While the team strived to provide
colleagues with a clear understanding of what
makes a powerful image, and especially how images
contribute to the story of a brand, what was resolved
in this annual went much further. It grew into a
documentation of BD and its associates at their best.
It showed the passion, care and commitment of BD
associates worldwide, interpreting our shared purpose
in ways that were so striking one can easily get the
sense that faith in their mission has grown into
solid belief.”
Picture perfect
One of the considerations for image selection was
to ensure all of the photographs came from existing
collateral already in use by BD. It was important to
showcase the range of work and its corresponding
imagery that different contributors from across the
company were producing. To tell their slice of the
BD story, the creative team chose four key points
that reflect the core of who they are: Our Purpose,
Our Partners, Our Products and Our People. “What
began as a discussion about good photography and
brand management led to a better understanding of
ourselves, our roles and our responsibilities to the
world and to each other,” added López.
DREAM TEAMS
All the projects featured in this article were developed
by in-house design teams—each with its own
unique dynamic. And it takes a lot of coordination.
When someone zigs, another zags. It’s all part of the
dance. But that’s what it takes to get the job done.
In-house creatives must take a proactive stance and
anticipate the needs of internal clients, using everything
at their disposal to meet the demands of even
the most unusual requests.
When my last rock band broke up a few years
back, I was lost. But soon, I found comfort in the
world of community theater—another harbinger of
creativity—where collaboration, talent, diplomacy,
timing, patience and a lot of luck all blend to create
magic, night after night. And I’m lovin’ it. I guess I
am a team player after all.
