October 25th was supposed to be the day I got back in the metaphorical saddle, unencumbered by contractual handcuffs or the design equivalent of the head sack covering they throw over the protagonist’s head before they bundle him in to a van somewhere.
But COVID got in the way. Not that this is much of an excuse, but I wasn’t really in much of a mood for fanfare or announcements at the time.
So I postponed it for a few weeks.
And here we are.
After what some might describe a foolhardy yet necessary step back from the intensive day to day design ‘coal face’ back in February 2020 (more than adequately catalogued in multiple diatribes featuring the word ‘recalibration’ on my website), I’ve had plenty of time to contemplate what I want to do next.
I made a start with the introduction of the FourBeards brand umbrella and have had a wonderfully rewarding year of mentoring numerous individuals and businesses, as well as helping more undergraduates and recent graduates than I can reasonably count on my fingers and toes. It has felt amazing and I will continue both these activity streams for the foreseeable future. Indeed, I’m taking on ever more mentees and have embarked on yet another academic year of pro bono mentoring support to both Loughborough and University of Bristol design courses, plus any other grads or undergrads in the wider industry who might value a chat.
But there is a third stream of activity which I have been wanting to start for some time.
Creative consulting. Problem solving. Designing for humans.
The stuff I’ve been doing for 25 years at breakneck speed, with determination and vigour!
But the time off has helped me reflect on past clients and projects. It’s helped me understand those that I’ve enjoyed the most, have been the most rewarding (critically, professionally and emotionally) as well as seeing which have drawn upon my skills in the most relevant and appropriate ways.
When I set up my last design business back in 2005, I was a very different person, the design industry was unrecognisably different to what it is today and the motivations were different (within reason). I tried to be everything to everyone, or at least whatever any specific client wanted ‘me’ to be. And most importantly, I was very deliberate in presenting myself as a ‘brand’. I was always clear that no matter how big or small the business, I was always an employee of Square Banana. The business was what was presented. I talked about ‘we’ and ‘us’, even in the early years when it was simply me. It was important to reassure people of the potential for the business to be a bigger and growing entity. At the time, I felt it was professional suicide to present myself as an individual seeking work. It felt like I’d be a masquerading freelancer, which I was very clear wasn’t the case. In all honesty, if I were to repeat the exercise at the age I was at the time, I would still do the same. It worked for me at that stage in my career.
However, 2021 is very different to 2005. And I’m a very different person now.
Back then, Square Banana was a ‘studio’. An ‘agency’. A ‘design consultancy’. Pick your favourite. It really doesn’t matter.
But now I’m just me.
Russell.
For sure, I’ve created a brand umbrella – FourBeards. It gives me something to wrap around everything I do. And like I said in my introduction article, it’s more a reminder to myself to continue to prioritise my family than any brand strategy aimed at attracting new business. It’s also easier for businesses to ‘set me up on their system’ if I have a business name and the trappings and relative formalities of something that looks like a ‘design business’…at least on paper.
But it’s important to be clear about this. You are working with me, and me alone.
So what am I offering?
Over the years I have had the privilege of working on some amazing projects across a hugely diverse range of sectors, but there are two areas that bob to the surface when I think about what I’m good at and where I can specifically bring value.
Technology and Brand.
I’m not talking about the fusion of technology and brand. But as separate areas of ‘expertise’ if you will. And always inherently and irrefutably linked to the human experience.
In other words, how technology and humans come together, and how brands connect with humans in the physical world. There’s huge areas of overlap here, but in the interests of description, I’ve kept them separate.
I will attempt to explain…
1. The ‘fuzzy’ link between technology and humans.
As a product designer, I have often worked with businesses that have technology who wish to ‘wrap’ it up in a ‘product’ if you will. There are countless talented individuals and teams capable of this. It is the core bread and butter of the product and industrial designer’s diet.
However, when the technology in question is less well defined and there is an opportunity to explore the way in which human beings ‘should’ interact and engage with this technology…that’s when the hairs on the back of my neck start to stand up. When traditional paradigms are up for grabs. When new forms of interaction are free to explore. When relentless questioning and challenge are valued to enable and simplify the rules of engagement. Taking engineering or scientific brilliance and metaphorically squishing it through a ‘human’ filter to ensure that by the time it gets in the hands of the humans, it just makes sense, and it can be used.
Properly. Effectively. Intuitively.
I’m not just talking about analysis of usability or field research. I’m talking about the sensible and creative abilities to take a whole host of physical and functional constraints and elements, and package it in a way that connects emotionally whilst still delivering on cost, supply chain, ethics, sustainability, brand voice and manufacturability.
The myriad skills of an industrial designer but with a bigger view of the human needs and how technology needs to connect to human beings.
The best bit is when you get the opportunity to work with a business that has elementary bits of precise silicon, or core principles of functionality, or a wonderful early stage bit of game changing intellectual property…where you can start to influence, support and guide towards solutions that are both functionally astounding but semantically human.
2. The ‘storytelling’ link between brands and humans.
Early on in my design career, I worked on stuff that was termed ‘structural packaging’. Brands started to understand the power of physical product design in elevating experiences. Most of the early projects were for Unilever. Impulse, Domestos, Pond’s, Magnum, Axe/Lynx, Cif, Dove, Rexona/Sure, BirdsEye, Vaseline, Persil, Hellmann’s…and many more. Designing physical packs that delivered on brand promise and met the agreed ‘tone of voice’ defined in the ‘brand key’, or whichever brand ‘tools’ were being used at the time.
Over time, whilst this work has still been a big part of my career, working with Reckitt, Mars Wrigley and Beiersdorf amongst others, the focus of this effort has become more embedded in storytelling and engagement. Stories that not only originate from the brand, but deploy through experiential operators like Tesco and Carrefour.
Rather than simply creating new and exciting packaging formats to replace the old, or widening the product range whilst adhering to brand language, I’ve worked more to support brands looking to connect their brand story to humans willing to hear it.
But more importantly, helping bring those stories to life through physical embodiment. Stories about sustainability or indulgence or efficacy or delight.
So this is still very much about creating a solution that has a very definite physical presence. A product, experience or service that people can use and engage with. But it comes from a place of storytelling. Understanding how the brand chooses to engage but more importantly how the human in the equation wishes or allows this engagement to happen. Finding a way to translate a brand proposition into a story that has potential to connect with human beings and then physically defining that experience or object in a way that maximises human engagement.
I can attest that an approach rooted in solid and understandable storytelling, invariably results in branded experiences that have resonance and similarly help to connect the wider business to the innovation activity.
We all understand stories. Whatever we do professionally.
Two very different areas, but ultimately linked by a desire to connect humans to experiences that are suited to them. Simplifying complexity and amplifying storytelling in a way that ensures a positive physical level of engagement.
It helps that I know how stuff works. How stuff is made. How stuff goes together. That functional, pragmatic knowledge means I can connect the dots and support people within a business that need to get stuff done. I understand how to take an idea – or more importantly how to have an idea – that can not only resonate as a scribble of a pen, but can withstand the rigours of compromise all the way through to the production line.
With both areas described above, I have worked with the dreamers and the pragmatists. The advocates and the cynics. The hype-merchants and the understaters. I’m able to bring ideas to the table and support the journey it needs to take to become a reality. Working with suppliers, manufacturers, partners, stakeholders, investors.
Ideas are fragile. They need careful support if they are to stand even a fighting chance of survival, let alone success.
So that’s what I’m doing. Or at least planning to do.
But you will be working with me. Not a studio. Which means I am open to discussing different ways of working. It might be a long term, slightly ‘left of centre’ challenge that you need someone to have a bit of a think about, or a defined brief you can throw over the wall and leave me to it, or you might want some external creative support at a management level. Someone to provide a second opinion or help to steer a project from the outset. An advisory creative counsel if you will. There are many ways to skin this (rather middle aged and greying) cat!
You might work for a large corporate or a fledgling startup. It matters not.
If you think anything I’ve mentioned strikes you as interesting or relevant to your business and you would like to receive a short presentation with some supporting evidence, or simply want to have a bit of a chat over a coffee, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
I’m all ears.
