After attending many guest lecturers who have come into college and who I have gone to visit I am going to compare two very different companies: Interbrand and Glorious. I have decided to compare these two companies because they were two totally different agencies one is a branding consultancy and only deal with companies wanting a new brand identity or companies wanting to refresh their look of the campaigns they put out there and the other is an all round design agency. Interbrand are a global branding consultancy agency which started in 1974 and at this time people still thought of brands as just a logo. Interbrand now have 40 offices across the world and are the world’s largest branding consultancy. I went to visit them in their London office in Covent Garden. Before going to see them I had never heard of Interbrand and upon entering their office I realised how many brands they have done work for (and this was only in reception!). We met Tim, James and Katie who each gave us a presentation on projects that they have recently been working on. They went through the way that they ‘attack’ projects and this was really interesting. Because they are such a big company they have different sections from getting the brief to designing. It goes through a few stages before it gets to the designers such as marketing. This is different to what I previously thought when visiting smaller agencies where the creative directors deal with a lot of the getting and pitching of the briefs. With it being a consultancy they assess the brand and see what they can do to improve it and market it better whether it be giving it a new identity or just a new campaign or adding their corporate identity on items (plane company have identity on plane, airport lounge and uniforms etc). They have sections in which they work to get the perfect brand for the client: It gave me an insight on how this company works. You need to know how the brand works and research into the company and similar companies to find out what makes them tick. The brand needs to different and stand out from the rest and by taking yourself out of the equation it makes it more about the brand and not what you like. You need to be run by what the brand wants and needs and not by what you want. Glorious are a Manchester based design agency and have been established for three and a half years now but the creative directors have been working together for a total of nine years now. I found out a lot about Glorious when Tom Shaughnessy came into college on 26.02.09. Glorious are only a small agency consisting of only five people and are named on the top five if the ‘North of England Design Consultancy of the year’. He showed a lot of briefs that he had worked on during his time at Glorious. I found this talk really interesting as it showed how the company adapts itself to all the different clients and briefs, which it attracts. Shaughnessy created a lot of his own typefaces for the different projects he has worked on; I really liked this aspect of his work because it shows that the project is leading the design and not the other way round (this is shown well on the Pay and Display work that Glorious produced). During the talk he said that well executed designs are just as important as the actual ideas that create them. This is good to hear because a lot of companies are just about the ideas created. At Glorious the designers work individually a lot unless it calls for group work. Shaughnessy said that when he is working on a logo he tends to work alone when coming up with the initial ideas/designs and only comes together as a group to get feedback on the ideas/designs to narrow down the choice. The way that Shaughnessy presented showed that he was passionate about the work he is producing which is what is needed in this line of work. The work needs to stand up to scrutiny so you can defend why you have chosen to do what you have done. You could also tell he was passionate when he was talking about the pitches that he had lost and also the ones which Glorious had won (especially the one that they beat The Chase to). These two companies presented very differently and each had a different approach. Interbrand presented in sections to who created the work which gave a great insight into the designs shown and also shows that they work independently as well as in group situations. Interbrand also showed how the research is presented with the use of mood boards and they said a lot of companies will ask you to do this but they are the only company who I have seen that do this. Shaughnessy at Glorious also showed that he is capable of working independently but says on some projects he works as a group. Each of these talks gave an insight into the way that they work and I have gained some good information from both. Interbrand gave some good tips for students on how to get the best out of yourself when it comes to going out and getting a job such as keeping yourself informed on design (design magazines and blogs) and on stuff that’s happening generally in the world (newspapers, BBC website etc.) and know about the programmes you use and be able to use them well. Shaughnessy was down to earth and was enthusiastic about design, he gave some very useful information saying its not easy to get a job and he gets 3/4 applications for placements a day so you need to stand out from the rest, pull your finger out get good work done and get out there! From both of these talks there are parts which I can take from them such as always being positive about your work and make sure you get enough research for each project because you need to know the company you ar producing work for. It also interested me how the different companies work with getting briefs from start to finish. With Interbrand being such a large scale branding consultancy they mainly only produce a ‘brand’ whereas Glorious produce more than just a brand they will also produce other promotional items for companies and events such as editorial’s, direct mail and exhibitions designs. Interbrand have a accounts department who deal with new business and finding out what the company want from them whereas Glorious’ creative directors will be the ones who will go and pitch for new business as well as designing for it too.
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