So you're unpacking the real need for the clients, the reason they came to MCI. And perhaps they haven't even asked themselves a question like “why are we actually doing this?”
Most of the time, yeah. My most used words when I speak to clients are “what”, “why”, “who” and “how”. What are we doing? Why are we doing it? Who are we doing it for? And then how are we going to achieve what you want to do, whether that’s changing mindsets, creating unforgettable moments, or whatever the outcome is that they want to achieve.
Once we've clearly defined those four key points, we move into the design thinking phase and that's when I go into what I class as the design process.
Can you take us through your process?
Step one, I meet the client. I understand the problem and define a measure for success and set the project goals.
From there we normally adapt the brief and evolve it slightly to be stronger, and make sure that we're adhering to what we're meeting the objective. Then I hit the books, research the industry and identify competitors.
And then step three is combining all that research and that data and the pain points and the problems to define what we are working towards.
Step four is ideation, when we start to generate ideas to see what works. I start from a sketchbook, fleshing out the ideas. If one works, I take it onto the computer. I call it focus time. You put the headphones on and you just see what happens.
I've always got a sketch pad in front of me. If not, I use the digital iPad. I've sketched all my life. I studied Fine Arts and way before MCI, I used to illustrate magazine covers and things like that. Even now, I sometimes incorporate my own illustration into the work I provide for our clients. The ideation stage is the really fun part for creatives.
Now when I feel that we've got one, two or three possible avenues or directions to go down, that's when I present. I explain the rationale behind each of the concepts and why they would be successful, why they solve the points that we've identified in the brief.
There is an outcome after the presentation but sometimes we go back a step and recycle the ideation step. And then once that's been approved and signed off, then I take everything to prototype mode. We take those sketches and that concept and that storytelling approach into the real world and start building the actual solution. For example, if we're doing an event delivery, we would think about the user journey and the website design and the signage and how the event space looks – how it feels, how it connects people. This stage is about developing prototype designs for those applications.
When we have the prototype in place and we’ve pulled in the required resources, we then go into test mode, which is step 7. Especially with digital interfaces, we need to ensure that things work effectively and correctly, that we've got the right tech, we've got the right equipment and the suppliers to provide that.
And then, in step 8, we go into delivery mode. For a project like an event, there is obviously a date and it's normally global, so we'd fly to location and deliver that event. Sometimes we do a day activation, sometimes we're doing an event which is the duration of nearly a week.
If the project is a website, then we're going to launch mode to make sure there are no bugs or issues. The end of my design process varies depending on what I'm providing.
At what point in your design-thinking process are you looking at engagement strategies?
Let’s say one of the client’s goals is “to grow the organisation”. That's very vague for a brief, but once we’ve had that dialogue and I’ve asked the what, why and who questions, I’m starting to envisage the how. They’ve essentially told me the problem/s we need to solve and already a solution is forming. And some form of engagement is always part of the solution.
As the design director for MCI UK, I'm responsible for everything but while I might be an expert in some fields, but I'm not an expert in all fields and the solution may require resources that are outside my skill set.
In this position you need to understand that you can't do everything and there are opportunities to pull in people that are better equipped in that field than you are. We have in-house expertise I can call on; I've got preferred suppliers in different skill sets, and then there's industry knowledge.
If the client is, for example, a large pharmaceutical scientific company that operates in a field I don't know anything about, my Step 2 – the research phase where I focus on understanding the brand in a wider complex – would involve plugging into additional resources to get a clear picture of exactly what it is that we're dealing with.
So depending on the concept, I pull in the resources I need. I have a social media expert, a copywriter, a marketer, an art director, a creative director, a creative research analyst… I'll call on these people to help fulfil the “how” of the project. It's never a “me” thing – it's always a team thing with MCI.
Having worked so closely with so many clients must give you incredible insight across multiple industries.
Yes, in fact, I often collaborate with my clients inhouse marketing teams to ensure that I understand their brand vision. You have to put the client hat on and get into the client's mind as well as the creative mind – it's kind of juggling the various hats.
When you get to a design director level or above, there’s an understanding of the need to look at a project in macro as well as in micro.
Many of the MCI clients I’ve worked with are well-known global organisations. It's great to have the opportunity to find solutions for that type of brand.
For example, when The Chartered Governance Institute (CGI) were looking to stage their inaugural international conference, we designed and developed the digital brand identity for the Institute. This encompassed the launch of a new global website, dedicated social media channels and in quick succession a global eCommunity. The result was a value-driven platform, where the community can engage in discussion forums, webinars, knowledge sharing, networking and find a central resource repository – and a 250% increase in community membership!
What I love about what I do is that no two days are the same. Every client, large or small, is unique with different pain points which I get to solve, every day. The objectives from each brief and the outcomes that they want to achieve are always different as well.
Another project was a brand activation for one of the world’s largest surfing and lifestyle brands, Quiksilver. The aim was to highlight the brand’s commitment to reducing plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. we developed the concept of a life-size, barrelling wave made out of recycled plastic bottles. Using 7 cubic metres worth of plastic. Inside the wave sat a real integrated Quiksilver surfboard, ready for participants to ride the wave of sustainability! Social media reach exceeded 3–million and attracted 134,638 interactions.
It's not pulling anything off from a shelf. I could answer a client brief by saying you want a website. Here's a website platform that does everything you want, and here's this, and here's that. But that's just me servicing a client that's just providing. “You want XY, I’ll give you XY.”
Where MCI’s creativity comes in, is the creative workshops we provide for our clients that may very well uncover that they don't know what X or Y is. And being open and transparent, we might suggest Z as a better solution. Maybe we’ll completely redefine the “how” at the end of it all. This can lead to complications if you're taking a client down the left field when they're really comfortable down the right field. But over time, they do let go because they trust us and we've built a great relationship.
It is an incredibly rewarding journey.
Ben Chapman - Design Director, MCI UK
