APRIL '07: GDUSA SPECIAL INHOUSE DESIGN REPORT

IN THIS ISSUE

Publisher's Note
Excerpts From Talk
Housekeeping

PUBLISHERS NOTE: STAYING FRESH AND INNOVATIVE

I recently gave a presentation at an Insource event whose title was "Driving Innovation Through Design." Since the talk was based on survey results about the state of inhouse design departments, we thought it might be useful to reprint excerpts in this special enewsletter report. More next month in the enewsletter and the printed version of Graphic Design USA.

— Gordon Kaye

EXCERPTS FROM TALK

This is fun. Thank you for having me. I often get to speak to groups around the country about topics that I know something about. Creativity and innovation is NOT one of them: I actually have never really had a creative or innovative thought in my life. At least, not that I am aware of. I'm kind of looking forward to hearing from you all what that is actually like. Kind of exciting for someone like me.

Over the years I have learned to compensate for this lack of creativity kind by learning to steal other peoples best ideas and to manipulate them just enough to avoid a plaigiarism suit. That's how I became a publisher. And that is also what I want to do for just a few moments here: share with you information that a lot of smart inhouse graphic designers and graphic design managers are telling me about the topic of innovation in their workplace, and that I have tried to shape into some sensible categories.

Here is what they say, and it all boils down to three points.

POINT 1. STAYING FRESH AND INNOVATIVE IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE.

When asked what the biggest challenges are in working in a corporate setting, the number one answer: Staying Fresh and Innovative. This surprised me a bit because I have always been led to believe that the existential question — why do we have an inhouse department — would weigh as the most heavy challenge. But in GDUSA's recent poll of 1000 inhouse designers, roughly 60 percent said Staying Fresh and Innovative was the biggest challenge.

Top 5 Challenges For Inhouse Design Teams

1. Staying Fresh and Innovative
2. Marketing Oneself to Upper Management
3. Justifying Your Business/Budgetary Existence
4. Staying Informed About Cutting Edge Technology, Products and Services
5. Hiring and Retaining A Creative Team

POINT 2. INHOUSE DESIGNERS FIND STAYING INNOVATIVE IS AN UPHILL BATTLE

Inhouse designers and design managers know they need to stay Fresh, Innovative and Informed, and they engage in many and varied activities to try and do so. While this is laudable, and often effective, the activities also tend to be fairly predictable, not generally systematic, and they are constrained by resource like time and budget and personnel. These activities can be boiled down to a half dozen major categories.

Top 6 Ways To Try To Stay Fresh, Innovative and Informed

1. Reading design magazines and surfing the web for trends and to see what others are doing
2. Consult with vendors (printers, paper companies, software companies) and attend vendor educational events
3. Break the daily routine for field trips to museums, art stores and other energizing places out of the office
4. Conferences, seminars and entering design competitions for interaction with the outside world
5. Seeking divine inspiration through prayer or meditation
6. Building into office procedures or workflow a systematic method for encouraging creativity and sharing information.

POINT 3. SYSTEMATIC METHODS COVER A RANGE OF OPTIONS

In some ways, the idea of creating rules, procedures or workflow that encourages creativity and the airing of differing perspectives may have the most potential for fundamentally helping inhouse design teams produce creative and innovative work — though as a practical matter, they are infrequently developed and executed as compared to the top-ranked activity: reading magazines and surfing the web.

Methods for building creativity departments into the workflow

1. Schedule and stick to regular meetings for idea and information exchange
2. Never eat alone, i.e., meet and greet regularly with upper management and other internal clients
3. For every project, always develop at least one "out of the box" solution to present to management
4. Budget upfront for events, field trips, new products and technology
5. Create internal competitions and enter external competitions to sharpen competitive edge
6. Shape a creative space within the corporate setting

MUCH MORE ON THIS TOPIC IN THE UPCOMING GRAPHIC DESIGN USA AND GDUSA ENEWS.

HOUSEKEEPING: TIME TO RENEW YOUR SUBSCRIPTION

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