Rob Peart is a freelance designer and art director who’s worked at Praline, INT Works and NB Studio among others. Rob Peart on...
Giving creatives the right support... It really helps to know you have the time to indulge in some open-ended creativity, instead of having to worry about producing stuff all the time.
To be creative you need to know that you have the managers’ trust to do what you do best; know that you'll have guidance when you need it (and sometimes you don't know when you need it) and know that you have the space to get it wrong. That takes some serious nerve and belief from the big bosses.
For me it all comes down to support — as much as it can, the management needs to alleviate the pressure on the creative team. This applies at a practical level too — you don't want your designers worrying about how the hell they're going to pay the rent when you want an award-winning campaign out of them.
Physical spaces not being too important... Having worked in a lot of weird offices, my opinion is that if the things I’ve mentioned work out, then the physical space doesn’t matter too much. Ideally it would be clean (not necessarily tidy), have space to think away from the computer, some natural light and air and a coffee machine. The first studio I worked in was a guy’s kitchen and it’s never really been a big issue — in fact I like the DIY feel.
How a good atmosphere can help... If you can turn colleagues into friends, go for beers every now then or something, then you're more likely to be open about any issues you have, so things get resolved more quickly. You’re gonna be spending a lot of time around these people, so you might as well be nice.
How studios can maximise what they get from freelancers... Treat them as part of the regular workforce, not some ugly appendage. Make sure you let them know all those studio conventions you spent the past five years sorting out. Show them how you save files; if you have a process document (and you should have) then make sure they get a copy; make sure they have the up-to-date presentation templates blah blah. They’re there to hopefully save your arse when you’re too busy, so make sure they have all the tools to make it happen.
The importance of studios knowing what they stand for... You do not want to work in a studio that is just churning stuff out, that sees design as a big cash cow. Designers are putting stuff in the world and we should be conscious of that responsibility — but I’m not saying you need motivational posters with mountains on or anything like that.
Often we are giving form to a business strategy or ideas but it’s surprising how few design companies have done that for themselves.
The ideal studio culture... I worked in one place where we used to shoot digestives with an air rifle, at another place people were all using headphones and didn’t even talk to each other, they just used online chat. I think the ideal studio culture is somewhere in the middle.