Tips for In-House Design Teams

Ruth Hagopian

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If you’re a freelance designer, wistfully thinking about the security of a corporate job, remember, in-house designers have their own challenges.
Those problems were aired at a two-hour open forum titled “Exposed,” sponsored by InSource, founded in 2002 by Glenn Arnowitz and Andy Epstein. The organization is a resource and advocate for in-house creative management formed to raise the stature of in-house design.
The “Exposed” forum featured Peter Phillips, a design consultant and author of Creating the Perfect Design Brief: How to Manage Design for Strategic Advantage
Create Relationships
Phillips’ key concept is that in-house creative leaders must be proactive and able to communicate the value of design to others. To begin with, he encouraged going out and creating relationships within the corporation.
“If you can’t articulate why you’re important, they’re never going to think you are,” he said. This means not only communicating with senior management, but to all other departments that may benefit from good design.
Become a Strategic Partner
The in-house design department is often considered a production service group that gets requests to “make this look good.” But in-house design can go from being a service department to becoming part of a marketing team with partners, instead of customers or clients.
To change that attitude, Phillips suggested designers request 10 minutes at each department’s staff meeting to promote the work of the in-house team. “It’s amazing how word spreads,” he said.
Communicate and Investigate
Make alliances with other departments. “Listen carefully to their responses and then develop a more strategic approach in describing your work,” he added. “If someone says, ‘I just don’t like it,’ my God, that’s important,” Phillips said. Find out why. “It’s easier to solicit an answer by asking, ‘Does it work or doesn’t it?'”
Get invited into the company’s planning meetings. Find out how much was spent for annual reports, etc. Use the information from the budget planning process to educate management about what could have been saved, had they used in-house design.
Show How You Can Compete
The practice of outsourcing design projects to agencies is a sore spot for in-house designers. The agencies tend to have people whose job it is to sell, while most in-house design departments do not. There is also the mystique that an agency must be better if it’s charging a lot of money or that it has some creative concepts that are really going to work well because they’ve been tested already.
Designers need to communicate the advantage of their deeper understanding of the corporate culture and their greater knowledge of its product and personalities than an outside agency. They must find out what the company’s business needs are, show them how to get there and say, “Let us work with you for the best solution.”
Blow Your Horn
Cultivate relationships with the people working in public affairs at your organization and get the word out about your awards and any recognition your team has had. Andy Epstein suggested framing an award and giving it to the client who originated the project.
Accept All Work and Be a Resource
Grab whatever work you’re given, large and small, and creatively spend time to make those prospects shine. Do good work and make it convenient with a fast turnaround. Become a total partner and a brand expert with brand knowledge.
Be a resource. If you can’t do it, find someone who can. Phillips helped the janitorial staff get the company’s logos embroidered on their shirts by finding out where and how to get it done.
Are Chargebacks Necessary?
The majority of the audience at the forum said they do not use chargebacks within the company, even though other departments, such as PR, Public Affairs, and Procurement do. However, they operate as if they do by routinely noting the volume of their activity and quantifying the level of their work.
Be Innovative
When all productivity savings have been taken out of a project to save money — fewer colors, lower grade paper, etc. — it looks like the work of everyone else. The design must have innovations to compete for a market share. It’s hard to compete with a good idea, so become an idea department and get the message out.
Time and Miracles
In-house departments are often called in after the outside agency got the project budget and bungled the job. The reality is that every couple of months there is often a messy job with a turnaround in two weeks for a quarter of the budget.
Phillips noted that every time designers work miracles, the miracle threshold becomes shorter. They must train the client and say, “We’ll do it for you this time. We’ll save you, but next time we need a month.”
Become a Consultant
Demonstrate your value by being part of an integrated marketing team. Advise your company about what you can bring to the table and consider working on spec when competing against agencies. It will showcase the work of your department and even if you don’t get the job, they may keep you in mind for the next project.
A well-balanced in-house design team has room for both production jobs, such as business cards, as well as the strategic design work required for annual reports. Through brand knowledge, proactivity, and technical expertise, in-house designers can be successful as the corporate creative team.