The Strategic Designer

(Originally published in The Boston Business Journal, May 24, 2002)

For both buyer and seller, the business of communication gets more complicated by the day.

Businesses have an increasingly complex story to tell. With mergers and acquisitions, competition around every corner, and products that are difficult to describe, the temptation is to explain everything to everyone at every opportunity.

Customers are bombarded from every direction with advertising, free offers and can't-miss opportunities. Where once there were one or two companies in a particular niche, there are now dozens, all competing for the buyer's shrinking attention span.

With the need to communicate ever more complex messages to their audience, businesses have begun to seek out graphic designers for everything from brand development and product naming to the development of the company's mission-critical Website. More and more, designers are being invited to participate in branding and strategy discussions. As a result, a new breed of designer has emerged - the Strategic Designer.

What qualifies the Strategic Designer to sit at the table with senior management, discussing brand loyalty, launch plans and marketing strategies? Very few designers are trained in business or marketing, and I've yet to see a graphic designer with an MBA. What can these creative individuals offer to the process of developing a company's brand strategy?

The answer is easy to understand if you look at the attributes that are required to be a successful designer.

• Designers are organizers. They have the ability to create order from chaos. They've refined the skill and spend their workdays breaking down complex business stories into bite-size chunks. Difficult concepts are reduced to a simple graphic. Complex organizations are captured in a single logo. A box full of research and background information is assimilated and converted to a simple visual solution.

• Designers are problem-solvers. To do their work, the designer must first identify the parameters of a project (the goals, messages, production limitations, budgets, schedules, etc.). They must then provide creative, distinctive and practical solutions that will accomplish the objectives within this narrowly defined playing field.

• Designers are mediators. The nature of the design process requires the ability to receive a multitude of diverging opinions and mold them into a single solution. The best designers have the ability to consider all input, identify the best ideas and incorporate their own into the ultimate solution. They leave everyone feeling that they've had their say, but do not allow the solution to become a design-by-committee.

• Designers are idea generators. Who hasn't sat through a meeting where the expected brainstorm was more like a light drizzle - one person with ideas and a whole lot of heads nodding up and down? Designers love to brainstorm. They aren't afraid to throw ideas against a wall to see where they lead.

• Designers are risk takers. Designers aren't afraid of unconventional approaches and they don't hold back ideas for fear of rejection.

• Designers are communicators. They have the ability to translate business objectives into concise messages that the customer can relate to. In fact, the designer's greatest asset may be his or her objectivity, looking at every solution through the eyes of the customer.

More than anything today, business needs people with new ideas and the courage to express them. We need problem solvers who know how to get things done. We need clear thinking individuals who understand what customers want and know how to reach them.

Graphic designers have been dismissed by many as a luxury, tolerated in the good times, expendable in the bad. But perceptions are changing. The best of these designers have evolved and there's a new appreciation for the role that they can play in business. Sure, they still make things look good, but that's only a side benefit of their true value.