Design with Soul and Smarts

By: Michael Lipe, creative director, December 20, 2010

We can certainly confirm the old addage that a design firm’s toughest client is itself. Attempting to summarize all that you do into one core value is a difficult undertaking. But as we can attest, there is nothing more important than knowing who you are, and communicating it well.

As a group of designers, one of the greatest challenges that we undertake for our clients is the process of creating their corporate brand. Much more than just a logo, the branding process helps an organization crystalize their message, know their value, find their identity. It can foster renewed pride in the organization. It can identify glaring weaknesses. And it can help each member better know and understand their role. In short, it is a process that can (and should) be an adrenaline shot for the collective mindset of your organization.

I can tell you that it has been that for us here at Maxon Media. We started the process off with the understanding that we needed to go through a website redevelopment effort, which we have painstakingly engaged in over the past few months, and hope to have the new site up and running shortly after the new year. But what we found was that process quickly got to the root of our own personality and identity. What makes us unique? What are our shortcomings? Are we simply the work we produce for our clients? Or are we more that that? Should we be more than that? All good questions that arose from our initial discussions.

There is a real tendency to skip the hard part, and just churn out a new look.  Find the latest and greatest technique or style and ride that until it gets old. But I think we actually are doing it the right way this time.  We started off by setting aside 10% of our time - 1 day every 2 weeks - to give back to ourselves. This has allowed us the freedom to not allow “time” to be an excuse. We now had the time to dedicate to understanding the right questions, and then the motivation to answer them authentically. This was a critical step in making progress, because it forced us to sit and talk and consider our value proposition. What makes us unique. Furthermore, it helped us sift through the things we do for our clients, and figure out how we can do things better. It is a process, but it is one we are glad to be undertaking.

One of the best things that have come out of our process is a new core value. A summary statement of all we do. Not a mission statement, but more a purpose statement. Something that summarizes what we bring to the table for our clients. And it goes something like this…

Design with Soul and Smarts.

So what does this mean? Hopefully it is somewhat self-explanatory. But since you asked, it means that we strive everyday to put just the right blend of passion and purpose in all that we do for our clients. It is this unique combination of factors which we believe give us a fighting chance at being a critical component of your organization’s success.

By putting a bit of soul into our work, it means that we make a personal investment in its success. For us, it’s not just business, it IS personal. Our goal is to give your organization an authentic approach to the media challenges that it faces. Never a one-size fits all solution.  We want the results we provide to be something that

And by putting a whole lotta smarts into our work, it means that we think things through very carefully. That we will use the best technical solutions available. And that we will do our part to ask you the right questions so we can help you execute a well-conceived, well-planned and well-received media campaign, in whatever form that takes.

It has been a great experience going through this process, and we hope one of the immediate by-products of it will be a renewed ability to help our clients engage with this process themseleves, and then be there to support the ideas that emerge as a result. Another by-product are some cool t-shirts, which we had a lot of fun making, and would be glad to give to you next time you are by our office. Email us at if you would like to setup a meeting to talk about your project or idea.

We look forward to talking with you in more detail about these thoughts, and hope in the coming months to become increasingly effective at blending just the right amount of soul and smarts into your project.