Well, Richard said he had to do a lesson in speed talking. I know I’ve got ten minutes max and I will stick to that, so I’m going to fly through. Hello, goodbye.
As we said, we’re very proud of the fact that we’re based here in Leeds, although we are in offices all over the world – in fact, last week I signed a... well I didn’t sign a lease, but I’ve agreed a lease in New York. And lots of people think about designers as sort of people who sort of walk around like this all the time. It’s actually because we’ve got – well, actually, it’s this way – we’ve got very big right brains, full of lots of create... whereas accountants would sort of walk a bit like that.
But, actually designers do walk upright, because they’ve got a balance of their whole brain. They’ve got good, logical left and a very creative right. And, actually, whilst designers are very proud of awards, the ones that look like missiles are the most important for me, because they’re based on effectiveness, about proving that design hits the bottom line. And that’s really what I want to talk to you about.
We work with, obviously, lots of big companies, but it’s the small companies that I really like to work with, because you’re dealing with the rainmakers, the people who have the ability to spend money, although it might not be a lot of money. And I’m going to just underline three things. If there’s anything you get away with today, I just want to tell you three things.
Firstly, in this current economic climate, there will be lots of losers. There’s absolutely no doubt of that. Sadly, businesses will go bust. But the successful ones are those that will invest in design, because, if you do what you’ve always done, actually you won’t even get what you’ve always got. But, if you think about new futures, as Richard was talking about, you will get new and exciting results and it requires a bit of bravery. And, sometimes, that does mean putting a year’s profits aside to, to do something new.
The second thing is, that only one business or brand or product can be the cheapest. The rest have to do something different. And, actually, in this current economic climate, most businesses have got margins of zero anyway, because we’re in the credit crunch, people can’t afford stuff. So, do you really want to compete in that space? Well, I would argue not. You have to do something that’s better and different where you can make money and move forward.
And the third thing is, don’t think about design as, as graphics, or aesthetics. That’s part of it. Design is about doing things better for people as, again, as Richard said. Or, as, as I believe, the thing that you really want to understand about design right now – and these two case studies I’ll quickly whizz through, exemplify that – in that we’re living in a world of anxiety. We’re worried about the credit crunch; we’re worried about food scares; we’re worried about global warming; we’re worried about whether our kids will get to school safely or not – in fact, now, in Japan, the wire GPS into school blazers, so that they can tell that your child has got to school safely, or at least the blazer has, anyway.
So, we are living in this world of anxiety and there are two or three antidotes to anxiety. The first one is exemplified in this quick case study. I was invited by a friend of mine to go and see a sewage company in Burton-upon-Trent employing 22 people, turnover of £2 million and I thought, it’s not Wal-Mart, is it? Which is currently my biggest client. But this friend of mine was very persuasive and said, Jonathan, got to Burton, you will love David Burkitt, who is him – and he’s got the best chuckle you’ve ever heard.
And we were sat... I was sat opposite him in his office and he said, Jonathan, I believe you live in the country, in North Yorkshire and I said, that’s right. He said, I believe you’ve got a septic tank and I said, that’s right. He said, well do you know, then, you’re liable for a three-month jail term and a £20 thousand fine? And I said, what on earth are you talking about? He said, well, um, septic tanks were designed when farmers had a bath once a month and we’ve now got power showers and dish-washers and Domestos that kills all known things dead, so you’ve got a hole in the ground full of nastiness that doesn’t work. And, probably, it’s seeping into the natural water course at some point and the Environment Agency, for a first offence, can put you in jail for three months and fine you 20 grand. And I jokingly said, that’s serious shit. And he said, well, actually Jonathan, shit happens.
And, herein lies the new identity. We rebranded the company Serious Asterisk Asterisk, the colours are not accidental. On the back of his business cards it says this. On the back of his compliment slip it says, you asked for it. On the back of his PR sheet it says, read all about it. And his vehicles look like that. We designed some sales collateral that explained that, actually, his industry is very serious about what it does. Of course, we designed his website. But, the most important thing is that his turnover grew from 2 million to 3 million within six months.
It won an international design effectiveness award; it got much notoriety; it was featured in the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph; there were six pages on it in a lifestyle magazine in Japan. We won a design award in Germany that we never entered. We got a phone call from the Germans saying, you have won this award. We said, we’ve not entered. No, but we love your Serious Shit very much. And this is David Taylor’s how wonderful we are, but I’ll skip past that, because you’ve heard that from Charles and a few others already.
So, humour is an antidote to anxiety and, finally, I’ll just quickly talk to you another one. This is Debbie and Andrew. Debbie is a farmer’s wife, wife of Andrew. Five years ago at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, I was stood on a similar stage in an event organised fantastically by the Design Council and Yorkshire Forward and the following day, I got a phone call from Debbie, saying, we make the best sausages you will ever taste. They’re in 20 Tesco’s but we can’t sell any. And I thought, oh, you know, it’s another one of those where she’s had the gumption to phone me up, brave about it, farmer’s wife from Firsk in North Yorkshire and I thought, okay. Well, I worked out that I lived not too far away, so I said, right, well, Friday night, there’s a pub between my house and your house, I’ll meet you in the pub. Bring your husband and bring your sausages. So, she did and this is what she brought. Manor Born sausages, first grade from Firsk in North Yorkshire.
Can anybody tell me what is wrong with this packaging? Everything? Well, an awful lot. We’re living in a world of food scares, so you’ve got a cartoon farm, so it’s not real. There was one that said, Acapulco sausages. Acapulco sausages from Firsk, North Yorkshire, doesn’t quite have that sort of right ring to it. And, of course, Manor Born reminds you of a sitcom in the 70’s. So, anyway, I said, right, if your sausages taste as good as they are, I’ll take them for my breakfast and we can do something about it. So, sure enough, fantastic sausages. I phoned her up and said, right, we can do something. She said, how much? And I said, well, normally to redesign the packs – there were six different flavours – it needs a new name, around £20 thousand – this was about six or seven years ago. She took a deep intake of breath and I heard nothing for two months.
Two months later, she phoned up and said, I’ve got a grant from Yorkshire Forward for £10 thousand. Will you do it? I thought, well, good on you, you know. You’ve listened, you’ve gone out there and tried to find some money, you’ve not got enough money – which is an issue with some small companies – but I thought, right, we’ll do it. Anyway, we rebranded the sausages Debbie and Andrew’s Anybody who shops in a supermarket will know that you’ve got a nano-second to pick something up; 40 thousand products in a supermarket, you’re in a supermarket for probably between half an hour and an hour, that’s a nano-second per product.
So, the first idea was to make this big ping of colour. We renamed them Debbie and Andrew’s and Acapulco sausages became Andrew’s memories of his Mediterranean holiday, with a recipe on the back. There were pictures of them on the back. Debbie... Debbie’s recipe was named after a member of the family and there was Debbie’s lovely to wake up to breakfast sausage. And it changed their business from £30 thousand a year, to a million in a year and with no advertising support.
But, the most important thing is that this is now a five or six year relationship and, back to Debbie and Andrew, we created a look and feel for Debbie and some fame for them and, actually, their Wellingtons now feature on their new pack. And, what’s really good about this story is, they’re now multi-millionaires, so they’ve sold their brand and their business within five years – I wish I could do the same after 25 years of trying – and they are now the number one premium sausage.
And that’s less than ten minutes, so thank you.