Looking ahead

Earlier today a friend asked me what are Elevator’s plans for 2018. It’s a great question, but one that I wasn’t prepared for. In the back of my mind, different plans are always forming and reforming, and visions of alternative futures take shape then disperse because the front of my mind is focussed on what we’re doing for our clients today and what we’ll be doing tomorrow to make sure the work keeps coming in.

As brand designers, we’ve seen a massive change in what branding is in recent years. It used to be about the creation of a logo that felt right and could be applied, like a rubber stamp, on every visual manifestation of the business – but now it covers all visual and verbal communications and represents the organisation in the digital world, in print and in the physical environment. It’s about telling a story consistently through the words, the tone of voice, the image style, the workplace, the interaction between colleagues and customers…

I hope in 2018, to build a creative community of marketers, strategists, researchers, conceptual thinkers, content generators, photographers, videographers, illustrators, writers, musicians, analysts, etc... – with design at the heart of the process to gather and arrange wide-ranging ideas and insights into a tangible, visible entity.

I see this as the new model for the delivery of creative services. I want Elevator to be at the centre of a network of seasoned practitioners with whom we can forge informal alliances – or formal partnerships if that’s what’s needed – to be able to bring their skills and experience into our team on a project by project basis.

I want Elevator to remain small and agile so we can to respond quickly to client demands and keep a lid on their budgets, but I remain ambitious in a creative sense and want us to work on great campaigns for great clients with the ability to offer the full range of creative services normally only found in the biggest agencies – and to deliver to the highest quality.

The best creative work is achieved when a few creative brains are working together, and each bringing decades of experience and knowledge – and their considerable talents – to the project so we’re able to shape the brand with top-level creative expertise and take it to the next level.

We’re already working in this way for a few of our clients and have other exciting irons in fires. It feels like it’s working well and I’m confident there will be no limits to what we’re able to do for our clients’ communication activities in 2018.

If you’re a creative practitioner and like the sound of this, or an organisation that wants new and different ways of shaping your brand for the future, we’d love to hear from you.

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