“We had used our current branding group for six years and had become accustomed to guiding the designers, to the point where, on many jobs, we would simply layout the design ourselves and send it to them to finish. Then, we decided to upgrade.
We needed a classy design outfit, one with a little pizzazz and spark, one that could make us look like professionals. What we were really looking for was leadership - and a firm that could sell that leadership all the way up to our corporate chairman level.
Our first stop was ‘MegaBrand’ New York. These people were like investment bankers. They had every slick move: video conferences between sleek Manhattan headquarters and our international conference room with our chairman presiding and feeling like he had finally arrived in the world of branding culture: thousand dollar suits, pitches for brand equity and return-on-investment studies. The buzz words were flying fast and thick and I liked it. Finally, we were in the big leagues. We were talking strategy, baby!
Then came the designs and... well, something was lost in translation. We couldn’t see our strategy anywhere in the layouts. We tried to convince ourselves that, despite what we were actually seeing, we were in the presence of a new ‘brand architecture expertly constructed from proprietary wizardry harnessing the collective force of consumer intelligence and passion’! But, with each revision, it became more obvious that the exercise was pointless.
I Googled.... And R.BIRD popped right up. I looked at the case studies. I instantly knew I had found the right firm. There was no doubt in my mind then, or now... three and a half years and dozens of successes later.
What impressed me from their case studies was how the strategies behind the designs spoke for themselves. I had become a fan and would often show these examples to people in the office, bringing them into meetings to make the case how design can work to make new, strategic points.
I was blown away, too, by their ‘Patterns’ reports: Studies from the point-of-view of shoppers trying to zero-in on a purchase and pluck just the right product from an ocean of options. They brilliantly elevated seemingly mundane categories by exploring all of the exciting detail and complexity, in visually simple and workmanlike reports. I mean, who cares how great your design is if your customer doesn’t understand the visual codes?
We hired R.BIRD immediately. Right off the bat, they started solving real problems. Talent galore, but with no fuss, no mess. R.BIRD invents great design solutions that are exactly what you’re looking for. They don’t put you or your brand on a couch to get you or it to cry.
They are practical people: positive, friendly, easy to communicate with, a pleasure to work with, taking an interest in each person on the client side: which makes a big difference in engendering good will. Brand managers are eager to work on projects with R.BIRD. They know that a comment made today will come back as an improvement tomorrow.
R.BIRD gets it right without delay. When concepts come in, our marketing department clicks the mouse and forwards designs on to the big bosses, knowing strategy is ‘in there,’ with plenty of alternatives to choose from.
R.BIRD makes our marketing department look like pros, and that’s the most important thing of all.”
