AUGUST 2019 COLLABORATIONS
Rosie Hilder talks to leading collaborators to
discover what makes a successful partnership,
what to do when it all goes wrong, and how you
can forge mutually beneficial relationships
COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMcollaborations in design tend to delve
deeper into critical thinking and how to
shape businesses or product models in line
with the core challenge for that client.”
Of course, it’s not just client-designer
relationships that benefit from strong
working relationships. Collaborations
take place in all sorts of ways within
the design industry. It’s art directors
working with illustrators, account
managers with designers, studio founders
exchanging ideas with the intern, and
creatives crafting a passion project
after-hours. At its best, collaboration
is a glorious experience. It enhances
creativity, pushes you further than you
thought you could go, and results in
unexpected and brilliant work you would
never have achieved alone.
But it doesn’t always go right.
Collaboration can be a painful, slow
process, and at worst, results in damaged
egos, delayed decisions and an inbox
full of unpaid invoices and endlessly
frustrating email loops.
So how do you forge relationships
that you’ll want to celebrate, rather than
banish from your inbox? How can you
choose a partner who will bring out the
best in you, and you in them? Is there
a ‘collab formula’ or certain traits you
need to look out for? Or is it simply a case
of the right chemistry?
To find out, we speak to leading
creatives from around the globe about
some fantastically creative collaborative
projects, and discover the secrets of a
successful collaboration in the process...A
lmost every piece of creative
work made – whether it’s an
advertisement for television, a
studio’s side project or a street mural- requires some sort of cooperation
with others. But even though
collaboration is so fundamental
to most creative projects, it’s not
something that spends much time in
the design community’s spotlight.
That looks set to change, however,
as this year D&AD launched an award
celebrating the art of collaboration.
“We introduced the D&AD Collaborative
Award to recognise the long-lasting
relationships between design, advertising
and production companies and their
clients,” explains Donal Keenan, awards
director at D&AD.
The two winners of the award
were adam&eveDDB and John Lewis
& Partners for advertising, and Design
Bridge and Fortnum & Mason for design
(more on that later). But if you struggle
to get excited about awards you may
never win, then consider the following.
The criteria for the Collaborative Award
place emphasis not just on the length
of the creative collaboration and the
work created, but also how the creative
relationship has developed, and how the
work has in turn been shaped by that
rel at ion sh ip. T h i s sug gest s t h at good work
cannot exist without good relationships,
and vice versa. If nothing else, it provides
a good jumping-off point to examine your
own collaborations, and whether they’re
meeting the goals you’ve set for them.
“Collaboration, generally, leads to
much better creative outcomes, which in
turn have stronger commercial results
for clients,” says Keenan. “For example,
Jon Forss and Kjell Ekhorn (left)
co-founded design studio Non-
Format in 2000.