COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMTIPS FOR MAKING
A SUCCESS OF
COLLABORATION- DON’T MICRO-MANAGE
When art directing, SooJin
Buzelli is careful to guide artists,
rather than “solve” problems for
them. “When I receive sketches
that are not quite on the mark,
I communicate why it’s not
working, not how to fix it,”
she says. “I’m collaborating
with the artist so the concept
can be solved from their unique
perspective.” - REMEMBER YOUR GOALS
“Chris Buzelli told me not to
‘fight’ with my clients but to
‘dance’ with them early on in
my career,” says Ngai. “It took
me years to understand what
he meant – remember you and
your clients share the same
objectives when negotiating
the disagreements.” - DON’T RELY JUST
ON PHONECALLS
“Face-to-face meetings are
important,” says Design Bridge’s
Alice Goss. “We usually get a
lot more out of half an hour in
the same room than we would
do on the phone.” - SHARE WORK CONSTANTLY
“Share work in progress and
ideas super-often,” says The
Poetry of It All’s Tom Sharp.
“Don’t treat it as a client project
where you need a polished
presentation of work. Bounce
ideas backwards and forwards.
Don’t be afraid to be foolish.”
“Keep in touch,” adds
Superunion’s Katherina Tudball.
“Don’t just go away and do ‘your
thing’. Talk about concepts
and meaning before you get
anywhere near execution.”
What you can do to get
the most out of your
joint-working projectsIf a project is fairly easy to split, then
one of the pair will work on it during the
day and then hand it over to be continued
by the other. “We never get tired of starting
a new day and seeing that some real
progress has been made overnight,” says
Forss. Saying that, both agree that being
4,000 miles and seven time zones apart can
be a “right bloody nuisance”.Forget competitiveness
Like many collaborations, a key part of
the success of Non-Format’s relationship
is mutual respect, and a non-competitive
spirit. “Everything we do together is
Non-Format’s work, not our own. If
either one of us isn’t happy with the
way a project is going we quickly accept
that it has to change to make it better,”
says Forss. “We’re both constantly open
to ways that things can be developed
and improved, rather than merely
defending our own position as individuals.”Agree at the concept stage
Non-Format also puts an emphasis on
the “chatting and brainstorming” stage,
meaning that any disagreements surfaceearly on. “Perhaps one clue to our success
is that both of us like to invest plenty of
time on concepts and ideas both before and
during the execution of a visual direction,
which means that the result is never based
solely on design style; design thinking is
equally important,” says Ekhorn.Don’t be afraid to scrap projects
They’re also both open to shelving ideas
altogether. “If we think something isn’t
working, even if it took a long time to
get to that point, we’re not afraid to
voice our objections and to scrap it and
shift to something else,” explains Forss.
“Experimenting always leaves us open
to the very real possibility of failure, so
we’re used to sometimes making something
that just doesn’t work out.”SPECIAL REPORT AUGUST 2019
“We’re both
open to ways
that things can
be developed
and improved’’
Artwork created by Non-Format for the original
Spaciousness compilation album.