When a client contracts with me to launch their company (or re-position it, or re-brand it), by necessity, I use subcontractors.
For one client’s launch, I subcontracted with a graphic design firm, a web designer and developer, an SEO whiz kid, a PR consultant, an organic social media firm, and two paid social media agencies.
When I find an outstanding contractor who shares my values, we begin a partnership. We cross-refer. We make life easier on clients and speed up delivery because we understand each other’s abilities and work together well.
This website is a perfect case in point.
When my former business partner and I separated our consultancies, I decided to make a (risky? foolhardy?) change in how I presented myself. From now on, there would be no “professional Laurence” or “personal Laurence”. They would be the same.
I turned to the lovely people at Carbon Orange for the brand design. I’ve been working with their principals, Tanya Zielke and Anne-Marie Miller, since 2004. Not only have they been an utterly safe pair of hands for clients over the years, no two of their brand designs look alike. They tune into the client’s values, customers, products and services and the result each time is unique.
I worried about having myself as a client. I was afraid I’d get in the way of Carbon Orange’s creativity and direct them to create a brand that would be awful.
I needn’t have been concerned. Anne-Marie based her designs, colour palette and fonts on her long knowledge of how I work. I’d swear she drew her ideas from a Vulcan mind-meld, because I don’t remember giving her much guidance, and yet what she created was exactly right.
“Is that how other people see me?”
“Yup. That’s you.” Cool.
When Anne-Marie passed the brand assets to animator, web designer and developer Susie Hinchliffe, the process was seamless. Carbon Orange and Susie have shared a number of clients, and enjoy bouncing off each other’s creativity. Susie essentially deconstructed the elements of Anne-Marie’s logo and used them to create a consistent brand across the website.
Susie and I have shared clients before, so I knew that, as well as having oodles of creative vision, she can handle any technical challenge.
And here’s the other thing about partnerships. We look out for each other. We decided to make the River Otter website a showcase for Susie’s animations.
Of course, if animations hadn’t suited the River Otter brand, we wouldn’t have used them. But in this case, it seemed natural.
Which brings me to a final thought. In my experience, we are most creative when we collaborate. Susie, Anne-Marie, Tanya and I love tossing around concepts. With our history, there’s no anxiety about whether the client will be pleased. We genuinely find working with each other delightful.
Susie and I often end a work session with “Well, that didn’t feel like work.” That’s worth quite a bit.
