About us in 12 project stories
Expedit by Tord Björklund.
We opened our doors on February 7, 2005. The dream was to combine the strategic planning of an ad agency with the creative range of a design firm, but on that first day — 1. Build IKEA furniture — was the entire to-do list.
Thankfully, the phone rang. Today our work infuses creative thinking into many of the world’s leading organizations and even challenges traditional notions of how and where brands connect. We like to think that it’s the same spirit of problem solving and adventure that existed on day one.
AkinsParker. May we help you?
Bob Dylan can’t sing.
The highest power in communication is having something to say. A distant second, is choosing how to say it to connect with an audience.
Every curve of typography, every image, every color, every open space, every frame, every context — every decision of craft — should be in service to the idea. Great work has no room for creative drum solos or our personal style or the latest cool visual trend. Good craft is any language that best serves the concept. Period.
Think. Don’t decorate.
Marshmallows conquer emails.
Ojai Valley Resort asked us to create an on-property campaign to make guests aware of Libbey’s, their new market and snack shop. The initial thinking was to do flyers, in-room screens, e-newsletters, and postings.
The final solution was to move five fire pits in front of the shop and put branded s’mores kits in every room. We realized that the best work happens as much in our framing of a task as it does in the task itself. It’s key to think beyond the execution of tactics to stay focused on a bigger idea — how to move an audience.
Reimagine the creative brief.
Studio founded by deaf guy
writes symphony.
The greatest ideas are irrational — difficult to execute, impossible to sell — and rarely escape a room of smart, practical thinkers. So when a crazy one breaks through, you know it took an audacious act of courage.
One wildly successful example was when Edwards Lifesciences, a leader in heart valve technology, allowed us to commission a piano sonata for the operating room. It celebrated the customer, cardiothoracic surgeons, at the grand scale of their heroism. Shout out to Coen Van de Pol who saw the OR as an inspired place, too.
Be a bold advocate.
Stolen coasters.
When brainstorming, it’s the worst ideas — the left field, laugh-at, what-were-you-thinking, throw-out ones — that are gold. Not because we use them, but because they open the thinking that leads to the great solution.
For the launch of Hotel Hermosa — “live octopus” begat “it’ll get hurt or stolen” begat “good design in restaurants always gets stolen” begat “let’s invite everyone who’s anyone to the grand opening and design coasters so cool that people sneak them home.”
Celebrate strange ideas.
People at home are exhausted.
This was an off-handed client comment before a Zoom call during the pandemic. It was also the key insight that led to their next travel campaign — “Out of Office.”
Sometimes we have such belief in our own ideas that we can shut ourselves off from a better one. The truth is that our clients are the experts of their businesses and the greatest work on their behalf will usually travel through them. Tip of the cap to Bill Bernbach for this one.
Listen. (They may be right)
No.
The audience was ready. Marketing was ready. The board, however, was definitely not ready.
Let’s just say that some people enjoyed our ideas for the launch of the outdoor stage at Segerstrom Center more than others — and we won’t be getting an encore. The lesson was that selling the work is a key part of the process. Sometimes we have to move a conference room before we can move an audience.
Work won’t always speak for itself.
Good work works.
The world is filled with peacocking creative solos that don’t move the needle toward their objectives.
The best work — by definition — makes a connection and does its job, however humble. Anything else, no matter how stunningly beautiful or absurdly creative or wildly celebrated by other designers, is simply authorship for the sake of authorship.
The audience is the jury.
Super Bowl or a super bowl.
There are 6-month projects and there are 6-hour projects. They all have to perform like 6-month projects.
We love taking on large assignments — big, cross-discipline teams, high-stakes meetings, famous brands. We love the tiny ones, too — startups, lovable non-profits, pro-bono. We want to be wherever smart creativity can help make a human connection.
All the work is equal.
20 years is a million miles.
Sometimes projects spring from nowhere. Sometimes budgets don’t exist. Usually, there’s not enough time.
The only way we want to do business is to climb into our clients’ trenches with them, taking on the pressure of their deadlines, rescuing their budgets and celebrating their victories. Partnership. In the end, it won’t be the plum project or the temporary wins that are our metrics for success, it will be the length of our relationships.
Success is length of relationship.
No lamps means no genies.
One way we honor real world places and moments is by approaching the design of our offices with the same love and attention to detail that we give every project.
Inspired studio spaces cultivate the daily rhythms of creativity and set the stage for talented people to do great work. Every day we witness our workplaces creating magic moments of connection and inspiration.
Build a creative environment.
I don’t know.
A posture of curiosity is the source of creativity.
We’re inspired by the discovery of new organizations, new ways to communicate and new ways of working. In twenty years, we’ve gone from spray mount and annual report layout to 3D rendering and Ai product launches. We love that growing into the next twenty will be guided by our openness to whatever comes next.
Always be learning.
