COMPETITIVE CONTEXT

This week we learn from four new agencies who answer the question:

How do you research and identify new industry projects or opportunities that you’d like to participate in?

FELD

FELD is a multi-disciplinary agency that has two approaches to new work and projects:

Keep interested by pursuing projects of personal interest as it is very natural and the likelihood of commitment is high due to alignment
Take on subject where you have no knowledge. This is their preferred approach as it provides opportunities to learn new skills, subject matters and new ways of designing by conducting research.

They argue that pursuing projects of personal interest runs the risk of becoming “color blind” and that you need to refresh those eyes and brains with new experiences and opportunities which ultimately can yield great personal and professional reward.

ACCEPT & PROCEED

Accept & Proceed has decided in recent years that they really only wish to “design for good” and align themselves with creative partners and clients that share in this desire to engage in projects tackling subject matters are socially responsible such as climate change. A good amount of their work is self-initiated which in turn has generated the attention and respect of prospective clients. They have added strategy and project management units to their agency to enable their purpose and mission more effectively and efficiently. Research for their projects is spearheaded by strategy and project management teams, but the entire agency owns this process to fully engage in the work.

STUDIO DUMBAR

Being a subsidiary of a globally recognized and distributed digital agency, DEPT, has its benefits. While they do make new business partnerships by attending conferences, the majority of their work as a result of this recognition and brand affiliation “comes to them.” Must be nice. It would have been good to hear how it was before that merger and what they do differently now as opposed to when they were on their own.

EDENSPIEKERMANN

Most project like Studio Dumbar come to them. Unlike, Dumbar, EdenSpiekermann has been independently serving the design community and global agency stage for over forty years. They strive to get better at defined domains for them to dig deeper and expand their expertise across fewer industries versus broadly, and more shallowly serving their partners. Most of their work comes via word of mouth and repeat clientele.

REFERENCE

Falmouth University (2018). Competitive Context | Interviews. Application and Interactions GDE740 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S1 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)