While we were down in Seattle last week we had the rare opportunity to to see how well known Seattle design firms such as Methodologie, Girvin, Fitch, Hornall Anderson Design Works create their own inspirational design spaces and even Starbucks. Some firms try to create ultra calm environments, like Girvin’s attempt at Japanese Zen meets Art Gallery, while others project a modern, clean aesthetic like Hornall Anderson, who even had a typography room with a working letterpress for design staff to play with. But perhaps most interesting was the massive creative space occupied by Starbuck’s design team as described below by our friend Michelle Sourisseau.
We were escorted to the 8th floor by a fresh-faced designer with an access card hanging from the lanyard around his neck. He swiped his card, the door opened and we walked into a sprawling room with exposed ducting and concrete floors, occupying half of the floor. The sea of low cubical walls is collaged with artwork and found-objects. I was surprised at the amount of artists materials I saw – each desk is equipped with a Mac with a seventeen inch screen and an array of art supplies – paint, drawing pencils, markers, paper and ink. Each space is littered with artistic renderings as are the surrounding bulletin boards. I felt a sense of familiarity – this youthful and highly creative and collaborative environment brought me back to my university days at Emily Carr.
Sixty was the total desk count – 20 production staff, 20 designers and 20 illustrators, overseen by four Creative Directors, all under the guidance of the Global Creative Director, Stanley Hainsworth. Creative Director, Klindt Parker explained that half of the floor was occupied by the Creative / Communications department and the other half by the Product Development department. The two departments work together to produce the best results possible. Even the creatives who develop the Starbucks music selection are situated on this floor as well as a DJ mixing table and collection of records. One of the design interns mixed tunes throughout the tour.
Klindt explained how internship is something Starbucks values as it provides students with an opportunity to gain experience, and Starbucks with the opportunity to draw ideas from fresh talent and sometimes even gain new employees. If a designer’s portfolio is strong, yet too stylized, they will not be called back for an interview – an ability to adapt to a variety of styles is important since the visual and highly illustrative elements of each campaign are so varied. This is key to the Starbucks brand which seeks to portray the time, care, and thought put into Starbucks products through the handcrafted style of every design.
This fresh, creative and ever-changing environment is like a designers dream, yet made me pose the question, “How do you maintain a consistent brand when one campaign is so different from the next?” Klindt answered by pointing at a large sign hanging from a column in the middle of the design area. It is a list of five check boxes beside the words “handcrafted, artistic, sophisticated, human and enduring”. “If the work produced is not all five of these things, we go back to the drawing board and try something different,” he explained. “We do have a list of corporate fonts (Clarendon, Trajan, Bembo and Trade Gothic), and an unchanging logo, but otherwise the world of creative possibilities is open. Saying this, at the completion of each proposed design, if someone on the creative team has an intuitive feeling that the work ‘just isn’t Starbucks,’ we try something new.” He wasn’t kidding. A Powerpoint presentation of a coffee packaging design process revealed at least 90 design iterations before arriving at the final design. It’s no surprise than that a single campaign (like the current tropical campaign) takes 11 months to develop.
The creative professionals at Starbucks are encouraged to explore their ideas, experience the world around them and passionately put all they have to offer into their work. If fact, every Starbucks employee, no matter how high in the chain of command, works as a barista one day each year, serving up coffee as a reminder of why they are here and who they are designing for.
Since earning a Bachelors degree in Communication Design from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2003, Michelle has worked as the Visual Design Specialist of the Communications department at Trinity Western University. For the passed three years, she has acted as a senior visual communication design expert who works to organize and implement design direction in keeping with the University brand for internal/external communications and providing strategic support and creative direction to outsourced design for work in both electronic and print media.
Posted by Mark Busse
Tags: Design, Events, Inspiration
Rod Ross (July 20th, 2006)
Well Done Michelle…keep livin the adventure!
RR