We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Philip Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Philip below.

Philip, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Is your team able to work remotely? If so, how have you made it work? What, if any, have been the pitfalls? What have been the non-obvious benefits?

Our business exists because of the pandemic and the new remote work paradigm shift that resulted. Prior to Covid, my business partner, Garrett Owen, and I had collectively experienced what it was like to work at small design studios, mid-size branding firms, as well as large, national creative agencies. We both realized that regardless of the size of the company we worked at, or the client we worked for, the best work was often produced by lean, tight-knit teams. We began to question the necessity of the large teams that we saw being directed at most projects, knowing it was possible to run things more efficiently, while still delivering world-class creative.

The acceptance of remote work during the pandemic gave us the confidence to start Grand Effect – knowing we would be able to keep the costs lower for our clients by cutting out unnecessary overhead. In practice this meant no monthly lease for office space, and no payroll to cover the costs of employees. Instead, Garrett and I run the business from our respective home offices and tap our large creative network of vetted freelancers to work with us on the projects that demand more effort than we can provide alone. This allows us to fine tune the resources for each project and negates the inefficiency of having unneeded staff on hand when our workload might be lighter.

However, this arrangement can come with its downsides. For instance, I believe it’s easier to foster younger design talent in a traditional in-office setting. There’s less of a barrier for them to extemporaneously seek out feedback from a creative director, as they can just pop in the other person’s office or vice versa. It requires a little more vigilance and effort to create this same kind of dynamic virtually.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Philip Smith and I’m a co-founder and creative director at Grand Effect, a strategic branding and design agency. We help our clients build brands and tell compelling stories through brand identity and other creative design services.

I spent the first 15 years of my career working for RBMM, one of the oldest and most awarded design firms in the country. I became design principal in 2011 and spent my last 10 years there leading accounts and creative for a range of clients, from national retail brands to local nonprofits. I was lucky to have worked with some of the most talented people in the industry, from whom I learned not just how to be a successful designer, but also how to run a successful design practice. This experience gave me the confidence to start Grand Effect with my business partner, Garrett Owen, who was also my coworker and most frequent collaborator at RBMM.

At Grand Effect, we’re an intentionally small team of creative veterans who offer our clients an efficient and streamlined path to outstanding design work of consequence. We help our clients stand out from the noise in their respective categories and communicate their essential good in a way that demands attention and amplifies their impact.

In addition to the brands we work with directly, we often find ourselves partnering with other marketing agencies who can also benefit from our business model. Rather than dedicating the resources to building and staffing an expensive design team from the ground up, they can bring us in whenever one of their clients has a creative need that falls outside of their skillset.

As a business, we’re most proud of the company we keep. Through our direct client relationships and agency partners, we have the pleasure of working with amazing brands who are truly doing outsized good in the world: The Salvation Army, United Way, Center for BrainHealth, Lakeside Foods, among others. It makes our jobs so much more rewarding when our clients have such great stories to communicate.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Past and current clients and colleagues have been instrumental to the success of our business. The nature of our work means that we’re always working with successful individuals that often have large networks of people with similar needs. Fostering these relationships and dedicating ourselves 100% to making our clients and industry friends look as good as possible pays huge dividends when it comes to word-of-mouth referrals. Bottom line, never take for granted the connections you already have. We’ve found that it can be a challenge to pair up with compatible clients that only find you through something like an internet search or social media.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Never let chasing awards and accolades be the driving force behind the creative work you do. In my formative years as a junior designer, I would sometimes see creative directors and senior designers that would use that as a litmus test for the viability of the work that would ultimately be presented to the client. The question would be “Is this creative enough to win an award?” rather than “Am I solving the client’s business problem as creatively as possible?”

There would be times when I would let this same kind of thinking selfishly dictate the work I would produce. So, while I might have been satisfied with the results creatively, it might not be as successful in actually moving the needle for the client. Through experience and maturity as a designer, I found that if you do the work for the right reason and are passionate about the results, then recognition will often follow regardless.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.grandeffect.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grand__effect/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/grand-effect-branding-design/

Image Credits
Grand Effect, Branding & Design