It’s never “I did that”…always “We!”
At LemonTop we never work alone. Teamwork is responsible for being able to rise to any challenge, for the rapid response to clients requests, and for the respect and trust we have for each other. Let me give you an example that illustrates why we always think like this and why teamwork is one of the core values here at LemonTop.
Someone picked one of our many beer bottles from our office display, turned directly to me and said “Wow, did you do this?”
I was just about to say yes with a contented smile when a thought suddenly popped into my head.
Yes, I did that, but without the support of the LemonTop team, they would just stay as images on my computer screen. In fact, some of them might not even get that far and would just languish in this jumbled imagination of mine.
Yes, I created the brand and developed the theme for the beer bottle labels but there is so much more in front of, and behind, the actual design of those bottle labels our client had in her hand.
I read a lot of designers’ blogs and websites where they use the word I but this is a team game and this is why you’re not just paying for the designer’s time and experience, you’re paying for all the work the whole team does to get bottles like these ready for the supermarket shelves.
There are a whole host of tasks to consider. It all starts with Sales Director Andy bringing the work in. He has many contacts in the brewing industry which has allowed LemonTop to become experts in the field of brewery promotions and marketing. The brief for this particular bottle label was to use the freshly created brand and logostyle to create a theme that could be used across a series of 500ml labels. Easy, isn’t it? Well, not quite. Although we had brand guidelines to follow, characters were to be illustrated based on the name of the beer, an amusing editorial description was to be written, social media posts were to be created, a marketing plan was to be put in place, and all these had to work seamlessly with the brand. But it doesn’t stop there, we have to then think about printing and production of the labels and bottles. There are so many tasks involved in getting that bottle to the shelf, it’s no wonder we need a team of talented people to make it happen.
It’s always been a privilege to work with many talented people during my career and now, as a Director of LemonTop, it fills me with great pride to know that we have brought a team together that can produce work of such a high standard. And that’s my point, it’s always a team game.
In football, a good starting eleven has talent in various positions, all of whom have different skills and specialisms. It’s the same with a good design team. We all have our specialist skills, whether it be illustration, copywriting, typography, and that’s just a starting point. We work together co-operatively to achieve a finished product which we are proud of and which exceeds customer expectations. We all have our individual strengths and weaknesses so working as a team allows us to focus individuals special skills and talents on each portion of any particular project. This allows us to blend the very best components together to produce the most powerful and effective end-product possible, on time and to budget.
