Examining our Experience: A Conversation about the Creative Realms of Graphic Design with CEO David Lai, Part II
This is the second half of the full interview conducted with David Lai, CEO and Creative Director at Hello Design; read Part I here.
Source: Creative Mornings
Since founding Hello in 1999, David has been leading the strategy and creative for the agency. Clients include Herman Miller, Nike, Sonos, Samsung, Speedo, MoMA, and Facebook. David has won numerous awards and recognition for his work including Cannes Cyber Lion, Clio, One Show Pencil, Pixel Awards, and Webby Awards. His designs have also been featured in Communication Arts, I.D., HOW, Print, and Graphis, as well as numerous other publications and books. David has been invited to speak at numerous events and conferences including Creative Mornings, AIGA, and SXSW. He has taught at ArtCenter and was on the Advisory Board of the AIGA Los Angeles. A graduate from Cornell University, David never lost his love of bikes. He has cycled across the French Alps and ridden from San Francisco to Los Angeles three times.
Ashleigh Fields (BT): Unlike art or writing, which has a strong historical presence to draw from creatively, the internet/digital age is completely new. How does this both limit you and allow you to be boundless in your ideas and execution?
David Lai (DL): Well, we start with asking what the end result of a project looks like, you know, can you imagine what success looks like? To your point of bringing an idea to the table, just paint the picture for me, don't worry about your limitations or whether you can or can't do it. Don't worry about time, don't even worry about money. Just paint the picture. What does it ideally look like? We find that if you aim for an ideal, maybe you can't quite get there because of time or whatever but it's still pretty good usually. Pessimist versus optimist. All I'm saying is that if you're a little bit more of the idealist of aiming for the goal, your chances of getting it in my opinion are much higher because you've got some focus, you've got some passion driving you towards that ideal place.
BT: Specifically speaking to your Speedo commercial, in which a story is featured on the side of the website on Jurgen Schmidt, how and why are features/storytelling components necessary to engage the audience?
“Traditional advertising has been very interruption-based, it’s media-driven... That’s advertising as we know it. I feel like the future is really about not that; I feel like it’s about creating relationships that show that you as a brand care about something.”
DL: We often talk about crafting worthy experiences. That's one of the things that you'll see in how we describe what we do, and I think that's different from traditional advertising. Traditional advertising has been very interruption-based, it's media-driven. You're bombarded by all these ads around you or maybe on Hulu and an ad pops up in the middle of a show and you're like, come on. That's advertising as we know it. I feel like the future is really about not that; I feel like it's about creating relationships that show that you as a brand care about something. We ended up creating a campaign called Fueled by Water for Speedo. We realized that swimming is unique because as a sport you can do it for life. So we're like, you can probably still swim when you're in your nineties because it's no impact and things like that. We didn't have the person to film, but we were confident we could find them.
We let the idea of the sport guide the storytelling. So we found this gentleman Jurgen who was in his nineties, who was still swimming, breaking world records, and we just told this story. And so really what I was going to say about storytelling is that often it's about revealing what's already there. We shot over 18 short films in the Fueled by Water series. None of them are models or actors. They're all real people. They're real people that love what they do and have a real passion for the water. That was what drove that project. It was really just finding the right people.
BT: Hello Design’s Nike project for their Global Maxim awards heavily features light and color to awaken the senses. I wanted to ask, how important is it to engage the 5 senses in digital experiences you create?
DL: We love digital because it's a very powerful medium. Digital is really powerful because you could put up a video on YouTube and anyone in the world could see it. There's nothing holding back somebody in some other country from watching that video on YouTube. The challenge though is now there's so much stuff online. I think for years, everyone was like, digital is better. Digital is faster. Digital is easier. Digital is cheaper. And you just mentioned the senses; I think it's really important that you said that because I think we lost a little bit of that emotional connection and a little bit of that discovery and tactileness of in-person, and it is important.
There's something powerful about tangible things which could of course encompass other senses like smell, touch, sight, all these other senses you talk about. We've worked for food brands like Tillamook or other brands. Of course, food is all about touch and sense and taste, and you can't recreate that in digital. Over the years, we've been blurring those lines more where digital and analog blur. It's not so much about either-or, it's about both, and so the analog side of things is important, how to take advantage of both worlds.
“Apple doesn’t stack their shelves with a bunch of computers. They have a lot of display tables where you can touch it and you can feel it and you can click on it and you can ask questions about it. That is about senses. That is about experiences. That’s the power of digital and physical.”
BT: Is there another example of a project that you really indulge the senses in?
DL: Sonos is another example. We did the Sonos showroom in New York and we created these listening rooms, and in these listening rooms, you can experience multi-room sound. So there's speakers and you actually go in their soundproof rooms. The door literally weighs a ton, so that when you close the door, it's quiet and you can experience what one speaker sounds like, up to two or three while syncing them, and it's nothing but your senses, the TV, it's got a touch screen, it's got speakers, it actually controls the lighting in the rooms. There's actually no products really on the shelf, it's not a “store” in the traditional sense, and I think if you even look at an Apple store today, it's very much that same model, right? Apple doesn't stack their shelves with a bunch of computers. They have a lot of display tables where you can touch it and you can feel it and you can click on it and you can ask questions about it. That is about senses. That is about experiences. That's the power of digital and physical. So I think the future, as we see it, is also evolving because I'm really inspired by looking globally.
BT: On your website is the quote “I am a designer of life.” Could you share a specific project not created by Hello Design that you feel spoke to this statement?
DL: I mean, to be honest, I'm always inspired by what I see others do. I really love this innovation of technology design and storytelling coming together; those are always the things that last in my mind. HBO did this thing with South by Southwest, they recreated Westworld. They actually built Westworld, and you could actually go there and participate. It was pretty cool; instead of just saying, “go watch it,” they're like, “be in it.” And that's sort of the same idea, right? It's bridging the gap and then letting social media and digital amplify. That is also another part of that equation. Even though I didn't get the chance to go there, I've seen it, and I was like, wow, that looks amazing. So, you know, it’s the way we think about connecting with people. Of course it would have been awesome if I could have gone there and experienced it, but the fact you can still amplify and share that through digital is also really important.
“The most successful things are the ones that are truly 360 and holistic.”
BT: What are some of the components that should be considered in successful advertising or marketing?
DL: So it sort of goes back to what I said earlier— I feel like the most successful things are the ones that are truly 360 and holistic; they think about connecting you across many things. I'm really impressed when companies are open to letting agencies like us bring ideas to the table to improve the product or service itself. If you think about that for a second, if we really can think about how we can improve consumers’ experience, not just from a marketing standpoint, but from an actual usage standpoint— it's like my Speedo example, where when we crafted that sensor that could help you track your laps, we talked about things they could incorporate into their swimsuits, and that's starting to bridge into the actual products or services themselves. If you are a hotel, let's say, maybe our ideas for marketing or advertising aren't just about the commercial, but maybe it's about the actual experience— maybe we're rethinking what is it like to actually be in the hotel, and maybe our suggestions are around the actual service or maybe what the in-room experience looks like. That's where you're blurring the lines of what is “advertising” or “marketing.”
BT: Could you share one of your most memorable experiences with a brand or product advertisement?
DL: One example to give you is that I was at a trade show, a consumer electronics show called CES (I think maybe two years ago), and Google actually made a little ride, like a Disneyland ride, out of nothing; they just put it up in the parking lot. And, you know, it was just like Disneyland— you went in there, there was a little roller coaster that you got into, and it took you on this little journey. I just thought, wow, that's a pretty scary idea to pitch somebody, that they're going to put together a Disneyland kind of ride for this experience. So I love seeing where people are really taking things at that level where we are blurring the lines and really trying to create places that you seek out, where you're like, wow, I would wait in line to go see that, and people did.
“[Creativity] doesn’t mean just a one-sided narrow view; it actually can be used to really expand and think about things in very different ways, to maybe challenge these things we just think are the norm, and by doing that, I think we push ourselves further into creating things that are even more valuable.”
BT: Is there anything else you want to add to the interview?
DL: Creativity has a lot of power. It has a lot of power and value for businesses. So how do we harness that creativity in a way that it's celebrated? I feel like creativity is something we should talk more about. When I was that little five-year-old with a piece of artwork, it was celebrated, but maybe not as much when I was 12; it wasn't as important, and yet maybe it should be, because I think that creativity can be applied to science, to business, to anything. We should think about creativity in a bigger sense, and maybe that's part of what I'm adding to the equation. It doesn't mean just a one-sided narrow view; it actually can be used to really expand and think about things in very different ways, to maybe challenge these things we just think are the norm, and by doing that, I think we push ourselves further into creating things that are even more valuable.
The only thing I realized we didn't get to chat too much about is that we are a certified minority-owned business. We have been since we started over 20 years ago, and I've been thinking about the lack of diversity in our industry, especially in leadership positions. All 3 partners in our agency are minorities, and we too still have work to do on our end as well in terms of hiring more Black and Latino talent, for example. The U.S. is becoming more and more diverse, and it's important we reflect that with the people who work for us and the clients we work with. For example, we worked with HBO last year on the TV show WARRIOR with an Asian-led cast, and it was great to help drive visibility for more representation.