I Only Lasted 3 Years in the
Corporate World, but I
Learned a Lot

Writing by Kristen Rebelo
Art by Cade Robinson
February 4, 2019

Let’s face it. Here at House of Rebelo, we can get a little righteous about using creative work to “take down the man”. Blame the creative in me, blame my politics, or blame the fact that I spent much of my early career in corporate America.

If I’m being honest though, working in the corporate design world has been one of the most educational experiences of my life, and one that I’m constantly grateful for.

I often joke that I use the skills I’ve learned working with big companies to empower my clients in the nonprofit world, in politics, and who are leading mission-driven small businesses of their own. That I use the same creative and marketing tactics that so effectively sell products to instead sell people, causes, and big ideas. But it’s not really a joke — big, private sector companies are successful for a reason. And they’re using lots of strategic creative methods that can apply to what we’re building outside of these systems.

Truthfully, I’m not fully outside of the corporate world. It reels me back in at times and can be genuinely interesting and fulfilling work. I always learn a lot and have had the opportunity to work with some incredibly talented people. But ultimately, my heart lies in supporting those who want to change the world.

So let’s get into the knowledge I can share. Here’s what I’ve learned so far from working in the world of corporate design:

1. THE KEY TO YOUR SUCCESS IS BRAND CONSISTENCY

Long story short, by maintaining brand consistency across your marketing efforts, you’re:

a) making it clear who you are, what you do, and who you serve
b) building a genuine connection with your audience
c) leading your audience to take a desired action

I’ve written more on the importance of brand consistency here, but understand that it’s effective as hell.

I loovve my fellow creatives but I’ll admit, as artists, sometimes our gut instinct is to create something new rather than follow the rules. This is great when you’re starting a branding process from scratch. Not so great when you’re working with an established company that needs you to jump on board and adapt to their creative direction.

Working in the corporate world, I learned brand consistency hard and fast. As the designer, your sole job is to make sure everything you’re producing is within the voice and vision of your client. Nike does a great job of this — at the beginning of a new retail season, they establish a creative direction up top and then pass it down the line to all designers working on that particular campaign. There are checkpoints to make sure everything is in line with the initial direction. At the agency where I worked with Nike, we could play around and propose new ideas, as long as they fit within the campaign’s brand intention. What can I say, sometimes (often), creative limitations are useful. Nike knows that brand consistency works. Just take a look at their profit margins and their devoted audience.

2. HOW TO SELL USING PERSUASIVE CREATIVE WORK

Here’s the thing about the corporate world: the ultimate goal is to sell. A product, a service, often something that falls outside the realm of people’s basic needs. And large global companies are very good at tailoring their processes and creative strategies to achieve millions of dollars in profits. From ad targeting, to trend forecasting, to using the psychology of persuasive design to capture and influence audiences, let’s just say that marketing tactics can be very effective (and can get a little creepy).

Creative work in the corporate world is extremely deliberate and strategic, which is why it works so well. And while the nonprofit world is really good at making change, in my experience, they’re not often great at selling change — at getting audiences on board with their organization, or in being as innovative with their marketing efforts as the private sector.

Because here’s the thing; those same creative strategies that generate millions in the sale of sneakers are also extremely effective when it comes to selling people, ideas, and causes that bring genuine good into our world. And you can implement this high-level design thinking into your own processes, no matter the scale of your organization.

3. HOW TO ITERATE, BE INNOVATIVE, AND REMAIN AGILE IN YOUR CREATIVE PROCESSES. #STARTUPLIFE

One of my first design jobs was at a startup. Was it hard work with constantly moving parts, making it necessary to wear dozens of hats? Yes. Because of this, was it truly some of the best work experience I could have asked for? Also yes. In the startup world, I learned to iterate. To just get shit done and out into the world, to think on my feet, and to make quick decisions. To observe the needs of my clients, the landscape of their market, and to respond to both in my creative work.

I think back to this startup experience a lot when I talk to people at nonprofits that are 15 years behind on their creative and marketing tactics. Who don’t understand why maintaining their website and thinking outside the box is going to increase their donations, and inevitably their ability to make change in the world. Or when I talk to small business owners afraid of the investment required to produce the effective creative work that’s going to level up their business. I get it, when you’re in a nonprofit or starting a business, you’re busy making a lot happen. But when it comes to successful marketing, the corporate world is beating you.

The need for agile processes is especially crucial when it comes to politics. It drives me nuts that the asks of creative work in this field are still limited to “business as usual”, when post-2016, nothing in politics is business as usual. There’s a great scene in the documentary Knock Down the House, when Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez points out the differences between her creative campaign materials and her opponent’s. Hers were concise, bold, bilingual, and actionable. His were too long, all about him, and didn’t even tell people when to vote. Guess who won? She did.

4. THE IMPORTANCE OF ASSET MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTION WORK

Do you know who has no choice but to have their ducks in a row when it comes to creative asset management? A global company. The corporate design world is excellent at asset management because they have to be in order to keep projects on track and communicate across large, remote creative teams. This important behind-the-scenes organizational work is one of the key insights I learned early on.

What’s asset management? It’s bringing together all of the brand elements and files that make your creative work come to life, and organizing them to pass among teams. I won’t get too into the weeds here, but the gist is that without systems and processes established around asset management, your creative work is going to be a mess and a million things will get lost in communication. You’re going to end up with files named “SiteDesign_R10_FINALv3_SERIOUSLYTHISTIME.png” (sound familiar, freelancers?) This is a massive headache for everyone involved in a project, especially your client.

A lot of people I talk to about design don’t realize this, but there’s a difference in our industry between what’s called “creative work” and “production work”. Basically, creative work is “the fun stuff” — things like brand design or large ad campaigns. Production work is “the necessary stuff” — like creating thousands of consistent retail product signs (yes, I’ve done this.) Production work gets a bad rap, but it’s the foundational work that designers need to master before they can efficiently produce creative work. This is my biggest piece of advice for young designers. You’ve gotta know the rules before you can break them, and there’s no where you’ll earn these stripes like in the world of corporate design.

5. ALL THE ISMS ARE REAL, AND THE LACK OF TRUE DIVERSITY ON YOUR CREATIVE TEAMS IS GOING TO BE YOUR DOWNFALL

I give the corporate world real kudos for all of the above lessons I’ve learned. Thanks y'all, I’m eternally grateful. But now I get to point out where the corporate world is failing, and where we can learn from them what not to do.

Because some problematic shit can happen when you’re the only woman in a conference room. Or when a creative campaign is made exclusively by white people (myself included, I’m far from perfect).

And I don’t mean you should check a box by hiring one woman, or one person of color, who’s meant to speak for all marginalized people (and is then immediately silenced by the larger group). I mean thinking strategically about your hiring processes to gather a genuine cross-section of talent, identity, and experiences of the world. Doing this is to your benefit.

Here’s what happens when you’re not implementing true diversity (race, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, all the things) into your creative teams:

• You’re going to make embarrassing and costly mistakes/oversights that hurt both your brand reputation and your organization’s bottom line.
• The creative campaign or product you’re making is going to suffer because you’re lacking user perspectives in the testing phase. If you doubt me on this, just look at a huge problem in the tech world right now. AI facial recognition is literally having trouble classifying people of color as “human”, because the software itself was built by predominantly white people who did not account for differences in skin tone. That’s not okay. Or for something less troubling but still irritating, look at the long lines at public women’s restrooms — a system designed by men, without women in the room to offer better solutions. It didn’t have to be this way.
• You’re missing out on voices, talent, and perspectives that are going to make your creative work innovative, effective, and speak to a larger market. It’s 2020. Quit sucking and get on board before you lose your audience.

In the end, I could rally against the corporate design world or I could appreciate and learn from it what I can. I choose the latter. The experience has made me smarter, more agile, and more effective in my creative processes so that I can now apply those same strategies with my clients who are working towards a better and more equitable world. ★

Curious to know how you can apply this knowledge to support your mission? Get in touch for a creative strategy session to see if we can create some real change together.