8 Business, Branding, and Life Lessons We’ve Learned After 20 Years
As Indalma gets ready to celebrate 20 years of building strong brands, collaborating with great people, and brainstorming over cups of tea (so many cups of tea), we thought we’d share some of the things we’ve learned along the way.
Lesson #1
Relationships are one of the most important things you can build
This value is at the core of how we work. Our relationships with our clients, each other, our suppliers, and our supporters make the good days great – and the bad days better.
We’ve learned that the rules for building strong business relationships are the same as the ones in our personal lives: Commit. Show up. Be authentic and treat people well. Don’t just check-in with friends and clients when you have something to ask or sell. Congratulate them when they hit a milestone, and commiserate when they have a setback. Invest in their success. Take them to lunch just because.
The time you spend investing in relationships may not be billable, but it always pays off. In our experience, the best work happens when we have a collaborative relationship with a client and trust and ideas flow back and forth. If we have a rush job, the fact that we treat our suppliers fairly and with respect means that they’ll try to come through for us. And, if there’s a project glitch, the relationship equity we’ve built helps us resolve it.
When it comes to the team, there are days when several cups of coffee just aren’t going to solve a mood, an energy level, or a crisis. One of the nice things about being a small business, rather than a large corporation, is that we can show up in the design studio exactly as we are. We’ve worked alongside both staff and clients when they’re going through hard times. The work still gets done, but it gets done in an atmosphere of understanding and genuine caring – and that makes all the difference. As the saying goes, “They might not remember what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”
Lesson #2
Sometimes, you just need to pick up the phone
It’s tempting to run your projects completely on email or by text, especially if you’re a millennial or Gen Z. But while it’s a really efficient means of communicating, sometimes you just need to pick up the phone – particularly if it’s a difficult conversation, or a complicated one. Human-to-human contact can help you feel where a conversation needs to go, and provide quick insights and understanding that email can’t.
Likewise, it’s easy to take all your meetings over Zoom. But as designers, we actually like to visit a client’s business so that we can feel the experience they’re offering, talk to different people, and see the environment they work in or sell from. It tells us so much more than a Zoom meeting – sometimes the sensory things we pick up during a visit, or a chance conversation in the hall, give us the insight we need for an inspired solution.
Lesson #3
Good feedback often leads to better ideas
If you’re asked to give feedback, the most unhelpful thing you can say is, “I don’t like it”… followed by silence.
We get it. It can be hard to take a solution apart to determine why you don’t like it, but if you aren’t specific in your feedback, you’re not giving the other person enough information to move forward.
As professionals, we’re not looking for positive feedback (although that’s always nice to get), we’re looking for constructive feedback. We need to know: is it a specific colour you dislike, do you need the title to stand out more, does the font create the vibe you’re looking for, and are there bits of the design you like? Give us a foothold from which to start establishing what you do like.
Feedback is part of the collaborative process – and good feedback often leads to better ideas.
Lesson #4
Dig until you find your niche
When we first started Indalma, we did a lot of general design work: logos, signage, ads, brochures. And, as we went on, we discovered what we were really good at: deep thinking and solutions.
Even back then, when people came to us for a sign, our instinct was to look at how the sign fit into the rest of their business, whether there were ways to make a bigger impact with that sign or, if a sign was even the right solution to their problem. It was a mindset that made us different from many other studios, and we began to refine our processes and the type of projects we were doing in that direction.
But it didn’t happen overnight. It was a constant process of asking ourselves what worked and what didn’t. What were we giving clients that they weren’t finding elsewhere? What kind of projects did we love? How could we make our processes better, and what new services could we offer as we got new skills and more experience?
The more we focused on those questions, the more we found our niche. We attracted clients who wanted that kind of work, and staff who wanted to go on the journey with us.
It also meant that, as time went on, we started to know what type of work to turn down. In the early days, we took every contract – that’s just part of building a business. But now we evaluate projects based on whether it’s a fit: will it let us do what we do well, and deliver great results?
Lesson #5
Get the foundations of a brand right, and the rest will flow
In the early days, we might have (reluctantly) agreed to proceed directly to design when a client didn’t want to invest the time or energy in foundational work. But even then, we knew that the work would have to be done at some point, if they wanted to grow strategically.
Investing in foundational work is like creating a blueprint for your brand – everything you create for the brand takes its cues from the blueprint, so that all of your campaigns and marketing materials are working together towards the same goals. When you’ve defined how your brand looks, sounds and acts, who you are, what you stand for, and what your goals are, you can deliver a consistent customer experience, act strategically, and make best use of your budget. A blueprint helps you and your team stay focused. (Learn why a logo is not a brand)
Lesson #6
The brand must always come first
You may have a beautiful idea, but if it doesn’t make sense for your brand, you’re going to have to use it someplace else. Likewise, you may be a truly funny person, but if that’s not your brand’s voice, you’ll have to save the jokes for your friends. Your brand has to be consistent in how it looks, acts, and sounds over time, and outlive the personality of any one brand manager, designer, or communications staff.
Lesson #7
Always answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”
To get results, creative projects have to address the needs of their audience. It’s Marketing 101, but it’s easy to get distracted by a juicy creative concept, or to get stuck in an insider’s point of view that doesn’t reflect the needs of the outsider you’re talking to. (Sometimes, we’re too close to see it.) Every project has to answer the question, “What’s in it for our audience?” Why would they pay attention to our offer? Why would they buy our product or service, or join our organization?
Lesson #8
Appreciate the people who help you grow
In business, as in life, the people who support you and help you grow are your gamechangers – sometimes it’s with a big gesture, sometimes it’s with slow, steady, constant support.
Over the past two decades, we’ve worked with some really great people: clients, staff and suppliers – and been supported by others who have never even used our services. We want to say “Thank you!” to you all. Thank you for choosing us, referring us, collaborating with us – and for being good humans along the way. It’s no exaggeration to say we couldn’t have done it without you!
If you think your brand or business could benefit from 20 years of design and branding experience, please give us a shout – we love to talk ideas and solutions!
Indalma’s 20th Anniversary Party
Our team hosted our Indalma 20th Anniversary Party to celebrate the story of evolution, relationships and gratitude. You don’t achieve 20 years in business on your own. Thank you to our clients, our suppliers, our supporters, and our team. Let’s celebrate this moment.
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