Business

Julie Prendiville Roux

A New Model Agency: Grip Design

he term experiential design takes on a whole new meaning at Chicago-based Grip Design. Here, design is not just what a package might look like, or how a web page might read. At Grip, design is redesigned to include the entire transaction of a brandin every aspect thats meaningful: what it looks like, how it feels, what the consumer might wear while interacting with said brand, what he/she might listen to, read, watch, even think. And, most impor tant to principals Kevin McConkey and Kelly Kaminski, a Grip Design is created to redesign a clients bottom line.

responsible view of their part of the puzzle: consumer experience. As McConkey says, Im thinking about Deaths Door all the time. Knowing exactly how the gin and vodka blends are truly unique, knowing what the packaging really costsit helps us contribute at a much deeper level.

Were commercial artists, not fine artists. A lot of people in our field forget that, says McConkey. We believe that our work needs to be valued as what it can do for our clients profitability. And this leads to the most salient redesign of all the firms own approach to the standard design offering. Self-named A New Model Agency, Grip, estab lished in 1999, works with clients in one of three ways: traditional, fee-based design work; fee plus equity; and creating consumer goods. In the fee-plus-equity bucket, Grip takes its pay by shares, thereby owning a piece of the business. Currently, they have this arrangement with four companiesDeaths Door Spirits, Hooray Pure natural foods, Exhale Fans and Virtue Brands.

These relationships have allowed the firm a unique windowa door, really into the inner workings of its clientpartners. When you design a thing, you tend to just do the thing and then youre out, Kevin says. When you have a seat at the table, they take you seriously. Being privy to profit margins, material costs, management styles and more, gives Grip an informed,
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Deaths Door Spirits, which makes vodkas, gins and white whiskeys, are grown from organic red winter wheat and juniper berries harvested on idyllic 22-square-mile Washington Island, located in Wisconsin. The name comes from a strait of water between Washington Island and neighboring Door County Peninsula, called Port de Mortes, or Door of Death, by French traders in the 1840s. Although the name is rooted in history, one cant help smile at its evocative, fun tone. For Grip, the name possessed the perfect tone for what they saw as the spirits gold: gifting. People want to take something to a party that says two things, McConkey posits. Im thinking about you and I want to give you some thing cool, and Im showing how cool I am by giving you this. Grips pack aging for the bottles is whimsical and beautiful, each one designed to confer a coolness and visual esthetic to any bar or home cocktail table. And, true to Grips mission for each client, whether an equity partner or not, the marketing is paying off. Because its client/partner has been highly successful, Grips shares Identifying the seam of opportunity and tailoring in the company have grown exponen content to a specific audience was at the core of this tially since 2005. campaigns success for Whole Foods Market. Of course, building equity clients requires certain business acumen. Kaminski notes, I am first and foremost a designer at heart, but the business and management side of things has been surprisingly fulfilling as welland chal lenging, which I love. McConkey and Kaminski previously spent

For AMLI River North, reframing the voice of how condo-living is marketed was a tall orderinjecting humor was an even harder sell.

time at Ibbotson Associates, an economic think tank. McConkey also served as design director at Crain Publications, helping to launch their first foray into online publishing. Securing a fee-plus-equity client is a case-by-case proposition. Hooray Pure started as a conversation with a venture capital consultant who had a passion for natural foods, and she developed a line of pure, pureed foods. The team developed the brand identity and packaging to reflect the fresh, vitamin-packed, vibrantly-hued fruits and veggies. Each situation takes the kind of strategic thinking not often associated with a group of designers. McConkey thinks this an area ripe for change. I feel an obligation to share what weve learned, he says. Were in an era of sharing, as the world keeps shifting. Ten years ago, people wouldnt put their credit cards into a computer, yet they would hand it off to a waiter they never laid eyes on. In Grips view, marketing has to be about under standing where a con sumers heart is, and connecting emotionally. That can take many forms. Design is simply

a good idea, he says. That can mean any thing. The future of our business is to provide a blend of offerings. And by having that blended approach, you talk to a consumer on many levels. With a core team of the two principals, senior designer Joshua Blaylock, designers Camay Ho and Jenn McHale and producer/ strategist Lonnie Tapia, the group is buttressed by a roster of many, trusted freelance artists, designers and writers. A Grip team leader takes ownership of a given project, which might range from product design to stylized apartment and lifestyle complexes to a medical brand launch. The thing really doesnt matter. What matters is to take the clients problem/opportunity to the next level of profitability, in whatever way that works. Its telling that McConkey says, To get hired at Grip, the only skill you need is the ability to learn new things. A Grip project may take a team of four or a crew of one hundred; each scenario may employ set construc tion, design, photography, illustration, film, a manifesto, a blog or something else entirely. Blaylock says, The gamut of projects that we work on for each client is so expansive that, as a designer, we are given this great opportunity to take ownership of a brand in its entirety. With this we also take on a great deal of accountability for their success. Tapia adds, Everyone at Grip has an x-factor that makes our work stand out. For the designers, it may be their innate skills in typography or illustration. As a strategist, my x-factor is empathy.

For Deaths Door Spirits, succeeding in the ultra-premium spirits market required a gift-able design and careful attention to production. Communication Arts | www.commarts.com 33

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more than one pair because theyre so expensive, McConkey says. And yet theyve become a huge fashion statement. Athletes show up at press conferences wearing frames with no lenses just to have that look. So Grip decided that the marketplace was ready for high-end eyewear at medium-ish prices, which would allow buyers to pair Encouraging the purchase of multiples and repositioning eyewear as a fashion accessory instead of a medical necessity frames with lots of drove this line extension for Eyefly. different outfits. Employing street-style photography, lookbooks for men and women, on-trend fashion In the business world it helps me understand a clients drive, pairings and suggestions, and even a Virtual Try-On feature that desires and/or fears, in addition to the actual words exchanged. shows a shopper how she would look in a frame, Eyefly.com is For me, empathy is about knowing what people really want and more a fashion destin ation and idea generator than a glasses needclients or studio matesthen helping make those things purveyor. Which is why it works. happen. The clients who come to Grip pose questions infused with potential. As examplesIve got x amount of square footage. What can I do with it? Were underperforming in area x. Wed like to increase transactions by five percent. What should we do? How can we re-envision Valentines Day? One such challenge, for fee-based client AMLI Residential, was to position a Chicago apartment development in a neighborhood called River North. Formerly a bleak sea of abandoned factories, the district, just north of The Loop, one of the citys main traffic hubs, was evolving into what is now a magnet for galleries, celebrity-chef restaurants and popular shops. But at the time, selling the area was just as important as marketing the complex. Grip took an editorial approach, educating prospective renters, but also, as a secondary target, informing the neighbor hood itself on what it could become. It was a 360-degree view of living, not just inhabiting four walls. Tagging AMLI River North as a lifestyle worth living, Grip redefined the district as the only true 24/7 neighbor hood in Chicago. Taking a distinct left turn from typical housing marketing materials, Grip advised that AMLI pieces show local night spots, galleries, shops and more. On the fashion front, Grip developed the brand positioning and web presence for Eyefly.com, a partnership between online designer brand retailer Bluefly and A+D Labs, a noted fashion eye wear developer and manufacturer. One thing we knew about designer framesits really hard to have
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Most striking in many Grip campaignsthe deliverable is simply a PDF showing their ideas and execution, rather than film, video or elaborate storyboards. Grip gets hired for what it does best, which is to strategize from the inside out. Im into habit loops and influencing emotion, McConkey says. To us, the next gene ration of great agencies is to relate to the consumer. If youre talking to a plumber, talk like a plumber. Own it. Really get into it. For Grips clients, this means working with a design firm that is its own brand, whose value proposition is to put its clients successes and profits first. McConkey says, In the slippery world of business, were here to provide traction. ca

Introducing a new product category is particularly challenging, and this Hooray Pure project required packaging to do most of the heavy lifting.