After another rollercoaster twelve months, what would your Word of the Year be? We gave the DBA Experts their chance to choose. 

We asked them for a word which reflected the design sector in 2022, and their choices provide a fascinating snapshot into the industry this year.  

Opting for a Greek word, Adam Graham plumped for Meraki in recognition of the “creativity, soul and love” designers bring to what they do. While other choices were inspired by wider events, like Adrian Day’s Pandaustion. “A post-pandemic syndrome affecting design firm leaders and their teams,” he says. But even though we now have an expected recession to contend with, says Adrian “as ever the winning consultancies will find the inventiveness, energy and resilience to survive and prosper.”

Steinar Valade-Amland sums up 2022 as the year of Breaking-news.

“Never before in my lifetime was there a more massive stream of breaking-news. Daily, sometimes hourly, and often rather heart-breaking news. Let 2023 be the year of uplifting, and not always necessarily breaking-news,” Steinar says. “Business headwinds escalated into a recession because the news channels prefer a bad news story,” says Jack O’Hern, choosing Cry-sis as his word, to highlight media “over-reaction”. While Eraser-nomics – Jeremy Paterson’s choice – will strike a chord for all those who’ve had to keep updating business plans to keep pace with changing economic optimism alongside government budgetary events. “Well done to all of those who lived through it – test papers to follow!” he says.

But despite the challenging backdrop, design teams and businesses have adapted and found opportunity to thrive.

Jonathan Gaunt has chosen Indomitable, meaning impossible to subdue or defeat. “Indomitable describes the unwavering force that the business community has had this year in the face of never-ending uncertainty,” says Jonathan. While Michael Thomson coined Pivilencia, to recognise the amazing flexibility of agencies around the world, in both pivoting and being resilient.

“For me, the ability to lean without fear into and embrace Metamorphosis works for the year 2022”, says Guy Duncan. “Be it as a design business, team, or as an individual working in the industry coping with the challenges facing us all, metamorphosis sums up the ability to change, renew, evolve into something different… which can be both a successful move and also an enriching journey.”

As we moved on from the pandemic in 2022, new challenges have arisen, like FOFF, Catherine Allison’s choice. “It’s an abbreviation for Fear Of Face-to-Face”, she says, adding that it’s that “emotion or thought you have when you are frightened or worried by a request for a face-to-face client meeting or presentation after months of comfortably presenting online.” 

On the flip side, as we emerged from lockdowns this year, there has also been much joy and satisfaction in Reconnecting – Katherine Sandford-Anderson’s word of the year. “Reconnecting in person with clients, industry friends, journalists and the wider sector has been one of the most important and enjoyable parts of my year after the distance imposed on us all in the last few years,” Katherine says. “I would encourage all the DBA members to keep doing this next year and beyond.”

Lucy Mann has opted for Whac-A-Mole® to sum up 2022. “Just when you thought you’d got one problem solved, another ‘challenge’ popped up somewhere else, out of the blue,” says Lucy. “Let’s hope there are less pesky moles to contend with next year and we can safely put our mallets away.”

With New Business currently the biggest concern* for agencies, Natasha Ellard-Shoefield has been delighted to see an increase in the importance of Focus in agencies approach. “Less scatter-gun approaches and a more tailored, personalised approach has started to emerge,” she says. “Agencies are also much more focused on what they do (and more importantly what they won’t do) which makes for a much more powerful proposition.”

Jeremy Davies’ word Lead is relevant as both a verb and a noun.

“Agencies have had to rethink their approach to leadership since the pandemic,” Jeremy says. “And if New Business is the number one concern, a joined-up approach to lead generation – the responsibility of marketing, not business development – is essential.”

This year has also been marked by the great resignation and talent shortages. “At JourneyHR we have spent a lot of 2022 working with agency owners to invest in their culture and people practices; helping them to engage and retain their talent, creating more opportunities for flexibility and inclusion that in pre-pandemic years would never have been considered possible,” says Aliya Vigor-Robertson. “That’s why I’ve chosen Retention as my word of the year.”

Chris Lang has opted for Trussled, “something that happens all too often in my world”, he says, “being presented with a budget or cost proposal that has no basis or semblance of reality thereby causing a headache!” Hybrid is Martin Varley’s selection, following the rise of hybrid working practises. “These have had, and will see, numerous long-term and deep-seated effects on how the sector is organised. The flight to the country continues but is it all good for business?” he asks.

And as we look to the future, with a likely period of change and uncertainty ahead, “the opportunity to achieve still exists,” says Lucy Unger, selecting Agility as her word of the year. Lucy highlights how “harnessing opportunity requires organisational alignment, fearless creativity and, very importantly, a willingness to respond.” While John Gleason’s choice, Multi-Lingual, reflects the opportunities available to Designers and Design leaders who speak the language of business. Says John, “They are better able to understand what is needed by the business, and are able to better communicate ideas, solutions and impact to their business peers.” 

“Even in recession there will still be plenty of business out there for good agencies,” points out Jonathan Kirk. “Let’s not get pulled down in a spiral of gloom,” he says, choosing Optimism as his word to take forwards as a positive force into 2023.

It’s a sentiment echoed by Ralph Ardill: “Confidence has been front and centre in almost every conversation I’ve had with the Leadership teams of clients and agencies alike throughout 2022,” he says. “Confidence in our Future, Confidence in our People, Confidence in our Leadership and last but not least Confidence in our ability to anticipate, adapt and become whatever ’next’ demands and deserves.”

And so, to the final word from Shan Preddy, and a testament to the strength of the design sector. “The tempest of the last three years has left only the strongest and most resilient standing. You’re here. You’ve survived, maybe thrived. You’ve adapted, flexed, evolved and grown in stature and in presence. You are storm-resistant. You are Evergreen.”

Here’s to the new shoots of opportunity coming in 2023! Wishing all our Members, Experts and Industry Friends a happy and prosperous year ahead. 

Who are the DBA Experts?

• Perhaps unsurprisingly, the theme of sustainability and sustainable development was a popular source of excitement and inspiration for those on the call – the responsibility of designers to design for a better future and fix real world problems. 
• John Doerr’s book Speed & Scale was shared as a launchpad for how we can use design for good and be part of the action plan to solve the climate crisis.  
• There is a need for innovators to take the lead and create the vision for a better future. Vision is our thing – imagination and inspiration are the skills designers have in abundance and I know that together, we can do it, was the galvanising view of one contributor.
• Another touted design as the powerhouse that can solve our toughest challenges, with designers not only as the architects of the future, but the architects of conscience too. The unique ability of designers to use their skills to bring people together, and to shape education and government policy, should create a better future for us all.
• One contributor shared their excitement around the paradigm shift in working practices that has given a greater level of flexibility to those who would have historically left the industry. Keeping that talent in design can only be a positive thing, leading to a more diverse and experienced workforce guiding and sharing their expertise with the next generation. If you’re keen to contribute to this discussion and the impact of flexible working in improving diversity across the board in our industry, then do let me know. 
• The incoming generation of designers was a source of energy and excitement for another member. They are a group that contain future change-makers and leaders who will reset the zeitgeist and encouraged us all to do everything we can to encourage them #supportstudents – one member shared their success of increasing the number of creative GCSE applications in a local school by 300% having given them an insight into design – that’s a real world impact you can have at a local level – let me know if you want to hear more about this. 
• The ability of the next generation to adopt, adapt and embrace AI and new technologies was exciting another contributor. 
• There was an interesting conversation around a small cohort of people who are rejecting the idea of ‘personal branding’ – they were especially seeing this in the younger generation of students which was inspiring – leave branding to the brands and keep living to the living. This will certainly be something we’ll follow up in the next year.

Our Members’ Forum takes place on the first Monday of each month, at 4 – 5pm. If you would like to attend, get in touch here. 

We’ll be taking a break in early January and be coming back online on Monday 23 January at 4pm GMT.

On becoming a mentee

“My first exposure to the Twenty/Twenty programme was as a mentee. I think ELSE was about five or six years old at the time, and I felt I could do with some external advice and input to help us gear up for our next phase. 

The opportunity to learn from someone vastly more experienced at running a design business was too good to pass up, and our conversations gave me both practical advice and reassurance that was invaluable in the coming years.” 

The experience 

“I’d say Twenty/Twenty is unquestionably valuable and eye-opening. Speaking to someone with deep expertise and experience, who has been through it all, provides incredible context. The impartial, non-judgemental optics of the mentor/mentee relationship offers a unique lens on thoughts, ideas and challenges. You simply can’t have these conversations with colleagues.” 

The impact

“The training you receive both as a mentee and mentor is invaluable. You will carry that coaching, better-listening mindset into all your future work. Mentoring helped me navigate some particular business challenges at a time when I didn’t have many answers to them. It helped me dispel imposter syndrome somewhat and gave me practical advice on running a business. Personally, I got so much out of it that many others from ELSE have since benefited from mentoring, and a couple of us have also become mentors.” 

On becoming a mentor

“The experience was formative and I realised, that I too, had experience worth sharing. Which I presume is a typical story of giving something back. 

It’s been fascinating to see how two people with the appropriate intent and platform for discussion can move things in a positive direction. I’ve also learned that all I can bring is my experience and an ear. As a mentor, I’m not under pressure for answers; I’m here to listen, help probe and reframe questions. I’ve enjoyed it immensely and, as such, will continue to remain involved.”

As we come to that crunch part of the year where design leaders look to review how their businesses and teams have performed, at the same time as they plan for the next 12 months, I have noticed a few common threads in the conversations I have been having with members as they find themselves caught between post-covid optimism and impending recession wariness.

Staff pay

This is on the minds of agency leaders across the board. At one end of the spectrum, there are concerns about staff expectations during high levels of inflation. At the other end, the issue is how to reward staff and help them with the cost of living increases, but in the best way possible for the team and the business. In both instances, members are looking for context – what are other agencies doing?

Pleasingly, I have spoken to a number of agencies who have been doing very well and are trying to help their staff struggling with rising costs – but they are slightly nervous about the recession on the horizon. Increasing pay is a ratchet – it only tends to go up – so ways of honestly helping staff without increasing the exposure of the agency to a wage bill that is potentially too high next year have been highly sought after.

Culture/ ways of working

Agencies are still struggling to settle on ways of working within the new flexible, hybrid model most are now using. Getting the balance right to allow flexibility alongside support for the younger team members should be your focus. Senior staff need to be prepared to spend more time in the studio to mentor their teams. But as many businesses are finding, it is their senior staff who are most comfortable working from home.

Staff benefits

Coupled with pay-rises, agency leaders are looking at new ways of adding to the benefits packages for their staff. The biggest issue by far since the start of the Covid pandemic has been mental wellbeing and how businesses can help their teams manage the mental impacts of our current working environments. My prediction for the future is an increase in dental cover being added to benefit packages, as the struggle to register with NHS dentists increases.

Effectiveness

Maybe it’s because we have just had the entry deadline for the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards, but I have also had a lot of conversations with agencies keen to understand the secrets of “measuring design” (SPOILER ALERT: there are no secrets). It is a simple process of asking the right questions at the right time to formulate a brief which has clear objectives with measurable outcomes.

I am constantly shocked by how many agencies are not asking clients for clarity around this. If you’re not yet doing this, make 2023 the year you start. It will transform the way you work and the impact you have on your clients’ businesses. Even if you have no plans to enter the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards, we can help you with this (email adam@dba.org.uk if you want to find out more). And you never know, maybe you will have an award-winning project or two on your hands in 2024.

New business

As for the biggest concern for agencies right now, that’s new business – illustrated in a recent straw poll of members attending the launch of the DBA Annual Survey Report, where it came out as the most immediate, medium and long-term concern.

As you plan for next year, there are a few things I would recommend to everyone:

Subscribe to podcasts such as the Small Spark Theory podcast and David C. Baker and Blair Enns’ 2bobs podcast, covering a range of thinking around agency new business. 

If you are in a new business role look up the BD Matters Community.

And if you need external support or advice check out the DBA Experts Register for a fantastic range of individuals accredited by the DBA who are experts in PR, marketing and new business. In fact, our Register features Experts in a wide range of fields who can help you with all of the areas above and much more. If you don’t know where to start or would like to talk through any issues that are on your mind, book in a call with me.

• One member shared their journey as the Head of People for a business of 15 people that’s grown to 27 this year, a task that the business leaders couldn’t have achieved themselves. Only 3% of DBA member businesses of this size have a Head of People. The question this raises is do you need to rethink the roles now needed in consultancies of less than 20 people? In the past a Head of People was the privilege of those with over 30 staff.
• Recruitment is a challenge for many of us the moment. For this member, having a dedicated person across all the responsibilities that come with people has enabled them to realise their growth plans. That portfolio of work has probably doubled in size as a result of the last two years – is it time to rethink how you handle this workload? And do you have some latent talent in your business that could step into this role? This Head of People was a Studio Manager who coached kids’ football at the weekends – what skills do your team have that are only displayed out of work? Get to know them.
• This business also had 90% of the workforce in on a rainy Monday in November. How? They have a deep level of trust in their employees. There are no expectation to come into the office from the most senior to the most junior – they’ve simply found they do their best work together, and the team want to work like that.
• Another DBA corporate member shared the story of their journey to diversify from board level down. Those policies are now impacting the agencies they work with as they need to meet policy goals for diversity in their supplier relationships – something that may be a pre-requisite of working with major brands in the near future, if it’s not already a conversation you are having with them.
• For the business, these ambitions have impacted parental leave (same benefit now offered to anyone becoming a parent, not just mothers), to meeting strict targets around graduate recruitment. Members shared a number of initiatives that could inspire change and you can find them below.

Useful advice and resources that were shared:

• Valuable advice for those members at the beginning of their DE&I journey; build diversity in to your freelance roster, remove subconscious bias when you’re recruiting, take advice on how to build an inclusive culture – or your newly diverse team won’t stay, and get started now – it takes time to create and embed an inclusive culture. 
• One member has planned their own initiative going into schools in Tower Hamlets in London to help children see what a career in the creative industries is like – if you’re near Tower Hamlets and interested in joining this, let me know and I can put you in touch. 
• Babbasa is an initiative in Bristol to create a work placement scheme which is designed to attract people from under-represented groups. I can put you in touch with members involved in this.
• For those with a US office, Where are the Black Designers is a great resource – could it help inspire what you do here in the UK?
• Blueprint 1000 is focused on secondary schools and inspiring young people to embark on design careers through D&T courses – and it does this by giving their teachers placements in industry. DBA Members have been involved in this for years now – can you make space for a teacher placement?
• A member who was struggling to find diverse talent shared 10,000 Black Designers.
• If you have an FT subscription, there was an interesting piece Retirees heading back to work. Diversity comes in the shape of age too – can you think about your roles differently and carve them up in a way that opens you up to the millions of people looking for part-time work, particularly among the over 50’s? This demographic can be incredibly productive if given the opportunity and the flexibility.

Our Members’ Forum takes place on the first Monday of each month, at 4 – 5pm. If you would like to attend, get in touch here. 

Our next members forum will be taking place on Monday 5 December.

Why did you decide to get involved in the Twenty/Twenty mentoring programme? 

I’d had some great (and unofficial) mentors throughout my career and wanted to give something back as a mentor myself.

How would you sum up the experience?

Extremely positive, both as a mentee and a mentor. A safe space to explore issues that might seem trivial (or conversely, overwhelming) almost guarantees solutions.

How valuable has it been?  

The training I received as a mentor has been directly helpful in improving my personal and leadership skills.

What, if anything, has surprised you about the programme? 

How almost every session reveals something that is incredibly helpful, insightful or that was hidden in plain sight!

About Twenty/Twenty Mentoring

The most persuasive way of communicating the value of design is by measuring its effectiveness.

“The impact of design is often undervalued and /or overlooked, when in fact it can have a transformative effect on the success of a business,” says Paula Quazi, Co-founder of eco-cleaning brand smol. “Finding ways to evaluate and quantify the impact of design is critically important to enable us all to learn how to harness and maximise what is often an under-utilised marketing lever.”

Design can enhance customer service, drive job creation, deliver efficiencies, improve profitability and much more. Companies that excel at design grow revenues and shareholder returns at nearly twice the rate of their industry peers* and yet, according to the Design Council, 32% of businesses still don’t use design**.

“All of business is a bunfight for resource,” reflects eve sleep’s CEO Cheryl Calverley. “We know how vital design and design thinking is to driving growth and business success, because we live and breathe the industry, seeing the impact it makes, day in and day out. But others will not see or feel this,” Calverley adds. “Evidence is key to stand toe-to-toe with the other resource demands in an organisation and ensure the right emphasis is placed on careful, strategic and impactful design.”

“For me, evidencing the value of design is a critical part of our craft,” says Andy Young, Chief Experience Officer at Lloyds Banking Group. “We have to be comfortable finding ways to measure, monitor, assess and evaluate the impact our work is having on the world. We also need to make sure we’re measuring the right things, at the right time.”

“Having evidenced impact is what gets design into the boardroom, and helps it stay there,” says Andreas Roos, Head of Design Strategy at Visa. Something Diageo’s Global Design Director, Jeremy Lindley echoes; “Producing evidence of the impact of design builds confidence in its role and ensures a business knows where to prioritise investment.”

There’s no doubt the value of design is worth shouting about. “Design is often the very reason something is solved or achieved,” says Arup’s Head of Brand and Creative, Nigel Morris. “Without evidence of its impact, it can be overlooked or diminished when it must be recognised and celebrated.”

The DBA Design Effectiveness Awards has been celebrating and championing effective design since 1989. Any type of design in any industry sector can be entered, so long as you have the measured proof that design made a clear and significant contribution to the results achieved by the work.

“Most design awards are judged on aesthetic appeal,” says Lindley, “what sets the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards apart is the focus on business performance. To win an award you need to prove the link between creativity and meeting or exceeding the objectives of the project.”

The awards are not about “the size of budgets or how beautiful the work looks”, highlights Carlsberg’s Global Design Director, Peter Barwick, they’re about “how the role of design plays an integral part in transforming a business”. “It’s a privilege to be a judge for DBA Design Effectiveness Awards and represent Lloyds Banking Group,” adds Young. “I’m looking forward to meeting other judges, but most excited to see some of the great work happening across our industry.”

And what advice would the judges give to entrants?

“Craft a simple, factual but compelling story,” says Morris, who suggests asking “would it be as compelling without images?”

“Identify your objectives clearly, with metrics and strong reasoning as to the commercial imperative,” adds Calverley. “Explain the role of design, and design thinking in meeting those objectives, and be honest about the role investment in other activities and channels has to play in their success. And finally,” she says, “wrap it all up in a bow with a clear definition of how you reached, or indeed exceeded those objectives.” 

“I’m really looking forward to having the opportunity to review the best work in the industry,” finishes Quazi, “and to understand and evaluate with the other judges how it delivered true competitive advantage for the business.”

To put your design work in the frame for a 2023 DBA Design Effectiveness Award download an entry pack today and enter by 5pm GMT on Friday 4 November 2022. The DBA can help support you in choosing the project to enter which stands the best chance of winning. Full details and entry pack are available here.

The Judging Panel: Judges are CEOs and leading figures from design commissioning businesses across industry and have been carefully chosen for their business experience and acumen, as well as their understanding of how design can – and does – create change in business and society. View the full judging panel here.

*McKinsey & Company Business Value of Design

** Design Week / 26.9.22

In tough times, what are the two or three things you can do or put in place to stay on the front foot?
Try hard not to overreact. See the data, don’t overanalyse it and work out how to get through. Keep cash balances high. And be thoughtful about what you’re not doing – e.g. over-hiring – and thoughtful about what your are doing – e.g. lead generation.
 
Which data should we be looking at?
Not the data from the labour market or the larger macro economic indicators. Focus on reading the signals you’re getting from your clients and your lead generation pipeline. Unless you’re horizontally positioned.
 
What do those signals look like?
The slow roll out of something that’s been in the offing for a while. If you hear pause, overinterpret that, as it will probably be cancelled. Or late payment – make sure you stay on top of that. Or perhaps a client has decided to freeze hiring, or has decided against going to an international show they usually go to.
 
How do you develop your teams’ capabilities to read those signals?
Make sure you have the right people in touch with / face-to-face with clients – it doesn’t matter if they have the account management title. These people a) have a track record of growing the account, meaning they can ensure the client doesn’t pare back too much, and b) have historically been good at reading the signals. This might not be someone who is fantastic at project management, as they tend to focus on other things. If you don’t have someone like this, then you need to step in and get involved before the relationship goes wrong.
 
Is diminishing marketing spend a signal?
It is possible that you’ll see marketing spend as a percentage of overall sales dropping, but overinterpreting that signal means that you’re not understanding how that spend breaks down. A lot of the cut in spending would be on media spend or other marketing spend, rather than fee spend.
 
What are your priorities as a leader at times like this?
Really great leadership is about knowing why you exist, being clear and communicating that, and preserving the business and its health even when you have to make some really tough calls. So that means having a constant commitment to new business: not being interchangeable in the market place, knowing who the ideal fit client is for you and having even just a basic marketing plan that is spinning all the time.
 
So how do we keep our cool and maintain perspective through tough times?
You need to look at the big picture and be flexible enough so that when the drop in revenue comes you still have what it takes to get the next year through – stay focussed on staffing and new business.

You’ve talked about the vital importance of positioning, and in desperate times there’s a danger of being tempted to lower standards and take on opportunities that aren’t the right fit. How do you avoid doing that?
This is where it’s helpful to be intentionally flexible as a leader – if you don’t have enough work as you’d like for your people and you don’t want to make redundancies, if something comes along that wouldn’t normally fit, it’s ok to take that work. It’s just not ok to not be honest about it – don’t fool yourself that you’ll turn that client into the right fit. And involve the staff in the decision so they understand. Also be prepared to step in if the opportunity results in any disruption.
 
There might be times when the owner of the business needs to take time out – what would you have in place that would enable that to happen with ease?
You need to build that into your firm with a systems driven approach so that other people can easily step in and work the system. So that you don’t have those single points of failure.
 
What is your advice to really small businesses?
Don’t pay off any debt early – make the minimum payments. Don’t take on any new debt. Always have a spun up marketing plan running. Have 6-12 months of cash set aside at any given point. And take advantage of the fact that you’re so nimble and you can attack things really quickly, which larger organisations can’t. Do the right things and sleep well at night, and if the business struggles still, don’t beat yourself up about it. It involves luck too. You folks are smart and hardworking and you’re alternately employable. It’s easy in a discussion like this to think of the enemy as out there; the economy or the client. I think the enemy is largely within; your ability to make good decisions under pressure, keep an even keel, and be disciplined in doing the right things. Look to your own leadership, not so much what’s happening in the marketplace.

Our Members’ Forum takes place on the first Monday of each month, at 4 – 5pm. If you would like to attend, get in touch here. 

Our next members forum will be taking place on Monday 7 November.