Studio Access at Watts Design

As part of the AgIdeas Design Conference Studio Access evening, I went to Watts Design, this is some of what I experienced and learnt that evening.

Watts Design, in South Melbourne, is a graphic design studio established in 1988. They are a small design studio with six staff members; three senior designers (including founders Peter and Helen Watts) and three junior designers. Watts Design works predominantly in three areas; branding, packaging and marketing/advertising.  Some of their recent work includes the Fowlers Vacola rebrand, which included redesigning the corporate identity, as well as the packaging and producing some publications such as annual reports. Watts Design also designed the packaging for the new range of Cobs popcorn, as well as the Cobs popcorn campaign, which was implemented across a range of marketing and advertising platforms.

When given a design brief, Watts Design will analyse it and do some preliminary research into what the client is asking for. They will also look at market research to see if there is a potential for a broader, new or different target audience that the client could be reaching, but is currently not. Watts Design will then go to the client with as many specific questions as possible so that they can be sure they know what the client is after. They will also offer suggestions as to other possible options for the client to consider; from looking at a wider target audience, to other possible format options (in the case of print media).

When developing work for a client Watts Design will continue to do further research into the background and history of the client; to gain a complete understanding of the client, and their wants and needs as a business. They will also research the current market for the product/ visual communication that the client has asked for; this includes competitors both nationally and internationally. They rely heavily on the questions asked of the client at the beginning of the process, as they believe that if they ask the right questions from the start the right design answers will come out in the process. Watts Design will then begin generating work, as the work is being generated, developed and refined they are in constant internal consulting, asking other staff members for their opinions, criticisms, and feedback. As they are most often bound by time, this consulting must be done as often as possible so that they do not spend too much time following a concept that isn’t right or appropriate for whatever reason. Only once a final concept is fully resolved do they return to the client and present the single final design. They do not show the client more than one concept as they find it is more effective for Watts Design to resolve one concept as fully as possible rather than half resolve more concepts that will ultimately not work as well for the client.

Over the course of the evening the group of us were also able to ask various questions and get tips about the industry. Overall it was a fun, interesting and informative evening.