Gordon Reid is founder and creative director of Middle Boop. The London-based branding studio works with clients like adidas, Vim Coffee and Havana Club rum.
Design
What would your monograph be called?
When everyone’s going one way, go the other. This is something I say a lot to clients, and to myself. No-one ever stands out by being the same. If your competitors are going down, go up.
I remember watching my son in the park. All the kids were queuing at the top to go down the slide. My son wasn’t the least bit bothered with waiting. so he climbed up the slide rather than queuing and went down.
Don’t wait for your turn. Don’t follow everyone else. If you want to get ahead, go the other way.
Be different. It’ll get you noticed faster and you’ll stand out more.
What recent design work made you a bit jealous?
I know it’s not ‘new’ new any more, but the Lloyds rebrand from Wolff Olins and subsequent digital roll-out from the product team is absolutely magnificent – the lengths they went to to play on the heritage of the brand, whilst making it feel super fresh.
To me, it’s a rare story of when brand and product work harmoniously. But to get that harmony and alignment, a lot of good work has been done behind the scenes between agency, internal team and buy-in from some brave stakeholders I’m sure.
Wolff Olins’ brand identity for Lloyds
What’s an unusual place you get inspiration from?
Anywhere I can switch off and focus away from the screen. Usually running helps clear my mind. I’ve got some awesome routes near me, Hampstead Heath, Highgate Woods, Alexandra Palace. Anywhere like that really helps clear the mind and focus.
I also get inspired a lot by conversation with people out of my realm of creative. I’ve found the best ideas have come from chats with developers, marketeers, product managers – basically just completely different points of view that really help you look at solutions in different ways.
Name something that is brilliantly designed, but overlooked.
Stay with me on this one. A design that’s quite literally overlooked is the sewers. I’m big into London history, and think it’s fascinating. They were created in the the 19th Century – Joseph Bazalgette was the man behind it – and most of it’s still in use.
They incorporated a few of London’s lost rivers into them, and the manhole covers are super-cool too – there are different ones all over the city that you’ll walk past every day.
It’s hugely practical design, on a mass scale that’s lasted for literally hundreds of years, and helped wipe out diseases. Not bad.
For the two of you that are still reading this, there’s a really well-designed book by Stephen Halliday that is worth checking out.
What object in your studio best sums up your taste?
It would have to be this framed, signed Crystal Palace kit. I got it from Sky’s creative director, Ceri Sampson, after doing a talk in their offices a few years back.
It’s survived relegation from the studio wall to the attic on numerous occasions – much like the team have avoided relegation again and again. And it’s signed by such greats as Johnny Williams, Bakary Sako, and lots of other players you’ve never heard of.
Gordon Reid’s signed Crystal Palace shirt
Leadership
What feedback felt brutal at the time, but turned out to be useful?
“We didn’t quite get it – we’re going with someone we feel is more qualified to push us on.”
We’ve all heard something like this at some point in our career, but this particular one was tough, as I felt we had really nailed the proposal and knew we’d be able to drive value and grow the particular brand.
What turned out to be majorly useful about this letdown was that it became a “sliding doors” moment. At the time, we’d been banging our heads a bit trying to win over the type of clients we knew we could be of huge benefit to.
We spent a lot of time reflecting on this loss, and came to the conclusion we just weren’t speaking the right language of the founders.
We focussed too heavily on design and concept, but nothing on how the creative could help to return tangible business growth, or how our work could go any further than standing out on shelves. Lesson learned.
What’s an underappreciated skill that design leaders need?
Empathy and trust – these are fantastic traits that lead to an environment of support and comfort for creatives to be able to actually create, push boundaries, and grow.
I personally love it when a younger creative comes up with an execution or idea I wouldn’t have thought of. And vice versa – when I was younger, there was nothing more of a confidence boost than doing that for one of my bosses, and actually seeing that idea pushed forward.
These two backed up by self-awareness and being unflappable create a safe space where creatives will hopefully feel like they’re really being listened to and, most importantly, protected when the pressure is on.
Stress can trickle down and affect the whole team, but if there’s calm and harmony at the top, those further down the chain will feel more comfortable, and ultimately produce better work.
What keeps you up at night?
Ensuring our work and services are ahead of the game and different enough to keep us relevant, progressive and in the minds of the right decision-makers.
In our game, there is so much competition, and finding any way of standing out is really hard. So that keeps me up, as well as keeping the lights on, the state the world’s in. All the big stuff.
What trait is non-negotiable in new hires?
Grafters. Not in the sense of putting in the most hours, but those who work smarter with their time. The endlessly curious, who are constantly pushing to set higher standards.
Complete this sentence, “I wish more clients…”
…worked with studios as true collaborators rather than suppliers, and were braver to really push work on.
It’s tough, I totally get it. I’ve been in those stakeholder meetings where the key players just don’t want to budge on anything other than safe.
There’s a lot to think about, and often so much at stake. But I know from experience, the best work always comes from truly bold movers who trust themselves enough to know doing something boundar- pushing will always be of more benefit to the product or service than staying safe.