If you’ve ever worked in an office in Japan, you’ve almost definitely seen a product from ASKUL office supply company. Our interviewee this time, the long-established design company Stockholm Design Lab, was in charge of the package design for ASKUL’s original products and shipping box. They work on the designs for paper products, of course, as well as buildings, cars and airplanes. Even though an astonishing 60–70% of their clients are foreign, they have no branch offices. Their Stockholm office is their only base. What does this design company consider to be something that "WORKS GOOD! " ?

Question 1：
Please tell us about your company.

Stockholm Design Lab (SDL) was founded about twenty years ago, and it has been based in Stockholm since then. We were founded by three different professionals: one designer, one strategist, and one architect. Our main focus has always been on brands and identities. Since we have had a strategist and architect from the beginning, our approach to design was quite holistic. About half are designers. Additionally, we have brand managers, production managers, and strategists. We don’t have any full-time architects, but we do collaborate with architects quite often in our projects. Our permanent team has around twenty employees, but we work with freelancers and other agencies as well, so we have a lot of collaborations depending on the product and client. We take in people who we need for the project.

60–70 per cent of our clients are from abroad; we have numerous international clients. Therefore it is also natural for us to have a studio with people from different countries. We have one member from England, one from Austria and one from Hungary. We’ve also had Italian and Russian members, so a lot of our conversations are held in English.

Question 2：
How do you communicate with clients who are abroad, considering there is a time difference?

Sometimes it’s challenging when we have clients from overseas who are in different regions at the same time because our work basically goes around the clock. We try to meet our customers as best we can, so of course we travel sometimes. But we also work by email, by Skype, and through mailings. We have Skype meetings and send presentations. It’s just like working with any Swedish client but with a little more distance and digital tools. It works quite well.

K Special

Question 3：
Do you do a lot of research for a new client from new country as well?

If we’re working with people from a new country, we do some initial research on their point of view. Of course we also do research every time we go into a project. But today, I would say that we have such a global world and attitude toward brands that the research tends to be of a global character.

Question 4：
When your team starts a new project, what kind of process do you follow?

We always start with insights. That means insights about the client, project, and business. We meet the clients, discuss things, and try to get to know them to ensure that we have a mutual goal and see what we each expect from the project.

Then, we go into a strategy phase, which is based on the insights. Sometimes the client has done the strategy work, but we always try to do some strategy, no matter how small or big the project is. We think that design is an outcome of the strategy and that we need to understand certain things before we begin to work. After that, we go into a creative phase to design a concept. We tend to talk about a concept whether it’s big or small.

The process is more or less the same no matter what the project is. The only difference is the time we spend on it. When the client has approved the concept, we finalize the project and implement the design. In the best cases, the last phase of the project would be to discuss with the client what the outcome of the project was and even how we might do things even better. With some companies, we educate people on how to handle their identity, brand, etc, to ensure the identity and its future use.

Question 5：
When you already have long-term relationships with some of your clients, how do you fit in new clients?

We focus primarily on clients and relationships rather than projects and some of our clients are long-term, but not everyone. When shorter projects end, it makes us available for new clients, so I would say that our time is generally flexible because projects still come and go.

On the other hand, I would say that our biggest challenge is managing our time. I think we got better with planning our schedule during the last few years. We sit down at least once a week to schedule so that we know how many hours we need for certain projects. We map things out. This is so we can say, ‘Yes, we can take this project because we have time’, or ‘No, you will have to wait because we are not free yet’, or ‘We might have to get more people’. It is tricky, but it is also crucial to plan. It’s also a matter of health. We won’t last if we we’re working our asses off all the time. We have to make it sustainable for everyone working for us. If we didn’t plan well, our clients wouldn’t be happy either.

IKEA

Question 6：
Are there any particular tools you use for planning?

We have quite a complicated, old, and inefficient tool for management. But It helps us economically to count how many hours we worked on a project when we send a bill to our clients. In the same program that we plan our time, people also register their time. It’s an economic system, and the only reason we use it as a tool is because we can have one program instead of several. I’m sure there are better planning programs, but that’s what we use.

Question 7：
Do you work overtime?

About a few times every week, someone works late on something. However, it’s not as if everyone stays late every night. We try to get people home on time. Also, some employees have kids and families, and they have to pick them up from kindergarten, etc. We do have lives that we have to prioritize, and I think we make it work most of the time. When we have extra work an overload happens, we try to help each other. If you have worked late, you will have some time to recover. We make sure it doesn’t happen often, but most of us have to do that sometimes.

Question 8：
I read Björn‘s (CEO) interview where he said that he would prefer to hire someone with energy. What sort of energy was he talking about?

I think it is personality as well as energy and knowledge. It’s crucial to find the right people. We seem to be skilled in finding good people, and employees tend to stay with us for quite a long time. Getting employees with good energy is contagious. I think if people are happy in life with what they do and so on, they will do a much better job. We connect. So, yes, I think that energy level is important, but you don’t have to be happy all the time.
It’s still the question of personality whether we get along. We don’t have big conflicts. It’s a good environment in which to work. We tend to spend a lot of time together, so it’s extremely important that we like each other.

Moderna Museet (Sweden’s national museum of contemporary art)

Question 9：
How does your company keep the staff motivated to work?

I think that we are equally interested and engaged in what we do, so everyone in our company is happy that we have great clients and get great projects. I don’t think anyone thinks that it’s boring. Some work can be dull at times, but we try to mix it up.

If someone is working on a long, slow project, we try to get them a fast-paced, creative project at the same time. We attempt to have a good balance for people where they can work on different projects simultaneously.

Question 10：
What kind of strategy do you use in making a contract with a client? Do you have a contract scheme?

It’s a little bit different. If we know that it’s going to be a long-term project for one or two years, some clients prefer to have a monthly fee. Some months we work varying hours, but we tend to spend a set amount of money over that time. It’s good for us to have regular payments. Some prefer to do that.
Certain clients pay a fee at the start, a fee in the middle, and the final fee at the end. Some of them just pay when it’s done. We have several models depending on the client and length of the project.

Question 11：
Does your company allow your workers to have a second job?

A few have had a consultant role, so they are in four days a week and off one day a week. They are free to do whatever they want on that free day. They can work with other clients or do other things, but they only get paid for four days a week. That’s the regimen that some of us have. But you can’t do work that could have been done with us. If a project is quite small and wouldn’t have been assigned to the company, you can complete it, such as graphic design work. As long as you don’t work as a competitor, you can do other work.

Question 12：
What do you think the requirement is for good work in your company?

I would say it’s the relationship with the clients and engagement of the employees. If you are interested in the work, think it is fun, and are engaged in the project, it’s more likely that you will do a good job.

If you have a client who you work well with, understands your work, and you have gained an understanding and created a solid relationship with, you both want to do quality work. I think those are the most important points in excelling.

Latest works of Stockholm Design Lab

＜Venice Biennale (2009)＞

＜Mackmyra whisky＞

＜Ohmine＞

SDL’s SNS account
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