It is common knowledge that long-term cooperation with existing clients is the key to financial success, while the path to acquiring new ones leads to higher costs. However, as a firm that prides itself upon its creativity and drive for innovation, it would be remiss of us to not acknowledge how a new client reinvigorates our creative process. Bringing with them newer challenges, attitudes and approaches, new clients in the year 2016 are idealistic, and chase interesting business concepts that require equally inspired design solutions.
Being a group of entrepreneurs ourselves, we warmly welcome start-up companies as clients. Our own insight and perspective on the creation, development and actualization of a business, and the motley blend of emotions that afflict yet, at the same time, energize fellow enterprising professionals is the link that connects us on a deeper level with our clients’ expectations and needs. As we continue to aim higher and higher within and across industries, we find great value in working with clients who are just as ambitious, and are on the path to shaking things up for good.
The initial design briefings received from newcomer clients indicate their dreams and aspirations. The most common of the findings at this stage relate to the client’s lack of experience in this area, which can lead to invisible risks; this is further exacerbated in designs that require higher levels of investment. Our team members’ task here is not only to capture the essence of the design brief but to also recognize the preliminary challenges, hidden risks and sometimes, the certain no-goes. The development of design language for a new brand from scratch and the guiding through of the whole process- from the initial brief up to the opening party for the project- involves effort on an enormous scale from all entities involved. Perhaps owing to the care they demand, such intensive projects are what we designers refer to as our “babies”.
“Young clients are fun to work with, they have great insights.”
Supporting young talent with our design expertise can be very satisfying, especially when the products go on to become successful and gain positive public attention. In this manner, the clients’ success translates into anySCALE’s own success. In recent months, Guo Bin (Co-founder of Polyphony), YangYang (Founder of ZWYN) and Michael Zhang (Co-founder of X School) in particular stand out as the visionaries we have worked with on projects. A unique 170sqm shop, Guo Bin’s passion project, Polyphony, is a collector’s heaven, and elegantly displays the musician’s love for collecting limited edition vinyl records and Marvel comics. ZWYN Urban Gym is a state-of-the-art fitness center located in the heart of Sanlitun that targets Beijing’s trendy and lifestyle-conscious urbanites. The X School is an afterschool designed to prepare children for the experience of living and studying abroad. Students are taught crucial self-reliance and leadership skills while undergoing character development training through play and project-based tasks.
