The Yard Creative is an award-winning evidential design studio based in London Bridge that offers research, strategy and design (branding, digital environments and physical spaces). They are a self-described “team of creative catalysts” that has created countless branding activations for some of the most exciting young brands in the world. Today, we’ll be catching up with them to discuss where they’ve been, where they’re going and what it means to “think differently”.
How was your company born and where are you based?
The company was founded by a husband-and-wife team, Steve and Sian. Sian’s background was product/UX design and Steve’s branded environments, strategy and comms, so they decided to combine their skills and create The Yard Creative (TYC) 16 years ago.
With the defined approach of Evidential design, meaning that we use data to ground our thinking and drive all our creative solutions.
What was the biggest challenge to the growth of your company?
The biggest challenge is always talent, building the best possible team that can support and inspire each other and deliver award winning work for our clients.
Which was the first huge success that you can remember?
We started well but that first big project alluded us until 2009 when we won the research and design for the Eurostar buffet carriage redesign. From there we became known for thinking differently and away we went.
What’s the biggest opportunity for you and your company in the next year?
There are a lot of exciting things happening at the agency, as we continue to help brands innovate, transform, and stay relevant for their consumers.
We have always blended physical and digital worlds, but over the last few years we have really been honing our digital craft and working with brands to define strategies so we can help them invest in the right way, which is the biggest opportunity for us.
Can you explain your team’s creative process? What makes it unique?
We ground our strategies and creativity in research, meaning that we manage to remove most of the subjectivity. We conduct our own research inhouse, Qual and Quant, which enables us to work efficiently through research, strategy and design.
How does your team remain inspired and motivated?
They inspire each other, always sharing across all teams, whether that be a band they have seen, a restaurant they’ve been to, or an exhibition they visited.
It’s important our team have a strong work life balance, we really want the team to enjoy work and have fun, but we appreciate our team needs to also unwind from work and this balance helps everyone stay motivated.
How has COVID-19 affected your company?
COVID-19 affected the ways in which we work, and we had to adopt news ways of collaborating and inspiring each other.
Digital had always been integrated into our approach, but since COVID our services have really expanded in digital, working with brands to create everything from AR to digital campaigns.
Which agencies do you gain inspiration from? Do you have any heroes in the industry?
Ogilvy & Pentagram always create amazing brand worlds and have been doing it so consistently for years you have to really admire them.
What is one tip that you would give to other agencies looking to grow?
Stay relevant and invest in your people.
How do you go about finding new clients/business? (Pitching, work with retainers, etc.)
Pitching is bad for our industry and totally devalues our craft, so we stay away from pitching.
Our best new business comes from recommendations from our clients, so we always need to ensure we are doing a fantastic job for our clients and delivering exceptional work.
What’s your one big hope for the future of the industry?
That we can continue using our industry to create positive change, helping educate business and brands so they too can make a difference.
Do you have any websites, books or resources that you would recommend?
Here is a big of a mix of all 3. awwwards.com, siteinspire.com, dezeen.com, designspiration.com, designboom.com, thedrum.com, LSN, The BOF Podcast, Create tomorrow the WGSN Podcast, The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human, and How to Tell Them Better, Designing Brand Identity: An essential guide for the whole branding team, Work hard and be nice to people, Now try something weirder.
