The Design Laboratory

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief executive and co-founder of Solar Polar Limited, a green solar company. We are bringing to market a solar thermally-driven cooling system. It can be used on the farms of India or Africa. It can also be used for air conditioning houses without any electricity.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Design Laboratory?

We’re a small company run primarily by engineers. We didn’t have the expertise in branding, corporate messaging, and imaging. Our company is very good at making things work and coming up with new ideas but we didn’t have the ability to communicate that to the outside world and that’s why we hired The Design Laboratory.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first project The Design Laboratory did for us was to produce an infographic that explained how our system worked. What we needed was a very simplistic view of an incredibly complicated system which they did beautifully. You can either send it to somebody and they can read it through or you can flash it up on the screen and talk people through it. 

The second project involved looking at our branding and logos. They rebranded it and made a far more powerful message. When they presented us with the different concepts they’d come up with, the first one was very clever and was sort of building around an infinity loop. Then they came up with a smile logo, it was sort of like a globe but then the bottom half was a smile. 

Subsequently, they integrated that into a website with some animations. The team also helped us with the wording. Later, it was also rolled out in our business cards and paper. They even changed the headers for things like our LinkedIn accounts. The branding they developed goes throughout all of our communication materials.

That project is finished already but if we need any changes, they still do it. We’ve put in some joint bid for various projects where they’re working with solar renewables.

What is the team composition?

I primarily talk with Yann (Co-Founder & CEO). The lovely thing about them is you don’t get one of them, you get the whole team. There are about six or more people who work with us.

How did you come to work with The Design Laboratory?

I was introduced to Yann through a colleague who had worked at a company that had done a project with him where they got three artists to brand their bottles. She said The Design Laboratory was very nice to work with. I met Yann and we started chatting and realized we could probably work together.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019 and the work is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The Design Laboratory made a brilliant infographic that demonstrated an extremely complex process and broke it down to a simple one. Their work has been very well received. As a company, we’re not quite ready to do the full launch yet but the amount of interaction we’ve had with the public, it’s all been very positive.

The number of positive responses we’ve had has gone up. We’re very happy with their work. We couldn’t quantify it, but we’re absolutely blown away by just how brilliant they are.

How did The Design Laboratory perform from a project management standpoint?

When you go to The Design Laboratory’s office to talk about what they’ve done, changes, or what you like, the whole team joins. We communicate primarily by email and meetings in their offices. Before COVID-19, we were doing the initial part of the work in-person. I haven’t been to their office since the lockdown, but I probably talked to Yann on the phone once every two weeks. 

They’re incredibly patient. The team keeps us on track because sometimes they’re waiting on feedback from us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Design Laboratory team is so clever. They have the ability to translate your bumbling and stumbling abilities to communicate what you do into something very sharp, concise, and visually appealing. They’re an amazing creative force.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t fault them in any way. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a digital production studio. We make content including videos, articles, and podcasts about popular TV series and movies.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Design Laboratory?

We hired them for design and branding services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did all of the artwork and branding for our mobile application. It’s a subscription-based app, so we needed it to have a premium feel. The design fits the genres that we cover in our work, primarily science fiction. 

What is the team composition?

I think we worked with every member of their team at some point. There were about three senior teammates and two junior members. There were typically about six people from their side in our meetings. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around £15,000 (approximately $19,295 USD), but we had a part-fee, part-equity deal. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2019, and our work is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve been getting positive feedback from users. They often complement the premium feel of the app. 

How did The Design Laboratory perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a WhatsApp group, but we also communicative through emails and over the phone. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their experience and design expertise is impressive. I feel like I’m getting a world-class experience without the drastically high fees. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

No. Whenever we do have feedback or changes, they’re very receptive. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director and co-founder of a company called Animal Spirits. We are a spirit company that produces gin and later on, we also want to produce other spirits. We are based in London and we are just opening the market in the UK.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Design Laboratory?

I wanted professionals who already worked with companies that produce spirits. The plan was to work with the best to get the best results.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did complete branding for us. At first, they produced a bottle that had to be scalable. The bottle is designed so that we can create more spirits by changing the colors or pictures on the bottle. They provided us with the logo, trademark, deck, and all the documents we need for the company presentation pitch as well.

They carried us through the whole idea, creating the best story out of it and taking care of the whole brand so that it could be presented in a nice way.

What is the team composition?

We directly worked and had meetings with three people. I think there were two other people that were involved in smaller parts as well.

How did you come to work with The Design Laboratory?

They were recommended to us by a friend. She knew them personally and had also worked with them and was very happy with the cooperation. We went for a drink, and discussed our idea and what we wanted. There was chemistry. They are a cool bunch of people that know what they are talking about. They have also worked with really big companies in the alcohol market.

I interviewed other companies before and they were roughly the same amount of money but didn’t offer as much as The Design Laboratory. I had also tried to do something with local designers, and it was worth nothing. I spent several hundred and I got nothing out of it. People need to be professional to work on that level.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the summer of 2017. The project was slow-moving because I had a full-time job. It wasn’t slow from their side. We are still working together, and they are still helping us.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I am very happy because they really started with the idea and shaped it around the picture. I always had a chance to choose the way we went, and they offered alternatives and we followed one of those — and then more alternatives. It’s been a long time and I am more than happy.

How did The Design Laboratory perform from a project management standpoint?

We have regular calls through Zoom. Prior to Coronavirus, we had in-person meetings. I can always email them and they answer me pretty fast. Communication is always open and friendly and it is very nice to work with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It was the contact with them, their personality, and how they can really make up the story and dream about it. They can take you to their dream and show you the possibilities of how it can look. That was something that really attracted me, and I always left our meetings feeling very positive and in a very good mood.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. It was a long project and they always kept track of it. I have nothing to improve and it was very good. We discussed everything in smaller details and always followed the idea, so I am happy.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the European brand lead for a cleaning product firm with an environmental kind of angle.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Design Laboratory?

We have a limited edition program and the challenge we had was how to drive more passers for our limited edition. We wanted to use them as an opportunity to change consumer behavior.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Design Laboratory helped us shape our strategy for our limited edition program for 2020. They came up with a strategy which was around changing people’s thoughts by making them into works of art. They helped us elevate our brand into the art world. 

The team also found us a partnership. They found us three inspirational artists to align to our values of using their creativity as a force for good. From that, they helped us translate beautiful works of art, from these three artists, onto our  bottles. 

They really worked with the artists on shaping the creation of their art, the curation on having the artist pick which piece of art they’d want to do for this project, face graphing the art, and then translating that into a 2D design file for us to put onto our bottles.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Boris (Co-Founder & Creative Director) and Yann (Co-Founder & CEO). I worked really closely with Yann throughout the program. We still check in and have a very strong relationship even though we’re not working on a project at the moment. 

Boris oversees the creative team. Our main creative point of contact was Benio (Creative Manager). He went above and beyond throughout. He was working directly with the different print teams and the printers and really understanding the processes. He was very reactive to any kind of feedback. He really helped us shape the project and the end results.

How did you come to work with The Design Laboratory?

My boss had worked with them before in an innovation capacity. When we were looking for people who would inspire us as a team, she set up a meeting with them to have an inspiration day. Having spoken to them and seeing their role and the thought leadership that they brought, I chose to brief them on this project.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was around £70,000 (approximately $89,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from January 2019–January 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The end product was really strong. At the time, I didn’t have a creative director in-house. I really relied on The Design Laboratory to help me through that. We had three incredible collections with amazing designs. 

Not only was the product incredibly strong in the end but the relationship that they helped us build and facilitate with the artists have been phenomenal. We have a really strong relationship with all three artists. 

The Design Laboratory started and then stewarded it over to us which has been great. It wouldn’t have been as easy had they not been there to grease the wheels and make the way.

How did The Design Laboratory perform from a project management standpoint?

We’d communicate through email. If there were any glitches in the project, I’d then have a call with them. Yann is someone who wants to build very strong relationships with the clients he works with. He very much wants to understand the business and the challenges as well as just having more inspirational conversations. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The expertise they brought to the project and the relationships with the artists that they were able to facilitate stands out. That alone, I would not have been able to do. They were able to elevate our thinking and facilitate a really great outcome that I would definitely not have been able to do alone.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The one tension we had is our company in Europe is quite small. We still have a challenge with the budget. They wouldn’t be doing their job if they weren’t pushing for more with us though. It’s a healthy amount of tension to get the project done and pushing for the best end result.