How creative teams should work together
Every design agency wants to provide the best possible service to their clients while providing excellent outputs in its work. All of that though, is far easier said than done. At nooh, we have been curating our creative process for quite some time and in 2024 we’re pushing forward more than ever before.
That’s why we’ve introduced a nooh Way of Working, although we prefer to call it a WoW!
At the heart of everything we do, we’re creatives. We want to create and deliver engaging assets, branding and tell stories for our clients in ways that maybe, they’ve never thought of before. We want to use our skills to build communities and bring people together.
Part of nooh’s Way of Working
The question is: How can we, together, create a brand and design that oozes creativity and tells a story?
While we’re not perfect at it, we think we have found the secret that enables us to do this time and time again. We sat down and looked at what makes nooh… nooh. What makes us different from other agencies? What is important for nooh? Why does any of that matter? For us, we could boil it down to four things:
Open and honest communication: We tell it like it is and don’t tiptoe around a bigger issue.
Committed community: We help and encourage one another, we create a community.
Always curious: We ask questions, tell stories and problem solve.
Collaborative creativity: We work together, ask and accept feedback to improve.
Open and honest communication
Why is open and honest communication so important to us? We’ve found that everything improves when we tell it like it is and we don’t hide behind politeness. We tell our clients what we think, we ask for brutal honesty and we thrive when we are open to new and opposing ideas. The best work we create comes from an accumulation of ideas, backgrounds and experiences; we actively invite openness and honesty to ensure we are bringing our best to the table each and every day.
How do we promote honest and open communication? We give our team and clients different ways to communicate with us. Giving options to break barriers in communication that we may face due to mental health, distance or time. We clearly set our goals and expectations to ensure as little miscommunication as possible. We ask for feedback, take it on board and know that we are all in this together.
Committed community
What is a committed community? We acknowledge our clients and their work as a whole. In not looking at just the project, but its background and the story our clients are trying to tell, we weave together a vibrant history to share.
How do we curate a committed community? We work as a team, not being “just” your design agency, but also your colleague and cheerleader. Through a variety of tailor led processes, from design sprints to social events, we aim to nurture our relationships with clients. Supporting them not just with their design or rebranding goals, but in what they’re aiming to achieve. When choosing nooh, you not only get an excellent design team (we think) but you will get a group of cheerleaders!
Always curious
What do we mean by always curious? If we don’t understand something; we will ask. If we want to know more about your why, how or when; we will ask! Our curiosity can lead us on a spiral to new and innovative ways of thinking and we’re here for it.
How do we share our curiosity? We listen to you, ask questions and then listen some more! Behind the scenes, we listen to each other. Taking creative critiques on board and always looking for the improvement to be for the collective over personal offence. We want to problem solve with our clients and as the old adage goes, “two heads are better than one”. We believe co-design, co-creation and co-exploration allows us to problem solve together to create something better for clients, and we show this through our dedication to understand, empathise and listen.
Collaborative creativity
What is collaborative creativity? Collaboration to us is all about embracing individuality and playing to our strengths, coming together to benefit from our “hive mind” to bring about the best possible outcomes.
How do we encourage collaborative creativity? We offer flexibility in our approach to both clients and our team, looking for methods of working that work for the individuals and the wider team. From working hours or location, to working methods, our goal is to give our team as much autonomy as possible. This looks different internally for each team member and client. Sometimes our team will body double each other, or other times it may mean a design sprint to share ideas. We are constantly collaborating and sharing ideas with one another to progress and evolve.
Why are we so passionate about all of this?
In short? Because we care. We care deeply about our clients, their work and their goals within their communities. We thrive on seeing the bigger picture of the work we do and we want to promote best practices and encourage our clients to thrive.
Stories are only stories when others hear them. We want to make sure we design something that allows those stories out there to get to the right people, at the right time.
Another reason that communication is so important to nooh is because we are led by Helena Traill, a self confessed neurodivergent business owner. It’s been important for Helena to ensure that, as a business, we do all that we can to communicate effectively and that we develop systems and processes to ensure that we are efficient and successful in everything we do.
“Optimal creativity is all about embracing differences and breaking barriers to communication. When we encourage and support our team to create in a way that feels right to them, we get a better, unique and personal end result.”
We said at the beginning that we don’t call this our “Ways of Working” but instead call it our WoW! We do that because that’s exactly the reaction we want from our clients and their teams.
What do you think? Does the nooh way of working sound like a good WoW to you? What are your business values and how are you going to embed them into everything you do?
This year we will be showcasing more of the nooh difference and the impact it’s having in communities across the country. To see more, sign-up to our newsletter to be the first to read more on the nooh WoW.
