David Lai: Say Hello to Design

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Vince Thompson: Hi. Welcome to Dog and Pony. I'm Vince Thompson. It's become increasingly difficult for brands to reach their target customers because of global competition, technology, and just some poor design. Taking on some of that is David Lai. David is the CEO and Creative Director of Hello Design, a company that does a completely holistic approach to digital experiences, very immersive, and working with clients as diverse as Sony, Callaway Golf, and the Hammer Museum. Consumers are overwhelmed. Everyone's fighting for their attention. Good design can help. But help us understand how.

David Lai: The thing that's really powerful about design is when done well, it can break through the clutter. And, you know, we talk about sort of the things that we use in everyday life, like an iPhone, sort of being, "Wow, that's really different" than sort of the commodity item of a cell phone, where you sort of think of that as just a cell phone. And I think that -- that design is a huge factor of the iPhone. And I think that when we look at sort of what we do, we try to have the approach.

Vince Thompson: What's the recipe for good design?

David Lai: You're really stepping back and thinking, "How can I solve this business challenge? How can I solve this sort of objective that's been put in front of me?" And sometimes that objective is very high level, and it's sort of blurry. And how you sort of bring focus to that. And I think design is sort of that element, that sort of can bring focus to a problem, and hopefully provide that solution.

Vince Thompson: Share with us some of the primary services that company makes available to clients.

David Lai: We're a creative agency. And what that means is we're there to help bring ideas to the table. Everything from strategy -- you know, strategic consulting to understanding sort of where their business needs to be, where it needs to go, and to actually implement those ideas. We understand our space, and they understand their business. And how can we sort of collaborate and do something even better.

Vince Thompson: What's most important for your clients to get right?

David Lai: I think the strategy is really critical. That, if again, you don't know where your going or where you should be, you could be spending a lot of money on a lot of time and places that you shouldn't be. And often, you've got to have clients that are brave. Clients that are willing to try new things because the web is a relatively young medium, and I think that it's easy to sort of say, "Oh, well I saw that other company do this. We should do that, too." I think it's very dangerous to be in a copycat mode. I think innovation comes from those who, again, think about their strengths, their weaknesses, and understand sort of where they can take things on their own.

Vince Thompson: How do you use research to inform your design decisions?

David Lai: You know, I think research is a very useful tool. To have innovation, you need sometimes think beyond what people are gonna tell you. If Ford did sort ask people what they wanted, they probably would have said they wanted a faster horse.

Vince Thompson: Mm-hmm. Now, your company started as a partnership?

David Lai: It did.

Vince Thompson: And then it's become part of the larger holding company?

David Lai: That's right.

Vince Thomson: Tell us about that process.

David Lai: I started the company with another designer that I'd worked with previously, and you know, it was really an interesting partnership. After, you know, maybe five years of working together, we realized that there was something to be said about collaboration. We found that we're a piece of the puzzle. So if we could collaborate with others in that puzzle, then that would be a great partnership. And so when this holding company approached us -- we had actually already worked with one of their largest ad agencies at that time very successfully. And so it was a very natural transition for us to go from where we were to sort of where we are now. And the real difference really is, we've got great financial support. We've got access to a really big, creative network of people. It's something that gives us sort of the best of both worlds. The ability to stay small and be agile, and at the some time have the support of a much larger organization.

Vince Thompson: How do you grow and expand your business?

David Lai: When we first started we had a very ambitious plan of we want to be in many different cities around the world. I think one of the first cities we talked about was being in Tokyo. And then we said, "Okay, of course we want to be in New York." Or wherever it might be. What we found was that with the Internet and with the way we work, we really didn't need to do that. And so today we've got clients on the East Coast, in Europe, in Asia, and so forth. And we still can do great work. So I think the way you grow your business is by, again, finding great people and having those great people collaborate, wherever they might be.

Vince Thompson: David Lai, CEO, Hello Design. Thank you so much.

David Lai: Thank you.

Vince Thompson: It's been great to have you on Dog and Pony. Absolute pleasure. Well, as always, if you have questions or comments, or you'd like to suggest a guest, please shoot us an email. You can do so info@dogandpony.com. I'm Vince Thompson. Thanks for watching.

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