Like many companies, Motorola wanted design to be at the center of its communications. Only design and marketing weren’t communicating. The marketing department didn’t even have a bio for their head of design – let alone know his strategy.

 

Working with Motorola’s agency The Fish Can Sing, I facilitated a meeting between Motorola’s top marketing executives and designers to craft a concise strategy statement. As the design director presented the next two years’ products, I interpreted the designs for the marketing team, and it quickly became clear that the message was about simplifying design. We developed a catch phrase to describe that and developed press and marketing initiatives for the next two years.

 

The meeting was particularly gratifying after years of getting frantic calls with each product launch asking what the design story was with each phone. Now we had a clear message, and everyone was relieved to be talking to each other. The message is used internally and externally – by design to get buy-in for its more radical developments, while marketing deploys it across all media when discussing design.