Wendy
Goldfarb
Bishop

At the end of the day, team culture can make or break the employee experience. I truly believe employees will work harder and smarter when the work they do directly effects peers that they care about.

With that in mind, I strive to build a team that has each other’s back and cares about each other both in and outside of work. I lead with empathy and transparency to instill trust in my employees. It’s important to me that they feel they can come to me when they have a problem (let’s work together to squash that beef) or when they want to show off something cool (yes, let’s celebrate your wins!). I encourage proactive thinking to keep my team fulfilled in their growth and solving problems on the daily. When employees are empowered to solve problems without feeling intimidated about calling out issues, innovation and efficiency can happen even at the smallest team level.

Truly, I love mentoring and I get so jazzed about helping my employees find their superpowers and encouraging them to lean in and be experts in their arena. Giving them the tools they need to go out and advocate for themselves and own their value can be all someone needs to kick their role to the next level..

I'm going to say something controversial in the design world: form follows function, content takes priority over the creative. Stay with me.

Here's the thing: the creative work doesn't matter if the core message of a piece is lost or muddled in it. The true function of creative work is to, in fact, make the piece more digestible and approachable.

This core principal has driven my entire career, as the content I work with is typically complicated. When I do my job right, the output should elevate the piece and make even the most intimidating content the star of the show.

This is the true value of a skilled designer — we're here to elevate the technical, to help it properly reach the right audiences, to get the message where it needs to be. We are translators and the role we bring to the table is a core part of making content output a success.

Brand is a logo, yes, but logos are really just a symbol of so much more.

When done right, a brand doesn't only encompass the external face of a company. It isn't only strewn across social media or slapped on swag and collateral. It isn't even just the visual language and output of a company.

It's the heart and soul. It's the voice. It's the employee culture. It's the thread that keeps a company together, and when done right, its what keeps the employees coming back to work daily.

When you create a brand that with true personality, it weezles its way into the hearts and minds of those surrounded by it. It becomes something people want to support, with clicks, views, and yes, money.

I truly believe the first step in building a successful creative team is to set up the right environment to support one.

The value quality creative work brings to a company seems obvious to some, certainly to me, but it isn't native to everyone. Those that don't understand the power and purpose of strong visual communication can see a proper design process as a roadblock they don't want to engage with.

Establishing a creative culture, one that enables excellent design work, can be a challenge when there wasn't one before. It's important that all parties, creative, technical, or otherwise, see the difference good design work makes. Building trust between all parties first is key. When stakeholders see that the creative process properly showcases the hard work they've done, and ensures external audiences consume and celebrate it, a mutual understanding among colleagues can be established.

Once that trust is there, it's on. Proper workflows can be established. Support up and down the chain can help ensure all parties adhere to the process. Creatives, from senior to junior, can be empowered to self-advocate for the value they bring to the table. Eventually, it becomes native to the company and creative is just part of a larger fine tuned machine.