Leading the asset creation for the launch of a global rebrand

Lacey Selvagn
Sep 7, 2018 · 3 min read

In October of 2015, I went to London to attend a brand workshop at Landor’s amazing offices on the Thames, working with a team of designers from around the world.

The problem
One of our businesses was executing a global rebrand. As the world’s largest staffing company, active in 52 countries across the world, it was a huge project. Each country would be provided the new brand guidelines, but as far as actual assets go, they wouldn’t get much more than the logo and a few graphic elements. The global marketing team wanted to assemble a global design team to execute a large set of templates and assets that could be shared by everyone around the world.

The team
There were 8 designers on the project: 1 each from Italy, UK, Australia, Belgium, France, Spain, Norway, and me, from the US. I was the lead designer on the project and was responsible for final art direction and approvals, project management and assigning tasks, and general leadership of the project.

My solution
I didn’t enter the project as the team lead, but after our initial meeting in London, our Head of Global Marketing asked me to take over. I immediately organized a list of every asset we would need and estimated the time each task would take. I researched project management tools and settled on Asana. I added everyone to the tool, assigned tasks, added due dates and task details, and then we got started.

We had about a month and a half to get a very large list of assets done, so it took some problem-solving to schedule everything appropriately. I had seen samples of each designer’s work, so I played to everyone’s strengths and gave them projects where I knew they’d excel (there was little time for mentoring or skill development in a project like this, unfortunately).

Where I struggled and what I learned
It’s hard to manage a team of global designers who are all in different time zones and working on their regular (i.e. not this) projects. I speculated that the project was not a priority for them, as several designers became unreachable. Despite that, I frequently checked in on everyone and encouraged them to participate in virtual Friday critiques and feedback. I thought this would help foster a sense of “team” that would keep everybody involved. It worked for most of the designers, but next time, I would incorporate some team-building into the project in order to improve collaboration and a sense of trust and responsibility.

I also struggled with convincing the team to follow the brand guidelines. One designer commented that it was “just a suggestion” and the other designers chimed in and agreed. I had to put on my leadership hat and stand firm about truly following the guidelines. There was a lot of designer pushback about my decision, which I simply had to take in stride, while remaining supportive.

Wrap up
Overall, the project was a success, as we delivered all final assets on time, and all were immediately approved by the global Head of Marketing and various country CMOs. If you’re interested in the rebrand, check out this page I designed to let the U.S. know what the new brand is all about— https://www.adeccousa.com/brand-transformation/

Lacey Selvagn

Written by

UX and Design Leader, seeking new opportunities in the Bay Area | www.laceyselvagn.com

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