YaRRR! A chronicle of pirates, challenges and treasures
From September 5th to the 7th, all the Sketchin Crew, from all the venues, gathered in Cernobbio to join an intense event. Learn more directly from the words of two of those who were there.
“Since I was a kid, the summer break has been the milestone that divides a year from another and I still feel that a new year starts in September, even if I’m not a student anymore, and my work duties have a different schedule now. As time passes, summer ending keeps giving me the same mixed feelings I used to have back then, but this year has been different — . tells Marco Tamburlini, General Manager Italy & Lead Strategist at Sketchin.
On my way back from the holiday trip, I knew already it was going to be an exceptional start. First of all because since I joined Sketchin I feel like a Goonie on a quest and I’m able to enjoy my working days like never before.
On top of that, I knew my colleagues had been working on something special this year, and a real pirate adventure was waiting for me.
Every year Sketchin stops its activities for three days, to improve ourselves, working on our methodology, on our balance as teams and as a company, as well as having some time to get to know people you don’t happen to work side by side with every day. This year the three days break was more than that because the company had been facing one of its most challenging transformations, reaching and passing the 100 people mark, divided on multiple locations with different cultures and languages. I was really curious to see that mix gathered in one place, working together, and the result was stunning.
Ten of my colleagues worked hard to organise a new kind of event for us: YaRRR! The three days were packed with pirate energy, spreading from all over the places. The location was Villa Erba, one of the most beautiful 19th-century villas on the Como lake, ready to receive us with countless activities, like speeches from our designers, willing to share their knowledge or specific experiences of the last projects, group hackathon, role-playing games, pirate treasure hunt and a fantastic closing party.
As soon as we posted the first photographs of the event, I realised that every time I share something about Sketchin everything looks merely magic, so my mind went back to a lunch I had before summer, with a former colleague of mine, talking about what has changed in the last year and a half in our design studio. I found myself talking shortly about the fascinating projects designers and strategists work on every day and the astonishing results they accomplish.
Then I focused on how all the other colleagues work in the dark, to allow every one of us practising in the best possible way and to make every gear of a fast-growing company running as smooth as possible; of how the Operations team is doing tremendous work for a company that now is one of the most successful and big design studios in Europe, how the Coaching team is able to help the company getting better, accomplishing uncountable tasks.
I recently posted on Facebook that: it does not just happen that you come back from holidays and you have new offices in Milan to work on; you can attend an amazing company conference organised amazingly by Sketchin people in just three weeks; that we’ll have new offices in Lugano in the next weeks; that new offices in Rome are on the way; that Sketchin Madrid is now a reality; that you grow up to more than 100 talented people keeping the core values alive.
It does not just happen, but it takes a tremendous effort to do that, and it takes very special people working together because it’s exceptional people that make a company great.
Sketchin is unique because every single person that works there is extraordinary, and the commitment and dedication of everyone are simply unbelievable”
Roberto Ranieri is UX and Interaction Designer in Sketchin, “It’s not so easy to explain in words what YaRRR! has been if you’ve not lived it in person.
Imagine a sunny Wednesday morning by the end of summer, when you’ve just come from holidays back to the exciting yet frenetic work life in the city. Imagine now to wake up on the same day in an astonishing 19th-century villa surrounded by nature and with a private view on Lake Como. Together with you in that fairy place, there are all your colleagues, those ones you see every day, the others you encounter now and then, and the new ones you never met before.
When the studio you are part of grows in an impressive way as Sketchin did in the past year — and still continues to grow! — it’s hard to find the occasion to meet everyone and to spend the right bunch of time to have a conversation with all the people who work with you. That’s the reason why YaRRR!!! has taken place: to have three days to refresh and chill back from vacation and to restart stronger and bolder as possible, to share our knowledge and passions, and to find connections, knowing each other with all the shipmates of the crew.
The crew, yeah, because at Sketchin we are pirates, we are free, wild and resolute, and just like pirates we worked together to share ideas, to find our balance and team spirit and be ready for the next adventures, dispensing our knowledge and points of view through the rooms of Villa Erba, hunting for treasures and competing in a tough yet amusing design challenge, the YaRRRckhaton.
What actually happened, during and after the event, is that we truly discovered new treasures: I’ve never been gladder to share all my time with the people I work with, but the most amazing thing is that we finally had the opportunity to know each other well, not only as designers — sharing knowledge, skills and work experiences on the projects -, but above all as persons, talking about our passions, interests and our personal goals, and playing, singing and dancing. These are the basics to build solid connections based on trust and mutual esteem, essentials to work together in a better way and maximise the empathy as team players. To work well with the people around you it is not only important to know what they do, but you first need to know who they are. So thanks YARRR to help us evolve this way as a big family!
