Riding the recession
No one can avoid what has happened to the financial markets and the subsequent effect it has had on the country's economy. Our initial concerns the impact of falling interest rates and collapsing banks on our savings, investments and pensions has moved swiftly on to fears for the safety of our jobs.

As creative industries make up approximately 8 percent of the UK GDP, we'd be naive to think that we won't be affected in some way. Indeed, here at Flock of Pigs Ltd we have been hit by clients struggling to pay us because of cash-flow problems of their own.

But, on a more positive note, designers who I've been in contact with, have told me of how busy they were prior to the Christmas period and how many orders they have for 2009. This can be put down to the fact that areas such as branding and packaging are robust enough to ride a recession because they are far less expensive than an advertising campaign, and while clients may cut back, they can't afford to give up on their marketing activity altogether.
However, there is undoubtedly an air of caution in almost every design consultancy and marketing department, which isn't good news for design as a whole!

Good for Creativity
As clients are now demanding more for their money from their marketing and design contacts I can't help thinking that this can only be a good thing for the expansion of creativity within the industry which may force consultancies to deliver sharper and more insightful solutions.

In the years since the last recession, manufacturers have squeezed every ounce of profit from their brands, ie: Bottles are the same physical shape and graphics are harmonised. Cars use the same chassis as each other across different brands to save on design and production costs. Departments have been cut and 'out-sourcing' placed at a premium. This has created a leaner and sharper economic model leaving creativity as the only real way that a brand can differentiate itself in such a saturaated marketplace.

"It was once said that creativity can be summed up as 2+2 = 5 (and clearly it was such creative accounting like that that landed us in this economic mire in the first place!)." Garrick Hamm, President of D&AD.
We should embrace this time as an opportunity to push the boundaries of inventiveness and imagination in order to help our clients come through this turbulent time. After all, that's what we're good at!

Look out for my next installment coming soon!

Philip Ainley, Creative Director - 11/06/2009
To comment please feel free to email me via email at info@flockofpigs.co.uk

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