Every day is fresh and exciting for this ad guy
David Cohen is a partner and one of the MDs at Grid Worldwide branding and design. He tells Margaret Harris his agency believes the world doesn’t need any new brands, but brands with meaning
What do you do at work each day?
I manage the process of creating, refreshing and invigorating brands through a process of designing strategically to create iconic brands.
What are the four most important tasks you do at work?
1. Balancing profitability, a great culture and game-changing work takes up most of my time;
2. The most important task in achieving this is creating and curating an environment that allows our team to create big ideas and iconic brands;
3. Our industry is all about relationships: with potential clients, current clients and other related stakeholders. A big part of my role is maintaining and growing these relationships; and
4. We are a project-based business, so I am always hunting for new opportunities.
How did you end up working in the ad industry?
A few years out of school, a family friend at Hunt Lascaris said there was a junior position as an account co-ordinator available. I hadn’t even thought about working at an ad agency, but I did a bit of research and it felt like a place where I could learn and have fun. The rest for me is history, and I have been in many different roles in the TBWA group (of which Grid is a part) ever since.
What was your first paying job, and what was the most important lesson you learnt there?
I had a weekend job as a cashier in a gifting and stationery shop. I learnt how to engage with strangers in a positive way and that money doesn’t grow on trees.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
A racing driver as a young child, as I loved fast cars, and then a lawyer later on — my folks watched a lot of Law & Order .I suppose what I do today draws a little bit from both of these in a weird sort of way, as what I do is fast paced and we try to make the world a better place.
What do you love about your job?
Grid creates game-changing brands and always tries to put a dent in the universe. Through this I get exposed to so many different brands, business and people every day and try to take them from where they are to great — and then to iconic. This means that every day is fresh and exciting and has new challenges, so I never stop learning.
It’s fantastic to be able to interact and touch what we do every day, from banks to restaurants to national brands, not just as someone who helped create it but as a customer as well.
When hiring people for your company, what characteristics do you look for?
They need to be young at heart and have questioning minds. I love thinkers, interesting characters and individuals who will flourish from a cultural point of view in a super-fast environment like ours. We are always on the lookout for the best young talent out of the design and advertising colleges and universities.
Tell me about brand building and development.
As a global branding and design agency, we believe the world doesn’t need another brand. Our philosophy is anchored in giving brands meaning and purpose — a reason to exist in the world. #makeitmeansomething.
We do this by creating strong brand strategies and narratives then develop distinctive assets like photography, typography, illustration, corporate identity and visual language and then apply this and design for digital, collateral, products, packaging, interiors and environments.
Brands today cross cultures and categories. A brand is not a logo, it’s what people say about you when you are not in the room. I think we are past the point of questioning the huge value of a brand today, which makes our industry a very interesting one to be part of.