A designer’s dream client relationship goes something like this: client hires designer, designer dances with the muse, designer shows results to the client, client immediately goes into production – without any significant changes.
As a rule, this rarely happens.
Shortly after HP merged with Compaq, Publicis & Hal Riney (now Riney), was charged with marketing HP’s consumer products. They would send us a headline. And several days later we submitted sketches, from which one or more were quickly approved. Then anywhere from a week to a month later, the piece would appear as a full-page in the New York Times, the inside cover spread of Forbes, or even as a six-page section in Wired.
It was the most wonderful experience, and a tiny bit disorienting. How could such a client relationship exist?
In retrospect, much of the success and ease of this work came from Hewlett-Packard’s desire at the time to reposition the massive tech company as a nimble startup. It is that spirit which lives on in the work.