In Defence of the Jack of All Trades
This month has been noteworthy for the exceptional variety of our work at Mammoth.
Chris created a new sustainable fashion brand from scratch and Stewart designed a new AI platform and an accompanying brand identity in less than 10 days - two highlights of a month in design that has spanned games, websites, videos, brochures, logos, infographics, business cards, and coffee cups.
I have written about Non-Fungible Tokens, climate change, Pokémon cards, Virtual Team Building, Paralegal recruitment, Thunderbirds, and the subtle art of minimising pilling in cellulose textiles. That was a particularly busy afternoon!
This has been one of the joys of life as a creative agency – becoming experts in niche subjects while working with an eclectic set of clients. And this month I have come to appreciate another unforeseen advantage of such a diverse portfolio: avoiding isomorphism.
Isomorphism is a process whereby one unit in a population is forced to resemble other units that face the same environmental conditions and operate within the same competitive and institutional frameworks. In the case of our industry, isomorphism would explain the process by which creative agencies, sharing resources, influences, market pressures, and software applications, begin to become interdependent and homogeneous. Their work increasingly mirrors and imitates their competitors, and eventually their clients start to look and sound the same.
Spreading our work across such a wide range of different sectors and genres leaves us open to a valid criticism that we are becoming “Jacks of all trades”, but we have implemented processes to ensure that we leverage the knowledge of our “Masters” on each project – our clients – while bringing extensive research and creative collaboration to every piece of work. Our job remains the same on every project, regardless of sector, country, or focus area – to communicate the client’s vision and engage their intended audiences.
And bringing our fresh perspectives to new projects, along with our writing and design skills, has produced some outstanding results. None of our projects have had any kind of crossover, so we are never able to recycle words or reuse designs. We are forced to be creative, bringing a fresh approach to every project, and producing something truly original, aesthetically and textually, for our clients.
So this month we proudly wear the label of “Jacks of all trades”! We celebrate variety as the antidote to isomorphism and homogeneity. Next month we look forward to projects on a burger bar in Penrith Australia, a tattoo parlour in Colchester England, and a tech platform in Toronto Canada. Our ambition is to work with clients in every industry and on every continent … so if you are an accountant in Antarctica, or a sports team in South America, please get in touch!
