Last week was the big event up at Mackinac Island. It’s a policy conference that’s put on by The Detroit Regional Chamber, and attracts 2,000+ attendees to converge on the island of fudge and horses for three days of galavanting. It’s the sixth year I’ve attended, and I have a confession – I love it.
Probably not for the reasons you think. In fact, I’m not sure I fully understand why I love it. I love it like I love the movies Top Gun and Roadhouse. Total guilty pleasures. If I’m being honest with myself, I’m totally out of my element up there. I’m a lousy networker. I’m a small business in a sea of big budget businesses. And I’m not much of a late-night guy. Still I go. I pretend I’m somebody and I enjoy. A couple years ago we introduced a fictitious character named Church van Steuben. I still get questions and comments about Church, and that makes me feel good. (We did get our hand slapped a bit for that … which also makes me smile.)
Last year was the first year at the conference following our move to Downtown Detroit, and that got some buzz. We created a video for the chamber on economic development, and I received a fair amount of love from that. And that certainly was nice to see and hear. It led to some added business and started to make the trip look like a semi-intelligent financial decision. But this year, in a span of 30 minutes, I experienced my most profound moments of my Mackinac years. To understand the moment, you need to appreciate the flow of the conference. You can think about the flow in three distinct acts of a weird play.
In Act I, the scene opens inside an auditorium that features speakers and heavy topics like education and healthcare reform. In Act II, the scene moves to the Grand Hotel front porch where the bar opens and the food is heaped on white-clothed round tables, and the topics range as wide as the big bridge in the distance. Act III moves to bars with names like The Horn, The Pink Pony and The Gatehouse, and the conversation is just slurred.
This year’s profound experience began at the end of Act I, and moved into the early part of Act II on Wednesday night. It was launched with a video we created called Love, Detroit. It was a client video that was presented during a session, and afterward as I walked onto the porch I was greeted by several people who commented that they could see the Skidmore “kick ass” creative in the video. Nice. But the awesome part really began, when I heard my name screamed from across the porch. The screamer was the CEO of Tech Town, Leslie Smith, (no relation) and she was holding up her brand new business card.
When I arrived, she hugged me and introduced me to her party as the guy who changed her business! Wow, that’s some high praise. She proceeded to tell all who would listen that the logo, brand and web site we recently completed for Tech Town made a huge difference for the success of her business. Like a paid shill, Leslie explained that she never understood the power of a strong brand until she saw it in action. Super nice. Really, really nice.
The experience continued, as I walked away and bumped into Patrick Fehring, the CEO of Level One Bank. He too was entertaining a few gentlemen and introduced me as the firm who created the Level One Bank new logo and brand. While he didn’t hug me, he was very enthusiastic … in a banker sort of way. One step to my left, and I bumped into Don Tanner from Tanner Friedman. His logo we created more than five years ago, and he’s still holding it up on the porch of Mackinac Island as his best marketing tool. As I turned around, I ran into Eric Parzianello, a partner at a law firm that moved to Detroit last year. Skidmore provided HSP with a new brand, logo and identity system, and Eric was holding his new business card like a $100 bill, and telling me all the great compliments he was receiving. Wow.
Next, one quick step to my left, and I’m talking with the marketing team at the DIA. Two giant steps to the right, and I’m chatting with the folks at Bedrock Real Estate and Quicken Loans. Four Detroit companies in a ten-foot radius for whom we’ve made a design impact, and are all still singing our praise.
So, what is the purpose of this unapologetic humble brag blog? Simple. Good design works, and there are companies out there who understand it, appreciate and benefit from it. When you hear it directly from them, it means a lot. It means we’ve made a difference in the business success for these companies and they are willing to tell the story. It serves to reinforce that the investment they made continues to pay off. It reminds me that as much as people might experience “Skidmore Sticker Shock”, when they make the commitment to the process and trust us … Skidmore Studio is the best design value in the world.
Tim