It’s been almost four years since we started NWC Design. From the outset, we were very clear in our minds about the type of culture that we wanted for the business and how we would create it.
We saw it as growing through how we worked, who we worked with and through our own behaviour which would be respectful, committed, honest and true to our own skills and experience.
Some 46 months on, as we live that culture every day, we can say that we love it. And as it continues to evolve, we can see how some aspects naturally have become more important.
So, here are three elements of the NWC Design culture that are the keystones of our work and often our lives.
As my relationships with clients develop, I understand more about their cultures and characters. It’s clear that infographic designs that engage and inform external audiences can do the same for internal audiences just as effectively.
1. People matter.
It’s in all the guides to management about having the right mix of people. In a business, this generally means from a skills and from a social perspective; the right technical or management skills or hiring experienced people you’d be happy to have a pint with. But while the right mix is indeed that, it’s also so much more.
We look to work with people of differing characters, opinions, levels of drive, habits, experiences, mindsets, which can be hugely beneficial for everybody and can produce new perspectives on life and work.
The ‘whole’ of people matter, their lives, families, aspirations and worries. Noticing a change in someone’s behaviour and asking if they’re ok matters. It’s not just their skills or whether they like to go to the pub on a Friday after work. At NWC Design, we look at the bigger picture.
We apply this principle to clients and suppliers. Choosing to work with those who have the same values as us and who inspire and challenge us means that we grow together.
After all, we work with them every day too. How can we enjoy what we do and be at our creative best if we don’t believe in the client or we whole-heartedly disagree with their business operations? We believe in what we do and who we do it for.
Which links into our next keystone…
2. Quality over quantity matters.
Having worked in large (and small) agencies where quantity and frequency of work becomes the most important pursuit, sometimes at the expense of quality and morals, we were clear where our boundaries lay when we set up NWC Design.
Of course, more work more often is great for business growth but being proud of what we’ve achieved each day and being able to tell our kids what we’ve been working on is really important to us.
“This is why we sometimes say no when we’re approached by clients or individuals where we don’t believe in their cause, they don’t seem like the right fit, or we don’t agree with how they or their business operates. It’s important to me that all of the team have the right to choose yes or no.”
Non Wood, Director.
And that leads us into our final keystone…
3. Enjoying what we do matters.
We spend so much of our lives working, so why not do the work we enjoy? We specialised in information design exactly for that reason. We love making information easier for people to understand so that they can be more informed, make better decisions and implement positive changes.
At NWC Design, we get a buzz when we see the content we’ve been working on go live, we get a buzz from the reactions that we get from our clients.
And our knowing and understanding clients and suppliers and what makes them tick and injecting personality into every part of our day-to-day work makes what we do even more rewarding.
Every job has its ups and downs. Every role has taught us something new – whether it’s skills in production, dealing with people, project management, running a creative business – we chose to take the positives of all our experiences and apply them to NWC Design in order to build something we, our clients and our suppliers are proud to be a part of.
