Hasta La Ideas

It’s one thing to claim experience in a creative field, but quite another to have been literally the first person to found an agency within it. Tom Nicholson, who will be up on the stage for tomorrow’s Creative Confab panel discussion, founded digital media agency IconNicholson in 1987, making it the longest standing such firm in New York City. It’s since grown to over 100 employees, claims a list of global brands (MasterCard, Prada, Nestle, etc.) that goes on approximately forever, and recently had their Social Retailing interactive shopping concept included among the “Best Inventions of the Year” by Time Magazine.

Speaking with Tom in IconNicholson’s office earlier this week, it also became clear that finding and hiring exceptional, and exceptionally multi-disciplinary creative talent is one of the key ingredients in the firm’s continued success. As with our previous panelists, we were able to get brief answers to two burning creative hiring questions from Tom, as a quick intro to the kind of insight he’s got for curious designers and recruiters.

1. You’ve mentioned that acheiving consensus between creative, technical and business professionals at IconNicholson is crucial to doing great work, but consensus-building isn’t a traditionally emphasized skill amongst designers. How do you find creative talent that also plays well with others?

You’re right, good designers are a very opinionated and strong willed lot, as they should be. But their single mindedness applies to the work they personally control. When they have to collaborate with other disciplines, as they do in our world, they need to meet the others part way. And vice versa btw because designers can often come out on the short end of decisions, especially at agencies where the account people are in control. So our model involves concurrence of the three disciplines on all key decisions, no single discipline calls the shots. So we look for people, not just designers, who can understand, appreciate and respect the value of the other disciplines they work with. The best people have done and are capable of doing the other roles as well, but just not at the same level. Some people call this a T-shaped person, deep and capable in one area with a bit of knowledge and experience across the others.

2. What changes have you seen in the volume and quality of portfolios you’ve received since the economy started faltering last year?

We’ve seen a significant jump in the volume of inquiries since the recession started, at all levels of seniority from junior to senior. If anything the quality itself has gone down or perhaps there’s just a lot more noise. We’ve always been very selective in our hiring so with the extra noise it’s a lot more work to determine the best and brightest from among the candidates and they in turn have to work harder to stand out.

Tom will be sharing the panel with Khoi Vinh of NYTimes.com, Michael Lebowitz of Big Spaceship, and renowned design recruiter Judy Wert, forming the heart of a fascinating and essential afternoon of networking and knowledge-sharing for creative professionals. Online registration closes tomorrow morning at 9am Eastern time, with limited tickets available at the door (cash only) — best be quick.

Coroflot’s Creative Employment Confab
May 15th, 2-5 pm
Art Directors Club
106 W 29th St. @ 6th Avenue, New York City

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