Mastering the Art of Improvisation

Done in: Fall 2019 / Customer: APTech / Task:  Story Design



What the client needed

There has always been business opportunity for companies who innovate (versus churn out what they’re already proficient doing).  Rick Sands of the Fenway Group has roots in design and a unique view of itself and its customers. far from viewing technological solutions as a solution looking for a =problem (a more typical papproach) they sought out technologies as a means of solving extant customer problems.

My part of the project

Rick Sands is an admitted “Deadhead”, a musician, and a guitar collector. He wrote this story around those affiliations and, as a result, the photography for the story pretty much had to include what was referenced in the article. One of the motivating concepts of the Fenway Group is that marketing, design, printing are all spokes of a wheel where the creative direction is the hub. I loved his concept because he saw his company solving client problems rather than concentrating on the solutions his company could provide and looking for a customer for those solutions.
For me the 70ish type, the curves and the “skull and roses” line-art (Edmund J. Sullivan) were an immediate solution but there was considerable idea sharing and more than a few online meetings to get to the point that everyone was comfortable with how much “Deadhead” language and imagery was appropriate and wouldn’t distract from the beauty of the business story being told.

Issue information

From the Publisher, Thayer Long
What happens when you make transformation an everyday event? Zappos executives famously encouraged employees by reasoning that 1-percent daily improvement makes you 37 times better after one year. What would happen if you challenged yourself, and your company, to be a fraction better in your execution from one day, week, month, quarter to the next? What is the mass effect of small steps, taken in increments but accrued over time?
The company leaders featured in this issue remind us. When done with intention, the impact can be big. True entrepreneurs are always tinkering and elevating the game, whether it’s by improving profitability 1 percent at a time, like Tom Moe; staying on the bleeding edge of technology, like Zora Agheli; or bringing a spirit of innovation and fresh thinking to each and every job, like Rick Sands.

© Bob Rempfer 2019. All rights reserved.


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