Brick & Mortar
Brick & Mortar
A podcast appearance and a useful metaphor for creative teams.
Last week I sat down with my old pal Maykel Loomans to be interviewed for his new podcast Full Stack Whatever. In it, we get into this conversation about Brick & Mortar, which I think can be a really helpful psychological tool for teams and leaders when they’re deciding who-works-on-what.
Thinking of projects as Brick or Mortar is a way of adding value to all the work that needs to be done, sharing the load, and getting through the :gasp: boring stuff.
I joined Mux full-time about a year ago to build out their Brand Design team. A few months in, I found myself in that part of the job where I felt like I was in the wiki all day erryday.
(Someone asks where the logo guidelines are, you look and nothing is anywhere, you draft something up. Someone asks how the company feels about consistent hyperlinks across brand and product, you realize nothing’s been documented yet, so you draft something up. You get the idea.
There’s all this stuff that we inherently know. And I have a bad habit of just assuming that my knowledge will seep into the air around me and everyone else will just catch it like a disease, until alas — I digress.
So I was in write-stuff-down-mode and I wrote this idea that’s been with me a for a long time.
Brick and Mortar
The work of a Brand Design team consists of two key elements coming together to create a powerful and impactful brand. A brand is obviously more complex than this metaphor, but for the sake of clarity I like to simplify this work down to two main categories: Brick and Mortar
Bricks Bricks are huge brand moments. They stick with people and leave a lasting emotional impression on customers and fans. A fun onboarding moment like the Mailbox Beta Coin. A hilarious campaign like the Old Spice Horse Man. The puppet video that convinces employees to join a company. A really funny video that gets sent around a team's Slack.
This is the work many Brand Designers live for, because creativity lives here. Most designers need bricks to be happy in their role, to feel like they've contributed something lasting and meaningful to the overall brand. (These tend to be great portfolio pieces, too.)
Mortar The mortar is everything in-between the big brand moments. Without the mortar, the wall falls down. Without mortar, customers are left feeling unconvinced, unable to trust, like there is something missing. Mortar is the day-to-day stuff. The landing pages, the ads, the presentation decks. The Brand Design system and all of the small details within it building consistency.
This is the work many Brand Designers can get bored with. But they use this work to build the core elements of a brand, to create consistency, and to support other teams. So it's important.
Every designer, junior or senior, should have opportunities to contribute to both. They should all have a shot at the big creative brand moments, and they should all take turns working with the day-to-day elements of the brand as well.
Share your bricks!