The New Cruelty

Earlier this month I spent three weeks with The New Cruelty, a creative production firm in Brooklyn. It was a fantastic look inside to see how a small firm works in this big city. As producers, photographers, and designers collaborated on different projects I was able to see first hand the different facets of a career as a designer.

I was hired on as a free lance designer in a mad rush to get company presentations out for a major client, Citi Bank. Felix and I put in long hours as we hashed and rehashed keynote presentations, powerpoint, and video, till we came together with 20 some beautiful presentations for the Ipad to be used at an annual Citi conference.

As the deadline ticked closer the client came back with multiple changes. While listening to our boss on the phone and reading forwarded emails of changes to be made, I learned that all these major companies, banks, and coronations are run by regular people, and even though they have internal design teams, they still procrastinate and change their minds. It was just as refreshing as it was frustrating.

It reminded me what Dave Kerr said in one of our last classes, "The way you handle $5.00 is the same way you handle $50,000." It's true, no matter how small the project, or how giant the client - it is all design and they are all people.

The New Cruelty also opened my eyes to just how much corporations put into design. It is a life force for them. It will be impossible for me to look at a Citi Bank banner or corporate trifold the same way again.

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