08/06/18

Five minutes with Spinach Branding account manager

Branding

From its creative hub in East London, Spinach works with businesses around the world, helping to create new brands and evolve existing ones. We caught up with the account manager Gemma Presky to find out more.

Part of your role is to become familiar and get involved with a wide range of clients, from large international companies, the likes of the Berkeley Group, Unilode, and Campari, to smaller firms such as Ichibuns and the artisan Paul Rhodes Bakery. What is your approach?

The first step is to understand the scope of the work and ensure that everyone working on the project is on the same page, that our expectations and the client’s expectations are aligned. No matter what the size of the project is, or the type of company, the process is the same. We begin all projects with a briefing, where the team will gather and discusses the project in full detail, followed by regular check-ins with the client. This is crucial for a number of reasons; it helps keep momentum and involves the client in the creative process – which they always like. Our approach is flexible depending on the client, but the foundation is always the same. It all comes down to good communication.

These are companies involved in such a range of specialisms too from hospitality to education, construction, finance, wellness even aviation. How familiar do you need to be with the subject?

I love immersing myself in their industries. How can you work on a project if you don’t even know what they do? You don’t need to be an expert but a good understanding of the industry and competitors is key. You also learn a lot from researching different industries which can all feed into the big creative idea! Even if you’re not physically doing the creative work, at Spinach your ideas and thoughts can spark something in the design team.

The projects can take months; many are on-going. You must get quite intimate with the client?

You certainly get to know the team very well. Building a relationship and trust is important in all projects especially when they span a long period of time. Everyone is working towards the same goal, so you might as well make the process as enjoyable as possible. A lot of companies may only go through a rebrand once, so it is very exciting for them and can be a challenging process. Rebrands don’t happen overnight so the more you can get to know the client the better the outcome.

You’ve been with Spinach for almost three years. What would you say has been your highlight?

One highlight has to be working on the Paul Rhodes Bakery rebrand project. I love what the company stands for and the new brand design by Spinach. It is a strong, relatable, and versatile brand with great photography. I’m also slightly obsessed with food, which certainly helped with this project.

Spinach Branding is a specialist branding agency based in London. We work with established businesses and start-ups around the world to build and refine their brands. See how we work and get in touch to discuss your brand.