GAC: An Anecdote on Design Breaking the Rules
Friday, July 30th, 2010
Here is an anecdote from several years ago that cuts to the chase about targeting content to the customer. I’ve been busy for the last few years doing my MBA (Journalism & Media Studies) but there you go… I used to actually do work in the industry.
Working for Gulf Agency Company, Dubai
The tale is a short one. For a number of months in early 2007 I was doing work for Gulf Agency Company’s Corporate Academy in Dubai through a holding company they have in Brisbane called Frontier Learning Technologies (FLT). A friend who develops their online training modules brought me onboard to help with functional graphic design and copywriting of their monthly Academy newsletter (email and web). At AUD$35 per hour I was hardly going to get rich but it was an interesting opportunity.
Gulf Agency Company (GAC) is a shipping and logistics firm based in Dubai which primarily operates through the Middle East and Asia. They turn over profits of US$2+ billion so it’s a large matrix corporate structure with complex cultural influences. However, GAC was founded and is run by Swedes. As such, all GAC business and communications are conducted in the English language (as in British English not American English).
The Previous Newsletter Designer & Copywriter
The previous copywriter had been Zeba, who I believe may have been operating out of India. The problem with Zeba was the newsletter had garish bright colours that looked less than corporate in the eyes of Western business people… and the English language had that untrained quality where plurals seem to mix it up a little more frequently than any Western educated person would tolerate.
My Job was to make it ‘Western Corporate’
So I took the job. Great. I brought the newsletter back to a more corporate look and polished the articles to a professional quality you would aspire to in the West. I’m a pretty good copywriter (and currently improving my qualifications in that area if you’re interested).
