Brand
Consultancy
Consultancy
One of our former colleagues once described working at VSA Partners as a master’s degree in how to build a design business. As we begin to do just that with The Indelible, we draw lessons from the place where the four of us spent the better part of the last couple decades.
Many of those lessons came from direct experience working with clients like GE, Anheuser-Busch, Cargill, and Marvin, who understood the value of their brands as business assets, and had high expectations for how we shaped them. Late nights finessing a strategic insight, kerning type, or having the CEO of a Fortune 50 company interrogate your recommendations forged much strength, even as it turned a few hairs gray.
Many more lessons came in small moments around a magnetic wall or a monitor, when a colleague’s idea inspired jealousy and awe in equal measure. And in getting to work on that idea with the select few with enough talent to have survived the hiring gauntlet.
Our experience contributing to some of VSA’s most successful eras informs The Indelible’s model. As does the belief, espoused by the late Bob Vogele, that design is a function of business management. These lessons inspire our pursuit of work that endures.
We’re also inspired by those VSA alumni who’ve blazed a similar trail before us.
It’s humbling, and perhaps hubristic, to claim that we now join the ranks of IA Collaborative, 50,000 Feet, Legion Collective, The Matter of Design, The Scratch Collective, Galambos + Associates, Conjure, One Story, Revolver Design, World Headquarters, OX, Substance Collective, What Else?! and surely others we’re forgetting. Some have been around long enough to have their own legacy offshoots. These bolster our confidence that we can have a go at this. Others are new enough that we feel solidarity with them as we get our footing as a firm. All are beacons of talent and business acumen we’ll shamelessly draw from as we start shining our own light.
The same goes for the hundreds of solo practitioners who’ve taken their talent and experience as VSAers and forged impressive careers independently. We hope to work with you again soon.
So, a toast — in memo form — to each and all of you. To the mothership. And to the visionary behind the V. We trust we’ll have your support, if for no other reason than to ensure The Indelible adds richness to this legacy we share.
Indelibly yours,
Matt, Jeff, Mike and Thom
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