The Future of Creative - Arran Scott Lidgett (Everything In Between)

For my third interview in The Future of Creative series I had the pleasure of speaking with Arran Scott Lidgett who is the Creative Director and founder of Everything In Between . It was a highly insightful conversation spanning his motivations for starting his own agency and where he believes the creative industry is heading.

You can see some of the highlights below, followed by the full conversation:

HIGHLIGHTS:

AI: AI is definitely an area we haven’t done enough research on yet. From what little we have used it, it’s been helpful. We don't see it as a threat as is sometimes portrayed. But looking ahead, I see it like this – design is the tool, creativity is the skill.

EIB's USP: A “we” not “I” philosophy within the studio. Our egos are inescapable, but what's really, really important to me, and to the company as a whole, is that you suspend any sense of your own agenda when you're working here. And as I mentioned before, we like to see things through our clients eyes.

The creative industry: Something else that’s increasingly clear in our industry is that we exist in this mock-up era where reality is no longer a metric for quality. I’m pleased that so much of our work exists in the real world, and is documented as such.

FULL INTERVIEW:

JC

Thank you for taking the time to have a quick chat! I would love to get an introduction on yourself and find out a little bit about Everything In Between!

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Arran

I am Arran Scott Lidgett, founder and Creative Director of Everything In Between. I started the company 12 years ago but my career in graphic design extends much further. I studied purely academic subjects at school and failed them all at A-level. The only thing I was passionate about by that point was graffiti. It was the one thing that I felt well equipped to do at a good standard, and there was a really interesting subculture around graffiti. Owing to my failings in academia, and my passion for graffiti - which in turn led to a passion for typography, graphic design sort of fell into being for me.?

In those earlier days, we're talking sort of 15 plus years ago, graphic design wasn't as commonplace a career choice as it is now. So whilst it definitely wasn't approaching the subculture levels of the graffiti world I occupied, it felt like a more enclosed environment for those who really had an appreciation of the finer points of typography and layout composition. There were so many books available that you could jump into to discover and understand more about it. Jan Tschicold, Derek Birdsall and the like. Much more of it was offline than online, so it did feel as though there was a more in depth investigative process to really get under the skin of what graphic design meant, which really appealed to me. So that's how I got into it! I started at a company doing record covers and those sorts of things, which was fun, but also, after a while, not so rewarding, because I wasn’t really faced with a challenge to solve, it was more geared toward self expression.

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JC

I can imagine it was quite aesthetically led as opposed to strategically led!

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Arran

Entirely so. And whilst there is a lot that appeals about that to a creative – and there should be – the difference between doing that (creating record sleeves etc for a living) versus working under the guise of branding, is that you aren't thinking on behalf of another. You aren't solving problems for another, you aren’t having to see things through another's eyes to ascertain what the right approach, a successful approach, should be. And that's much more interesting to me, because there is a challenge there. That eventually led me to working for two or three different companies, all relatively small. And what invariably happens of course is you get to the stage where you feel sufficiently confident in your own opinion, to want to take the leap and try it for yourself.? So I started working independently, and things grew from there.

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JC

Amazing! That brings us perfectly to Everything In Between, what inspired you to start your own agency?

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Arran

So I was sharing space with a dear friend and former colleague of mine, Sarah, who I met at Here Design, and we were both busy so we thought “why don't we join forces?”. That led to five really enjoyable years working together. It was an incredibly energising, rewarding experience working in tandem with someone who you trust and rate as a creative. But after five years, we realised that, longer term, we had different targets both inside and outside of work. Sarah moved out of London and I took the reins of the business.

Up to that point it had just been the two of us and we were really almost focusing on us being a creative duo. We had been saying “no” to a fair few opportunities because we didn't want to compromise the time that we could spend on the briefs that most appealed to us. But once Sarah left and it became my responsibility, I was intrigued; what if we didn't say no so much? Where could the company go? And so things have been developing from there ever since. That's the ensuing seven years in some ways. The company feels like it's seven years old even though it is a little older. But what I would say is that we've adopted – if I was going to refer to a business model although I'm not sure that we've been formal enough to have one – a slow growth business model. We’ve probably grown by one or two people year on year, which has been steady, sustainable growth. One of the things that I have come to realise over that time, and it feels pertinent to our business offer now, is that you can very easily scale productivity to a larger company, but it is much harder to scale and maintain the quality of creativity that we want to be known for. Ultimately we recognise that creativity is our currency. Service matters, don't get me wrong – it always should – but staying at a more modest size of 11 as we are currently allows us to maintain focus on the quality of our creative output, which is ultimately what keeps the phone ringing.

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JC

So what is Everything In Between’s USP? What makes you stand out as an agency?

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Arran

There is a question. So if the phone is ringing because potential clients like the look of what they see, then it’s the combination of service and creativity that keeps them coming back. We recognise that our output – or the perceived quality and success of it – is subjective, right? Yes there are agencies out there who will say “our branding helped to increase sales by 500%”, and if it did, congratulations and well done! But we like to focus on a) a really strong, attentive level of service and b) how that feeds into high quality creative output because we will have engendered the trust and confidence of our client. And you need that if you want to produce your best work because it avoids too much of an anxiety on a client's part that might in turn restrict the creative potential of a brief. Does that count as a USP? Probably not, but it's something that we really hold dear, especially when we're talking about ourselves to prospective clients.

The other USP, again if you want to call it that, is a “we” not “I” philosophy within the studio. Our egos are inescapable, but what's really, really important to me, and to the company as a whole, is that you suspend any sense of your own agenda when you're working here. And as I mentioned before, we like to see things through our clients eyes. We will always adopt that mindset. We will never go in with a preconceived agenda as to how we should work on something. We will always make sure that we listen. In essence it's our work that is important, not us.

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JC

That's very eloquently put!

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Arran

It’s nothing remarkable, but it’s the approach that we take and it's served us well. The majority of our work comes through recommendations and referrals. We didn't have a website which showcased our body of work until the latter part of last year! So for the first ten years we didn’t have an outwards display of any of our work – which is a terrible business model by the way – yet we have still done well and have continued to very slowly grow in both personnel and stature. I'm sure that is because of the service and creativity we offer. That absence of collective ego and placing a heavy emphasis on finding people who we feel are a good fit in that regard is everything to me.

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JC

?And why Everything In Between? Where does the name come from?

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Arran

Good question! So the name refers to our offering, and ultimately it's about joining the dots between big picture thinking and beautifully crafted design. It's very much a case of us recognising that there are so many facets to how a brand comes together for great effect. If you think about each of those facets as a dot that needs connecting in some way, we are there to join those dots. Seldom is that journey linear, it looks more like a constellation than a logical journey, but that's what keeps us on our toes! We recognise that we are there to make that journey as frictionless, inspiring and enjoyable as we can.

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JC

I love that! You have been running your own agency for 12 years now so I imagine you have seen a lot of trends in design come and go – where do you see the future of creatives heading next? Is AI something you are exploring?

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Arran

AI is definitely an area we haven’t done enough research on yet. From what little we have used it, it’s been helpful. We don't see it as a threat as is sometimes portrayed. But looking ahead, I see it like this – design is the tool, creativity is the skill.

Apps like Figma, MidJourney, and what Adobe are currently doing with some of their products are making our working lives easier in many respects. But in turn, what we need to avoid is any sense of complacency. We need to find other ways to push ourselves creatively because it's all about points of difference. And the risk with AI-integrated software is that it proliferates an even greater kind of generic design than already exists. The barrier for entry is lowering all the time. As long as we apply our minds and our imagination then we should be able to harness the tools to best effect and maintain cut-through though, so I see it as an opportunity. And I think to look at it in another way, we’ll be left behind if we don’t engage in it.

JC

That is definitely the general consensus! In what sort of scenarios have you found AI has really added value to your creative process?

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Arran

Firstly for helping us to present concepts to a client, it's a very quick and easy way with which to sell in a particular style of art direction, be it photography or another creative approach. And secondly we've used it on projects in a number of different ways related to imagery. We have always been transparent (for what it's worth) with our clients about using it, and often it's convenient because it can allow you to get something that's of requisite standard without having to go through a process that historically can be quite time consuming. We are often working to quick turn-arounds so it can get us from A to B far quicker, which is helpful.

JC

Interesting! And in regard to wider industry trends, do you have any views on the blurring of lines between advertising and branding agencies - and vice versa! The introduction of NOT Weiden + Kennedy for instance to Weiden + Kennedy’s offering?

Arran

I like to think of advertising agencies engaging in more branding lead work as a compliment to our industry and its importance in the context of commercial creativity. Looking at the bigger picture of design on an aesthetic level however – and without wishing to sound too much like a cliche – we try where possible to avoid being too trend-led. If we are to pay too close attention to trends, we aren't really doing our clients a fair service in many respects. So I think it's incumbent on us to be aware of what is perhaps of the moment, but not always to pay attention to it. We prefer to look beyond it.?

Something else that’s increasingly clear in our industry is that we exist in this mock-up era where reality is no longer a metric for quality. I’m pleased that so much of our work exists in the real world, and is documented as such, but this means that much of our work is shown static, which in the social media space, doesn’t capture people’s attention as well as motion-based work. So we’re leaning into motion more and more, and it’s actually been especially helpful for us in terms of presenting our concepts to clients as, again, you more easily capture the imagination of your audience with something that moves, as opposed to something that’s static; it just lands better.

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JC

That’s really interesting! I am definitely starting to see more agencies use motion in presentations, now I know why! And to conclude, if you had one piece of advice for your former professional self, what would it be?

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Arran

Well I think that years ago, when I started out as a designer, it was a lot easier - or it made a lot more sense - to be a bit of a generalist. You dabbled in editorial, print, a bit of digital, environmental and so on. And now, thankfully, brands exist in more of an omni-channel environment; there are endless ways to engage an audience. So if I was starting over I think I might focus on one specific discipline. I think creative coding is fascinating as it requires a different type of imagination to what I know, there are so many conditions that govern what’s viable; that makes it really interesting to me.

JC

You aren’t the first person to say that! There is some amazing work going in that space so it is easy to understand why it’s a hot topic at the moment! Thank you so much for your time, you have been incredibly articulate and it has been great getting an insight into both yourself and Everything In Between.

A massive thank you to Arran for his time, it is always a pleasure speaking to founder's about their agencies, and Arran was hugely insightful and very articulate with his thoughts. I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for him and Everything In Between!