Business Model Analysis

Perkins + Will’s goal is to use design to improve how their clients live and work while focusing on new research techniques, sustainability, diversity, health and wellness, and philanthropic initiatives. The firm prides themselves on their ability to relate with a client on a holistic level and add creativity and innovation to the clients’ vision.

The company’s value proposition looks to bring a fresh new T-shirt design that is popular and relevant every 24 hours. What makes the company unique is that It gives artist the opportunity to sell their designs for a temporary time and gives the artist a portion of the profit made. For the customers, it gives them the opportunity to have unique, small production shirts that are only made for a limited time.

Pilsen Outpost is a Pilsen staple whose space provides opportunities for Artists of Color. The space strives to put latinx artists at the top of their list of curators & contributors. In a country where artistic gallery spaces are dominated by White, Upper class males Pilsen Outpost offers opportunities for emerging brown artists to have a space to show work, sell pieces, and organize. This space is one of the only POC designated art galleries in the city. Pilsen Outpost also offers artists a space to sell their work on consignment. The space is designed to be a shop most of the time but is frequently flipped for shows, workshops, panels, and installations.

Right Way Signs’ value proposition is that they “understand how to take a great design on paper and turn it into a message that communicates your message loud and clear.” They are unique because they have over 45 years of experience in sign painting and hand-lettering and it is important to them to make the product right the first time. They are satisfying the customer need of hand-lettered, authentic designs that are one-of-a-kind every time. They approach each project and design in a new way, trying to create old techniques and styles in a modern way.

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

Grip’s customers are businesses in a variety of industries such as fashion & retail, food & beverage, publishing, restaurants, academia, real estate, and more. Their target market are larger business that operate within the Chicagoland area in need of design services related to marketing, brand strategy, and print & interactive product development.

Customers are younger, more into video games, movies, indie things that seem to be on all spectrums of cultures. It seems to be very diverse as many artist and even the models showing off the shirts are many different races and genders so it gives a feeling that everyone is welcome to buy or design with the company.

The company’s clients are large corporations looking for designers to provide full branding and

interactive design for the company to attract new and returning customers. VSA Partners’ clients included large international and national corporations, a few examples include IBM, Facebook, Alibaba and McDonalds. It is clear that working with VSA is a costly venture for a company, and based on their engaging work, it is well worth it. VSA also does full branding and UX design for local non-profit institutions such as the Museum of Science and Industry. It interests me that VSA maintains a large national/international reputation while also being heavily involved in the local Chicago design community through city projects and presence at Chicago design conferences.

It is quite a niche market, a lot of designers and artists buy their products. People who enjoy the aesthetic appeal of KidRobot and/or collect art and art toys are a huge consumer base. I would say the age range can be from teens to people in their 40s. The price does have a factor in the consumer base since a lot of their products can be steep in price, yet they have a big selection of smaller sized products that are more affordable and still have a unique appeal. Their consumers are worldwide.

REVENUE STREAMS

Pilsen Outpost makes money by renting out their spaces to artist, curators, and teachers. They also use their gallery as a storefront to sell the works of artists that have shown work in the space. Pilsen Outpost also provides monthly classes and workshops that often time require RSVP & payment.

CHANNELS

They have a publication called “Dialogue”, which is a magazine that discusses new trends and issues of direct concern to clientele. This is published twice a year as a form of communicating to clients. They have an E-news to sign up for on their website as well. Their blog, GenslerOn, which they post on as well as all other outlets of social media, is a great way of communicating their business. They also reach their customers through word of mouth since they are such a large globally recognized firm.

VSA maintains a heavy social media presence. The company’s website and LinkedIn are filled

with interesting articles about design, culture and projects VSA works on. They have a blog,

Vimeo channel and are featured in many design publications such a Communication Arts.

Additionally, VSA produces their own digital magazine AI as a showcase of their designer’s

technology related passion projects. The company’s website also showcases many different

types of projects the company has worked on, and the website itself is well designed and easy

to use which showcases the firm’s web abilities.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

As a large firm, they provide personal relationships with each of their clients. It is stated “client needs, expectations, and strategy provide the context for every project we carry out together.” I think that their customers feel that the brand is large, yet they still feel a tight connection with their designer and the company as a whole, because they are working together. They attract and keep in touch with clients through their publication, social media, and blogging.

Personal social media posts. Active with customers and followers. Gives extras and hand made stuff with purchases. Customers feel connected and tight knit, cared about and appreciated. Contribute to tattoo community and promote tattoo artists.

Personal and co-created. They attract people through social media and in certain stores through their designs. They give people a sense of quirkiness, interest, modern appeal through their designs.

This company has a personal relationship with its customers because they have offices for the customers to go to and they also travel to see their clients and give them an estimate on what the sign will cost in their place of business. They have an easily-navigable website that attracts customers and showcases their portfolio as well as social media presence and community interaction, such as attending and hosting events that allow for the community to interact and learn about the company and their specializations. The customers feel welcomed and at-home when using and contacting Right Way Signs, as it is a welcoming and friendly environment. “When you partner with Right Way Signs of Chicago, you are guaranteed to receive high quality products at competitive prices on time, every time.”

KEY ACTIVITIES

In order to have success, Firebelly needs to:

Partner with a vast, unique, and valuable client base

Create incomparable designs to showcase the personality of each individual project and brand

Maintain a positive public platform and image online and in-person

Continue speaking at events, conferences, and meetings

Continue hosting Typeforce and running side endeavors for the benefit of society

Keep updated on the Chicago design community and local/national trends in the industry

Treat their employees with the utmost respect

KEY PARTNERS The company’s key partners include design, data analysis and managerial related software.

VSA invests in having the right technology to produce great work by using the best cameras and

developer software. In an article I discovered about VSA’s work with promoting the 150th

anniversary of Cargil, a food and agricultural products company, the company describes how

important using the right software was in creating the right website by using Gather Content, a

team sharing program which merges dropbox and UX features.

Urban Outfitters and Barnes & Noble are their biggest store distributors. They have a small selection of online distributors too. Amazon and eBay users sell some current items, some at normal base price and some at cheaper prices. Many of those sellers on online stores also sell KidRobots older discontinued items. They have licensing rights with brands to sell toys with their designs on them like Marvel, Cartoon Network, South Park, DC Comics, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Simpsons, amongst many others.

KEY RESOURCES

Designers and Design Experts

Managers and Principals

Researchers and Analysts

Graphic Designers

Customer Relations Teams

Offices and Headquarters

Research Materials and Labs

Design Software and Technology

A space that houses their mass collaboration and creativity

Employees that, together, create a team that can solve any design problem

Income to pay their employees

Office equipment including high-end computers and printers to fuel creation

A trademark for their phrase “Good Design, for Good Reason”

Licensing for programs like Adobe Creative Cloud

Factories to mold plastic vinyl into the shapes of their toys, also to make plush toys. Physicals involve clay, plastic, silicon, ink, and mold casts. They need computers for utilizing design programs and other business needs. They feed off artists to collaborate with and cooperative, highly creative individuals to run their business.

The key resources for Right Way Signs to be successful are printers, paper, paint, vinyl, computers, design software, cameras, painters, administrators, and new and returning clients. In order for them to be successful, they need to have returning clients and good advertising in order to broaden their portfolio and reach new clients through word-of-mouth and social media.

EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

The company operates within market conditions. It is stated that there has been a 5.3% increase in annual growth of the architecture business and it is expected to continue rising. Considering Gensler has many different areas of expertise, their business is in a strong market condition, always having diverse target markets to fall back on when the architecture business gets slow.

The biggest trend design firms face today is keeping up with UX design and understanding how

customers will actually use their designs. In an interview with Associate Partner and Content

Practice Lead Karen Semone she describes “ Smart consumer brands are building communities

of loyal followers to participate in their R&D processes.” In some more investigation of VSA it

became clear that the company spends a lot of time receiving feedback on their web design

throughout the creative process by doing extensive user testing. Since UX research is often

surprising Semone also explains that “Executives must hire for, and then allow for,

experimentation, knowing that not all strategies will stick. And marketers must pay attention to

the details—maintaining adherence to brand standards, voice and tone, and innate knowledge

in what’s right to say or do for the brand—in a live, improvisational setting.”

COMPETITION

There are several large architecture firms that focus on commercial spaces, like Perkins + Will. According to architecturalrecord.com, Perkins + Will was ranked third best architecture firm in the United States for 2016/2017, based on 2016 revenue. Surrounding Perkins + Will on the leaderboard is Gensler (#1), AECOM (#2), Jacobs (#4), and HOK (#5). These four firms create the largest competition for Perkins + Will as they are all fighting for the top spot and most revenue. Compared to AECOM, a large public corporation, Perkins + Will demonstrates less variety of projects and services. However, Perkins + Will contains more disciplines than Jacobs. I think Perkins + Will distinguishes themselves by creating a morally and ethically driven relationship with both employees and clients. Additionally, Perkins + Will has immense determination to give back to local communities.

VSA’s major competitors in Chicago and across the country would include Leo Burnett and

Ogilvy. VSA chooses to distinguish itself by designing less cookie-cutter corporate style designs

and really addressing the specific look, feel and tone of their clients across their work for them.

VSA emphasizes research and data driven design to set itself apart.

The main competition for Right Way Signs in Chicago is Stephen Reynolds, a local sign painter as well. Stephen Reynolds has a much smaller portfolio of work as well as a website that is not designed as well as the website of Right Way Signs. Both companies would be competing for business from organizations looking for hand-lettering on windows, museums, and shops. Right Way Signs distinguishes itself from Stephen Reynolds because they have a much broader portfolio, the ability to achieve a variety of signs in many different materials and mediums, a well-designed website, and more experience in the field of sign-painting and lettering.

CHALLENGES

I think one of two large challenges Perkins + Will faces is continuing to grow and diversify the company. The firm has already stretched into non-profit organizations, philanthropic initiatives, and have created their own research technologies and labs. Moving forward, what more can they include to be able to set themselves apart from competition? Additionally, I think Perkins + Will has the potential to face issues with a generally older employee demographic. When looking online, several of their employees appear to be a bit older with decades of experience in the field. Obviously, several years of experience is attractive on a resume, however, they run the risk of getting stuck in one mindset or vision. Though it may not be an issue at Perkins + Will, I think without young designers at the firm, they run the risk of facing politics, design ruts, etc.

OPPORTUNITIES

If I were in charge of VSA, I would invest in heavy tech research. I would want VSA to know

more about emerging trends and future technologies to be a leader and have a strong grasp on

the capabilities and limitations of future channels, like hologram advertisements.