Shelby Guergis on building brands and connections

I’ve read that you use your design practice to explore more "existential questions" such as "what connects us?" Can you say a little more about that?

What drew me to the RCA was that I was noticing a lot of questions coming to light in my work that I didn’t have enough time to engage with in a deeper, more meaningful way. These were questions around what connects us at a time when much of the public conversation is focused on what divides us, and more specifically (in Canada) around the tropes and visual markers that shape how we view ourselves and project to the rest of the world. We take it for granted how much media contributes to the feeling of being part of a group, a community, or even part of a nation. I wanted to think about how these same tropes and visual markers contribute to these social imaginaries, that feeling of being Canadian. As a designer my practice has centered around branding and typeface design –two parts of graphic design focused on communicating in a very clear and particular way. Understanding how design can contribute to a sense of unity (or division), felt important as a designer working amongst a shifting socio-political landscape where it made sense to interrogate the historical visual language of Canadianness and to build this into my process in a mindful way.

At the RCA the research and body of work I assembled was centered around the Canadian national identity and unpacking the visual markers that have shaped it over the years. I was inspired by the likes of General Idea and the ways in which they subverted forms of popular and media culture to open up a space for dialog with the public. As I came to the end of first year I drew upon this and was exploring different approaches to publishing and thinking about how I could extend the conversation beyond the walls of the RCA. My first year tutor Sarah (also Canadian!) helped me think through this and approach it with an empathetic lens. I still recall the conversations we had – they truly shifted my thinking and opened my eyes to new ways of working. I feel when design is at its best, it starts a conversation. My first-year dissertation, printed on ripstop fabric and sewn into a reusable shopping bag,was influenced by No Name (packaging)–a line of generic brand grocery and household products sold in Canada since the late 70s.

Where has your journey taken you since graduation from the Royal College of Art?

After graduating I remained in London for a while and lectured on design, continuing with the body of research I had begun at the RCA. Then as the pandemic hit, I found myself back in Toronto where I joined the team at DECIEM, known for the beloved beauty brand The Ordinary. I was part of an amazing team during a really pivotal moment in this brands’ evolution as it was growing rapidly on a global scale, and in the midst of an acquisition by Estée Lauder. My role was focused on leading efforts to build out the brand identity for The Ordinary while working across other projects such as launch campaigns and packaging design. A favourite project from my time there was The Future Set – I worked closely with an industrial designer to create custom packaging, and support the campaign art direction for which we produced a launch video. The packaging system for The Future Set I worked on while at DECIEM, for which our team won a Dieline award in 2022. I’m now based in the US where I joined the IDEO team as a Design Lead, working across the consumer products, technology and hospitality portfolios.

What does a typical day at IDEO look like for you?

I wouldn’t say there is a typical day at IDEO – they all look a little different depending on the project I’m on or the team I’m working with. On an average day I could find myself prototyping in our shop at the studio, in the midst of a design sprint with a team of designers, or participating in a client workshop. A consistent element of my day-to-day at IDEO is the inspiring creative team I get to work alongside, and continue to learn from. On any given project I might be working with a combination of writers, industrial, interaction or software designers. In our studio you have exposure to different projects IDEOers are tackling across education, consumer products, health, hospitality and technology. You’re encouraged to explore and push the boundaries of your craft. IDEO is a bit like the RCA in that sense – we tend to work across disciplines and are able to experiment without fear of failure. Of course, we’re working on client projects and usually tackling some pretty big questions within predetermined time frames. We prototype rapidly, learn from what doesn’t work and keep moving forward, building on the understanding we gain from the process.

Can you tell us about a recent project you’ve worked on?

I recently worked on the brand identity for the IHG Hotels & Resorts new midscale hotel chain: Garner. Our stellar team consisted of a brand designer, motion designer, writers and an industrial designer. In a crowded hospitality industry, the messaging travelers are confronted with can feel repetitive and many of the brands in this space are indistinguishable from one another. With this project, our team began by crafting a narrative underpinning that was inherently warm and welcoming, but also spoke to an adventurous spirit synonymous with the open road. We workshopped a series of “vibe boards” with the client to establish the feel of the brand, which was a lot of fun. Garner is a conversion brand which means that each location will have a distinctive feeling and character so we built a flexible design system that could accommodate the individuality of each space. At the core of the identity is a hand-drawn logo, inspired by vintage sign painting and woodblock typography. When designing these forms special consideration was paid to ensure the logo was clear and assertive, yet still evoked the warm and welcoming nature of these spaces as a home-away-from-home for weary travelers. Starting from scratch and creating hand-drawn letterforms for the logo system was a project highlight for me. Accompanying the logo our team built out a full suite of brand elements from bespoke icons that support navigation throughout the hotels to a comprehensive signage system for the hotel exteriors. Through the design development process we considered how the brand would show up in a vast range of environments from conversion hotels to digital booking flows and tailored the identity to ensure cohesion across touchpoints. In a matter of weeks after we handed off files to the client they launched the brand to great success. There are already several Garner locations across the United States, Germany and Japan, with plans for further global expansion this year.

What changes have you seen in design trends?

The sheer amount of trends that live in the current subconscious simultaneously and are continuously resurrected. You hear the sentiment (maybe not as much lately) that we live in a trendless time. Things aren’t necessarily going out of style, and the masses don’t follow a concise set of trends as perhaps they once did. I’m not sure I agree, but I find this rejection of what can be a relentless trend cycle and the rise of movements like conscious consumption on Tik Tok quite interesting. Especially in terms of how it’s altering the way brands embrace said trends and navigate how to effectively connect with consumers. The days of one authoritative voice – for example Vogue – coming out and saying these are this year's styles is at odds with the more ground-up, hyperspeed world of social media where at any moment a new trend can take off.

Understanding why a certain visual style is suddenly popular requires a much more nuanced understanding of the intertwining of cultural and aesthetic histories. Why, for example, a neo-futuristic typographic style might suddenly become ubiquitous when technology has never felt more dangerous and more transformative. This requires designers to be much more attuned to the “why”– the social, economic, political, and cultural contexts that inform our work. It’s exciting because it shows just how expansive and wide-ranging our discipline is – how design is and always was about so much more than just making things look good.

How do you think AI will be able to assist designers of the future?

My hopeful prediction is that AI will be a collaborator or tool to iterate and realise ideas more quickly for designers. For instance, creating scrappy sketches. Something I’ve been reflecting on recently is how this will impact the creative process. For most, we learn through doing and making – through sketching and prototyping we can understand whether a concept or idea “works”. As I experiment with AI and see the creative community at large do the same, I’m interested to see how this might evolve. I feel like we’re still in somewhat of an awkward phase, trying to figure out what to do with this. But making things is something I very much enjoy doing myself. Even if AI were to somehow become a one-to-one replacement for me or my work, I’d still do it myself because I get something out of the creative process. We don’t need to constantly look for ways to optimize or cut corners in our creative work. Sometimes it takes time because it is, at the end of the day, a craft. And that time is necessary to create something meaningful.

How important is customer feedback/experience to you when thinking about a new concept?

Empathising with and designing for users is paramount in my design process. Something I’ve found to be valuable with my work in the consumer products and retail space is spending time in shops observing and engaging with consumers, in addition to reading app reviews or product reviews online to get a sense of how this translates to a digital space. It’s interesting to hear what pain points may exist and to better understand the factors which influence certain behaviours. This is something we typically include in our research process at IDEO when working on projects. One part in particular that I find important is never asking questions in the abstract, but always presenting users with something tangible to which they can react. For example, if we’re working on a project about wellness, we would never pose the question “what do you think about wellness?”. Instead we would prototype a product or service and ask questions along the lines of “how does this make you feel?”. In the latter situation we receive much richer, more actionable feedback and insights.

Is design behind typography limitless?

In a sense, yes. The digital era unlocked so many possibilities through the introduction of an array of tools and resources which have made it possible to question entrenched narratives and accepted truths around type. Even just fifteen years ago I feel that there were a series of accepted norms around how to design form, distribute weight, etc… that have, in a sense, been thrown out the window. And we’ve seen the rise of designers and foundries specializing in the type families which are distinctive and contemporary yet still functional. It’s more accessible than ever for designers to learn type design and access the necessary tools to create a family, and it feels as though the line between graphic designer and type designer is blurring.