Joe O’Hehir is a graphic designer and the principal of JOD, a graphic design company in Silicon Valley.
How and when did JOD get started?
We rose out of the ashes of the dot com crash, so about 2001. I was working as an art director at a technology start-up and when they laid me off, they hired me to do some contract work. Some other folks from the marketing department had gone to work with other companies and before long I had a half dozen clients and it sort of took off like that…it was a lot of fun.
What type of clients do you have?
Over the years we have had the opportunity to work with some of the leading technology brands: Nikon, IDG World Expo, Apple, HP, Mercury, SanDisk, as well as some really killer small tech companies like Jivox, Blaze, Celequest, and Aggregate Knowledge to name a few.
Sounds like your area of focus is in tech?
Being in Silicon Valley that is sort of our niche but we are definitely a generalist design company. We’ve done work for retail, architecture and professional services firms too. Hey, if a company is truly passionate about what they do and sees the strategic value in good design, we want to work with them.
How do you get clients to see the strategic value in good design?
This is not an issue when we work with established brands like Nikon or Apple. But we do work with a lot of small companies often founded by brilliant visionaries who want to lead with the technology rather than telling customers about the value of this technology and how it can help them. In that case, we help the client to start thinking this way. This is where I see the most strategic value in what we do.
…and the design?
The design part of the equation is much more black and white for us. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of trying to impress clients with eloquent explanations of my design philosophy or using that as a differentiator in how I pitch JOD. We have a way more blue collar approach. Which is pretty much, “Let us show you samples of our work, and how it helped the client, and let us know what you think.”
What kind of design projects are you working on these days?
We are working primarily on designing and building websites or re-designing them. Brand identity work is still going strong. Since the tech world seems to have fewer uses for print collateral, much of that portion of our work has transitioned over PDF Collateral…we can call it that. We absolutely love any integrated design project, but are just as happy to design your html email campaign.
Don’t design agencies love to describe what makes their approach and process unique?
Yeah, and that’s one of the reasons I try to avoid calling us an agency (wink). I try and avoid convoluted business and process talk. It is one of the things that annoys me about our industry. There are tons of great designers out there churning out lots of great work, so we can all see the end result.
You just said there are tons of great designers out there. Can you name a few?
Yes, there are quite a few that I respect and draw inspiration from. The legendary Duarte and their uncanny ability to take the most complex problems and turn them into these beautiful expressions of simplicity that everyone can understand…ever hear of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth? Ty Mattson’s talent…his series posters for LOST are just SICK. David Carson…still. Paul Rand, he laid down the foundation…before him no one really designed logos…after him…there were all of us.
You have a unique business model. Does it work?
Yes, we build a project team based on our client’s needs. We have a very tight knit virtual team of web and flash developers, writers and designers. It keeps our overhead low and we can pass those cost savings onto our clients without sacrificing quality or level of service. I run the business and am the primary designer on all projects. We have been very successful working this way, and most clients see the value in it.
What is the biggest professional mistake you have made?
Well, there are lots of them of course. Very early in my career, I left a great design agency abruptly because I was offered a ton of money elsewhere. While it ended up a decent career move, it still bothers me to this day because I wasn’t yet mature enough to see how important those personal relationships were…compared to my ambition. I think because of that experience I have grown to put a real premium on the relationships I have with my clients and colleagues.
We can end with this. When you are not designing and running a business what do like to do outside the office?
When I’m out of the office, I’m pretty much chilling with the family, chefing up epic meals and cocktails, coaching soccer, going big game fishing, snowboarding, mountain biking, checking out all the cool design in the world around us…and lately spending too much time in the clutches of social media.