News | 19/01/2021

Our Evolving Role

Posted by Lisa Seymour

Here at Fox&Bear, there is a lot of unpublished work in the guise of partnerships, collaborations, consultancy and advisory roles, as the businesses we work with prefer it that way, but this new way of working has definitely taught us we’re not in web design Kansas anymore!

When starting Fox&Bear, I was very much a director. My focus was on growing the brand, business development, and account management. We worked with clients to produce a look, feel, or item by together, producing a working brief and then handing over to a designer or developer to make it happen.

I am so much more than that now and I feel all our roles at Fox&Bear have evolved considerably due to the demands and needs of our clients and the value we can bring.  I now consult on clients’ businesses to help them devise new business ideas and decide on preferred marketing channels for maximum visibility. I work closely with their internal teams to aid better communication channels, including attending regular meetings where we discuss how we can work together and offer insight and value from a design perspective. Alongside this, we advise on IP, trademarking, visuals, and conceptual ideas for both companies and product launches. Our clients work together to solve global issues and are looking to change the face of research and manufacturing and they inspire me to help them, their brands, and their teams to be culturally aligned.

The clients we work with in this manner are from the tech industry. They are driven by a purpose – to cause lasting change to the planet and to its people which is hugely appealing to us. The world is turning so fast and as a businessperson, it is so easy to get caught in the rat race, (money in money out).

Tech is obviously a very lucrative sector for the people that work in it, you only have to look at the likes of Apple and Facebook, but the companies we work with use their minds and expertise to work on problems that can be solved and directly affect everyday people. Their ground-breaking technology changes people’s lives, which brings profits that are funnelled directly into the next ground-breaking project.

Tech is important to Fox&Bear, but it’s not the tech we think of when we hear the word; it is tech with a conscience, tech that makes people rich with life not rich with money. And that kind of company culture and ethos feeds my soul, speaks to my heart and inspires me to do better, do more, and keep learning!

Of course, it wasn’t easy to adapt to this new role – it took every one of my 44 years of experience! I have had to think fast and push myself out of my comfort zone a number of times; I have run huge internal feedback projects to define re-organisational structures for companies, learnt scientific words I had to promptly look up after a meeting, produced branded presentation about subjects I had never even dreamt of prior, whilst being able to relay bite-sized information back to my team to produce work that is complex on brand and concise. I have also dealt with national press and we are currently producing press packs for multiple launches due in 2021.

All this learning has been so great and for us, the future is to encourage more tech companies to think about their legacy and what they want from their brand. I want to help them grow and ultimately give them a platform to answer more of the planet’s problems. Sounds like a big job, but these people are amazing and to have a tiny hand in what they do allow Fox&Bear to have a legacy most agencies can only dream of.