When did you decide to make a career in the brand design space?

Think of the perfect Venn diagram in your mind’s eye. You have branding on one side and design on the other. The intersection of those two paradigms is brand design. I came to realize that branding is an understanding of the purpose that a brand is communicating its promise. Design is the execution of that message. My modus operandi is continual progression, always growing and evolving. I’ve always had an insatiable appetite to learn more.

How does so-called “good” design support the overall brand promise?

As creatives, we have to be articulate in the way we communicate. Whether I’m designing a storefront or designing a campaign, I think, ‘What is it you want your audience to take away from this experience?’ and ‘What feeling do you want to evoke in them?’ When the client feels like the design is familiar, and it’s comfortable to them and resonates with them, that’s when it’s good design. 

How did your background as a sponsored BMX athlete prepare you for the challenges at hand as chief creative officer for the boy’s group at Mattel?

My charge was to reinvigorate the 50-year-old Hot Wheels brand. Mattel was interested in becoming more involved in the youth market and action sports, specifically. Word got around that there was this guy who knows how to talk to an action sports kid, as an action sports guy, plus he’s tenured in the profession. It really influenced me to grow a deeper understanding, now from the client (brand) perspective, of how branding and design should really come together.

How can designers communicate the ROI of design to gain support for their initiatives from the c-suite?

Often, design is subjective when it’s reviewed, but you can’t measure subjectivity. How you remove the subjectivity of design is to put branding strategy before it. There is some education involved on the designer’s part. They need to have the courage to say, ‘This campaign will succeed, but it’s not going to be about how many units we sell.’ Instead, the quantifiable success will be how the brand is sought out.

What we’re doing is nurturing and building brand value and brand equity. It’s brand valuation through equity, not brand valuation through revenue. Revenue is what you measure analytically. Brand value and equity is how you sustain success.

No two waves are the same…

What about your work makes you jump out of bed each morning and ask, “What’s next?”

I never tire of working in this space because of what it means to me to be in a space where people are inviting you to collaborate with them because of your creativity and your ability to see things that other people may not.

What advice would you offer creatives working in design?

This space is dynamic: Things are changing, new audiences are coming in, new trends, new nuances, and it’s incumbent upon us as creatives and designers to be aware of these things and understand how to see ahead of them.

riCardo Crespo is best known in the creative/design+branding industries as a creative ronin, driven by the applied ethos of intelligently provoking and delivering against a brand’s promise through innovative thought leadership and compelling communication. A globally seasoned and celebrated executive creative, he continues to deliver his passion for excellence to many high-profile retail brands through his integrated strategic plans and one-voice branded communications. riCardo’s prolific tenure has included the pivotal role of SVP, Global Creative Chief for 20th Century Fox. Prior to that role, crespo held several executive leadership positions including the chief creative post at Mattel Inc., and at notable advertising icons such as McCann Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi and Bozell Worldwide. For more about riCardo and his Opening Keynote session at IRDC 2016, visit irdconline.com.