What are your pet peeves when working with design agencies? How do you screen agencies to make sure that they won’t commit these pet peeves? A good discussion about strategic approach is the best way to avoid potential issues. In addition, starting with a smaller project is a way to get an understanding of a new agency’s process. 1 2 3 Strategic understanding of your brand Understanding your packing and manufacturing capabilities 1 2 3 Assuming they know everything about the brand Lack of communication on keeping up with market and consumer trends Conforming too often with old ways and templates used in the past How would you classify your relationship with design agencies? What’s the worst experience you’ve ever had with a design firm? We feel it’s important that we balance the strategic company direction with outside perspective on the best approach for us. Our agencies would be classified as a junior partner based on our structure and approach to our business. We consider our firms to certainly be partners and have regular strategic meetings to understand our company and brand direction. The worst is when you’re in a situation leading direction without getting any market insight from the agency. We definitely battled this with a past agency several years ago, and it really let the brand stagnate. What are the top three criteria you use to select structural design firms? Innovation in both design and structure My dream agency’s understanding of Sunsweet Growers’ objectives, competitive marketplace and consumers would lead to innovation and dynamic ideas to help grow our brand. 1 2 3 Understanding of objectives of a particular project Understanding of packing capabilities Innovative ideas Please describe your “dream” design agency? PACKAGEDESIGNMAG.COM 43