Watch the full video of Turn Table: The Anatomy of a Pitch
NB Studio founders Nick Finney and Alan Dye responded to Design Indaba’s call for an extraordinary Conference Talk by writing a play that reveal the underlying tensions, emotions and white lies at a client pitch. The play Turn Table: The Anatomy of a Pitch was performed for the first time at the Cape Town Conference by professional actors. The characters Peter and Jo are not direct representations of either of their authors, rather a representation of a series of ideas.
“The client needs bullshit, subtlety is wasted on the client,” says Peter in the play.
The play moves between dialogue, memory and stream of consciousness monologues.
After the performance, Dye and Finney came to the stage to share their nine-point manifesto.
Learn the rules before you break them
Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups
Indecision kills
Become your customer
If everything is important – nothing is important
Tell the truth. Be on Time
Life’s too short not to be a designer
The NB Mantra “creative courage” is a constant reminder to the designers not to get complacent or lazy.
It’s a wonderful life being a designer - you see things differently and think about things differently. Alan Dye
“Breaking the rules is fun,” says Finney.
In their time together, NB Studio has worked with a range of clients, including a Russian bank, Mothercare, The Almeida Theatre, Ravensbourne and Spring Chicken. For the Almeida, they literally turned the identity upside down.