Joel Derksen

Joel set out as a self-taught designer and freelancer in midwestern Canada, before studying formally in Halifax and Toronto. He began his career working with top agencies and clients across the country, including boutique design firm Oxygen and partners such as Toronto Botanical Garden, VQA (Wine Grower's Association Canada), and Acura. Joel’s strategic and resourceful approach brought him to the attention of the legendary design firm IDEO, where he worked in the London and German offices helping clients such as Carlsberg and Salomon redefine themselves for their fast-moving markets. After IDEO, Joel worked across Europe in firms such as HUGE and Landor, while nurturing his own clients from pre-conception through to launch.

What does your creative process look like?

It begins a lot with dialogue - unpacking the brief, chatting with the client. I often take things away and think about them for a while, which I prefer over brainstorming sessions. From there, I try to focus on historical, cultural and contemporary cues that might create emotional resonance. this could be anything from referencing a poet to a tarot card. Setting the vibe is important.

From there it really depends on the project at-hand. Though i do have some standard design processes I like to go through, I try not to be a slave to a framework - I'm keen to build a good working process that involves a client without overwhelming them while maintaining strategic integrity.

What is your dream project?

I'm not sure I have dream projects right now. I have dream clients: people who are obsessed with understanding their customers. Who come in with strong opinions, loosely held. Who are experts in their fields and want to go elbow-to-elbow on ideas to make the project the absolute best. The ones who love brand, and know when to take a smart risk (and when to wait it out).

That said, building whole brand worlds and experiences are where my heart is. So hotels, luxury experiences, food and lifestyle feature heavily in my wish list!

What’s your advice to young Creatives just starting?

A flexible mind can handle any feedback. Inflexibility in generating ideas is the sign of a stiff mind, not a creative one.

I’d love to hear more about your experience! Can you tell me about a project you found particularly challenging, and how you managed to overcome any obstacles?

Each project has its own challenges, but in terms of scale I think that being creative director for Aero, the luxury airline, for 2 years is probably one of the bigger ones. There was a lot of organizational and structural work to be done, alongside a breakneck pace for deliverables. Every piece touched multiple departments (from customer service to flight operations) and the customer, and budgets were also incredibly tight.

I also worked across 2 timezones, with a VP of brand in North America and one in Europe and also provided feedback to external agencies.

Over the time I worked with Aero, I believe I shipped over 200 pieces of design - everything from napkins to wayfinding, including finding new vendors to execute all of this work.

I also wrote key documents (strategy, photography guidelines/art direction, philosophy of design, brand collaboration rules).

When creating a brand identity, how important is target audience research?

Strategy is always front and center in a branding project - if the strategy isn't sound and setting up the creative work for success, then the whole project ends up hampered. Target audience research is a big part of that, but it's important to define target audience. For example, internal stakeholders, VCs, and the overall culture of the organization is just as important as the market-facing audiences (eg end users).

To that end, it's also important to use brand as a filter to define what you're moving away from, as much as what you're moving towards.

How do you make sure that the system that you create is a flexible system that adapts to a growing and changing brand? How do you define flexibility and how do you make sure you make it flexible?

Building a brand is like a science experiment. You run a bunch of hypothesis first, and then write the final report.

So I focus on outputs, structure, and media first. There's nothing sexy about it: a lot of it is permutations in very systematic ways.

But some other filters I consider? Animation is a big one. Web and digital are great for putting an entire brand look together, it's the one place whre your whole story comes alive in one place.

What do you think sets your work apart from other Graphic Designers?

Personally, I believe that great design walks the line of commercial success and poetic art. I don't see a dichotomy between the two. My career has really been defined by leaning into the complications, contradictions, tensions and nuances in a project and finding beauty there. Simplicity is working THROUGH complexity.

A white rose may be simply an all-white flower, but don't mistake it's cohesion for simplicity.

You have worked in a multitude of realms in the entertainment industry, what is next for you? Is there more you want to explore?

Hospitality, luxury, and immersive experiences. Projects where I can work with other disciplines, bringing in scent, movement, time and other senses.

Every Creative has their style but it can be difficult to bring that style to different projects with different clients, all with their own styles. How do you bring the two together?

As a brand designer, my focus is really on understanding the semiotics and communications cues needed for a project to be successful. I've always felt a good designer is a chameleon: a flexible mind with a large, large library of ways to solve problems is the mark of a true expert.