Kristian Andersen's Page

Lately we’ve been talking a lot about the elements of a successful design project. We thought it would be interesting, and helpful to other readers, to hear a bit more about other folk’s successes and how they were achieved. Tell us about the client, the challenge, and the solution.



Any type of design project is fair game, including:

• Corporate identity

• User interfaces

• Concept prototypes

• Environments

• Service experiences

• Web sites

•… Continue

I finished “The King of Madison Avenue” by Kenneth Roman, a few months ago. The book is probably the most comprehensive (and accurate) biography of David Ogilvy ever written. I’ve been meaning to turn a couple of the choicest, dog-eared pages into blog posts for some time now. I still plan to do that, specifically around his views on the importance of good writing in the creative industry, but for the time being I thought I’d just pull a couple of quotes out of the book that I thought were… Continue

Recently we were informed by a client, with whom we had been working for several months, that they were moving their account to a design shop, located in a very large city on the east coast. It wasn’t ugly or contentious, there were no angry words, or overt slights – it was all quite civilized. But that didn’t temper the sting of rejection. This particular relationship was, by our standards, extremely short-lived. Of course, we’ve had client relationships die slow deaths of attrition. It’s a… Continue

At Kristian Andersen + Associates we bill ourselves as a brand experience design consultancy. This is a pretty nebulous way of trying to package a handful of distinct, yet deeply connected, disciplines into one cogent, tightly-edited description of our services. As we continue to refine our offerings to clients and partners, we also continue to struggle with how best articulate those offerings. Ultimately, our mission is to help technology-focused start-ups (and growth-oriented companies)… Continue

Have you ever been involved in a client engagement where you felt that you just couldn’t get through? Where mediocre work kept bubbling to the top and the most compelling ideas kept landing on the cutting room floor. Where in spite of you and your team’s best efforts, you just couldn’t seem to get the client to rally around and support your recommendations. We’ll you’re certainly not alone, since time immemorial practitioners in the creative services industry have struggled with spending more… Continue