STEPHEN FRYKHOLM
Frykholm has been graphic design director with Herman Miller - which needs no introduction - for decades. He's seen a lot of talent come and go, and remembers his protégés with great fondness.

FINDING TALENT
Talent comes to Herman Miller because of our reputation. Some of the best have come to us through a recruitment program, in which we offer recent design graduates a one-year contract. That's how we found Kevin Budelman and Yang Kim. When their year was up we were short-staffed, and asked them to stay. I could see they had talent that deserved to be nurtured because they understood the problems and presented ideas, instead of graphic pizzazz. They discussed what they wanted to accomplish rather than how they would accomplish it: They sold the steak before the sizzle, the communication before the colors and point sizes.

I look for people who have design in their blood and have good work ethics. Kevin and Yang both worked hard and steadily. They were willing to make personal sacrifces to achieve excellence.

CARE AND FEEDING
To help them succeed, we gave them meaningful work and let them go at it. Sometimes we kicked off the project with a few ideas, sometimes not, but we always provided encouragement. When we had to criticize we did it honestly, by putting the project in context: Where would it be? Who would use it? How would it be used? While I demand excellence, I'm constructive, because success comes from self-confidence, not from intimidation.

I had a good time working with Kevin and Yang. I wouldn't have worked with them otherwise (and I wouldn't continue to work with them as contractors now). We loved talking about design, the methodology, testing every idea. We enjoyed anticipating the issues and making it easy for the client to say, "Yes."

SELLING THE WORK
Our design discussions make it easier to present and sell the final ideas. Though we're Herman Miller's in-house design group, we still have clients. The chairman, CEO, and president review annual reports, product managers review collateral, marketing reviews promotions, and so on. When it's time to present our designs, whoever works on the project has the opportunity to present it. However, since young people sometimes lack the persuasiveness, confidence, and sense of presence it takes to sell an idea, I'll get in there and stand up for them when necessary.

The techniques are simple. First, let the client know you understand the project and have a good solution. It feels like bragging at first, but you're the expert. Your client needs to know why you've done what you've done, and why you believe it's a good solution.

You also need to recognize failure gracefully, which I learned from John Casado. During a presentation he made to us, we started nitpicking. John, very politely, picked up the boards and said, "I believe I'm off the mark. Let me take this away and come back next week with another solution." Instead of arguing, defending, or letting us art direct him, he took responsibility. That's what I teach the people who work with me.

LETTING GO
I didn't want to see Yang and Kevin go, but I understood that they had an itch to see if they could make it on their own. I believe they've succeeded. They built a nice-sized design firm, BBK Studios, and have done good work with good clients. Watching them come into their own is my best reward.

JOE DUFFY
Duffy spoke to us by cell phone from New York. He and his staff had come from Minneapolis for the AIGA Medalists Gala, where Joe and his work were recognized. They stayed over to tour trendsetting shops and boutiques. "We need the input. This trip will more than pay for itself in the inspiration it'll generate," he said.

SUCCESS STORIES
I have been fortunate to have had dozens of talented young people come through our doors over the years. I'm proud of all of them, but I'm proudest of the ones who had the guts to move into another discipline or expand their horizons, like Missy Wilson, Todd Waterbury, Genevieve Gorder, and Brian Collins.

Missy Wilson opened a gallery with an interior design boutique in New York. She's pursuing an entrepreneurial venture in an entirely new discipline.

Todd Waterbury became creative director at Weiden + Kennedy in New York. He's done incredible work for clients like Nike and ESPN in design, branding, and beyond, to master print and video advertising.

Genevieve Gorder has become known as a designer, as well as the star of the successful television series Trading Spaces on TLC. Her own show, The Town Haul, will be premiering soon.

I hired Brian Collins partly on the basis of his portfolio, and partly because he was willing to help us develop our business (it's hard to find people who are sensitive to design to work on the business side). He went on to become an outstanding creative director-no easy transition. I now consider Brian and Ogilvy's BIG (Brand Integration Group) team one of our toughest competitors.

FOCUS ON THE WORK
Talented people were attracted to us early on. The key is to make sure that your work sets an inspirational standard, because first and foremost, the best people care about the kind of work they will be able to do. Our staff can see that even junior people right out of school get in there, mix it up, and do work that gets produced - and noticed.

You have to start with the right clients. In the first meeting, we ask hard questions to see if they've come to us for the right reasons, and will support good work. Then you have to do work you believe in, without compromising your principles. Our clients respect our work because we can tell them why we believe in it. We don't guess: We use qualitative research. Although most people are uncomfortable with things they've never seen before, if you ask the right questions and analyze the responses properly, clients will see that a design is right precisely because it's unique in its category. That makes it hard for them to say no. The original idea gets produced - and that puts us in front of new talent.

FINDING AND NURTURING THE RIGHT PEOPLE
When people see our work and decide that this is where they want to be, the hiring decision is based on two things: design and personality. First, they have to come up with great original ideas, and execute them exquisitely. I look for concepts that can be extended into every facet of a brand campaign. Too many portfolios don't have them. They look cool, as though they've come straight out of an awards annual - and they probably have.

Then it's about people as people. Will they fit in? Are they collaborative? Will they be fun to work with? Will they crack under pressure? This is crucial, because the people you work with every day are key to making work fun - and making great work.

HONESTY AND RECOGNITION
Young people's work has to be judged in a way that is encouraging, as opposed to discouraging. If something isn't right, it's essential to explain why you honestly believe that. If you don't educate them you're not just going to fail them - you're going to fail yourself.

Finally, it's important that everyone who contributes to a design or campaign gets credit for the work they do. If six or seven people contribute, we list them all. Ideas obviously evolve from one person's initial sketch, but they're enhanced by other people's ideas along the way. We let people know who was involved in the entire process.

LETTING GO
Eventually, people move on. More often than not they want to do work that we don't do, move to a larger market, or start their own thing. We stay in touch, and look for opportunities to work together again. When you're young you feel you have a long time to prove yourself. But as you get older, you realize that everything and everyone matters, and life is short. Go to it. You'll learn your own lessons along the way, and discover in turn the rewards of helping others realize their own full potential.

BRIAN COLLINS, Duffy Protégé
Brian started out in his own studio in Boston in the '80s. He spoke with us from Atlanta, where he was juggling meetings with Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola, and Kodak in his current capacity as executive creative director of the Brand Integration Group at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.

A SUCCESS STORY
Every day I'm doing what I love to do. I get to work with obscenely smart people and open - minded clients in a first-class agency. I'm here due to blind luck and perseverance. But I also got to stand on good people's shoulders along the way: Joe Duffy, Chuck McBride, and Rick Boyko. They shared some key traits:

1. They believed in me.
2. They listened.
3. They backed me up and stood by my ideas.
4. They were unselfish.
5. They genuinely cared.
6. They inspired me to think and work in new ways.
7. They gave me a place at the table.

FIRST BIG BREAK
In 1990, I was working in my own studio in Boston when Joe Duffy hired me to be director of business development. The Duffy Group's creative thinking was new, memorable, and seductive. It told stories at a time when others were immersed in sterile postmodernism. And while the work was always challenging, it was always accessible, bridging the gap between inventive design and mass culture. The work from that period, such as the packaging for Knob Creek bourbon, still feels fresh 15 years later.

SECOND BIG BREAK
I moved to San Francisco, and started working with Chuck McBride (now North American creative director for Chiat Day), at Foote, Cone & Belding. He was an inspiring advertising creative director, which surprised me. I used to think advertising people had the creativity knocked out of them by the time they were 30. A writer and a big thinker, he brought creative integrity to the work. His gifts for storytelling complemented my team's passion for design and visual culture, with the result that our work for Levi's was disgustingly successful. After three happy years there, another good mentor hunted me down.

THIRD BIG BREAK
Rick Boyko, chief creative officer and co-president of Ogilvy & Mather, called to ask if I wanted to work on Hershey's, IBM, Jaguar, Amex, Kodak, and Mattel, instead of just Levi's. He offered me much more than the opportunity to start a typical orphan design group in an ad agency. Rick gave design a big place at the table by making me an executive creative director for the agency.

Rick was an articulate, relentless advocate for the role of design in all of the agency's work, insisting that design be involved in everything Ogilvy does from the beginning. He marched my team out in front all the time. And, like a good mentor, he tried to align his vision with ours, so that our hopes became his hopes.

When Rick left to lead the Virginia Commonwealth University Adcenter, the new CCOs, Chris Wall and Dave Apicella, along with agency president Bill Gray, became advocates for design as well. Their agenda is to inspire us to try new things and do our best work. They support the role that design thinking can play in every aspect of our clients' businesses and have given our growing team more places at the table. I cannot emphasize enough how rare this is.

A MENTOR IN TURN
Now it's my turn. When I'm looking for talent, I seek mavericks. Genuinely creative, extraordinary people who could have been anything - painters, architects, poets - but who have chosen design as their vehicle for expression. It's very, very hard to get a job in my group, and working here is not for everyone. We run a design boot camp. We demand hard work, constant learning, and constant invention. We expect our people to challenge everything, especially themselves.

But most of all, I demand that our designers refuse to apologize for being creative people in a world that's eager to commoditize and diminish them. Never say you're sorry for your gifts. The world needs them.

And that's good advice for anyone.

This article was originally published in the January/February 2005 issue of Step inside design magazine.

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