Web_Designer_UK__May_2018
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FORM AND FFUNCTION<br />
AGENCY<br />
BREAKDOWN<br />
1 Founder/CEO/<br />
Technical Lead<br />
1 Creative<br />
Director<br />
1 Project<br />
Manager<br />
1 Marketing<br />
Director<br />
1 Art<br />
Director<br />
1 UX<br />
<strong>Designer</strong><br />
3 Developers<br />
1<br />
Dog (100 per cent<br />
certifiedGoodBoy)<br />
FREELANCE:<br />
1 Data<br />
Journalist<br />
1 Studio<br />
Administrator<br />
2 Graphic<br />
<strong>Designer</strong>s<br />
1 Translator<br />
but we managed to get www.ffctn.com,<br />
which gets rid of those pesky superfluous<br />
vowels. Who needs them anyway?”<br />
FFunction was doing information<br />
design before it was really a clearly<br />
understood component of<br />
communication. As such, locating clients<br />
was difficult at first. “In the early days of<br />
the studio we created a bunch of<br />
self-generated projects for our portfolio,<br />
and presented at every conference that<br />
would have us,” says Audrée. “Once we<br />
had won a couple of awards and landed<br />
our first big clients — the Gates<br />
Foundation, National Geographic, Heifer<br />
International and Edelman all came to us<br />
quite early in FFunction’s journey — it was<br />
easier to maintain our momentum and<br />
attract new clients. I suppose the work<br />
began to speak for itself, and we carved<br />
out a serious niche in creating interactive<br />
data visualisations for UN agencies, major<br />
non-profits and corporations.<br />
“Because of the nature of our clients’<br />
work and the layers of compliance that<br />
Above Some of the<br />
FFunction team (L-R):<br />
Wim Bruyninckx (Art<br />
Director), Chloé-Ève<br />
Levasseur (Graphic<br />
<strong>Designer</strong> & UX<br />
Specialist), Rebecca<br />
Galloway (Marketing<br />
Director), Audrée<br />
Lapierre (Creative<br />
Director) with Byron the<br />
dog, Sébastien Pierre<br />
(Director, Technical<br />
Lead), Jackie Smoak<br />
(Project Manager), Sam<br />
Dupras (<strong>Web</strong> Developer)<br />
they need to adhere to, we tend to<br />
respond to RFPs (Request for Proposal)<br />
asourmainbusinessdevelopment<br />
method.Iknowalotofstudiosdislike<br />
RFPs, but they have their advantages.<br />
One major plus is this: if the client has<br />
issued an RFP it means they have data,<br />
findingsandabudget,andthey’reready<br />
towork.Weare,however,verymuch<br />
againstspecwork,andhaverefused<br />
andlobbiedagainstitonseveral<br />
occasionswithinthecontextofa<br />
procurement process.<br />
“Occasionally we do cold-call<br />
organisationsthatwewouldliketowork<br />
with, but in general our approach is more<br />
aboutcommunicatingFFunction’swork<br />
effectively than creating a sales funnel. We<br />
don’t do the conference circuit so much<br />
these days, but we’re active on social<br />
media, and both Sébastien and I<br />
occasionally write opinion pieces for<br />
design publications, like DesignEdge,<br />
AppliedArtsandO’Reilly.Ithelpstostay<br />
relevant,Ithink.”<br />
“I think that good information<br />
design demands a certain level of<br />
customisation, which is why the<br />
notionofcustomtoolsisvery<br />
strong on the dev side of FFunction.<br />
Internally, we mostly use custom<br />
languages that transpile to<br />
JavaScript/HTML/CSSandacustom<br />
setoflibrariesforcomponentbasedUIandanimated,interactive<br />
data visualisation”<br />
SÉBASTIEN PIERRE<br />
Co-founder and director<br />
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