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What is “Serial Collaboration” - Interview with Ross Cairns from The Workers

You know those outlier companies whose work makes you go WOW! Well, we met with Ross Cairns at Resonate Festival, who works in one such company - The Workers, a London based studio that amazes with clever ideas and excellent technical solutions. Here is what he shared with us on collaboration and work…

Hi Ross, please tell us about yourself: What fascinates you and what are your passions?

I’m co-founder of The Workers, a digital product design studio based in London. We’ve got an eclectic portfolio which is a result of being passionate and fascinated about near everything. With digital technology getting so accessible small teams can produce amazing feats. This mantra has seen us put robots in the Tate Britain, fly out to the US to light up autocross race tracks at night and tripping over skeletons in Berlin’s Natural History Museum. All these projects were the result of having a laptop and some ideas.  

In The Workers, you work along your friend Tommaso Lanza. How did this relationship develop through time? What are the most valuable aspects of this team?

We met at the Royal College of Art in London. We’d been working as professional designers before. Tommaso in product design and myself in graphics. Neither of us wanted to be just doing one thing – like just graphics or just products. This childlike unwillingness to compromise with a passion for pushing technology brought us together.

After so many years working together we’ve an innate understanding of each other. It’s great. When we’re working together we have the freedom to take stances, to get expressive and to explore points of view. We’ve earned this freedom by never being disrespectful. We capitalize on the amount respect we hold of each other’s skills, abilities and opinions. (I’m insanely jealous of Tommaso’s.) The best place to end a discussion is somewhere better that either party had thought possible before. That’s never a compromise; it’s a collaboration. This is what I value the most.

During Resonate.io 2015 you mentioned the term “Serial Collaborators”. Can you tell us more about it and what it means in the context of current work environment?

When we started out, we didn’t really have a plan. We just wanted to mix it up. Through word of mouth, working hard and striving to do good work, other studios began to get in touch. Mostly, when they only had seeds of ideas or when they thought there may be an opportunity to do something interesting with technology. Instead of just sending a PDF of a design and saying ‘make this’ (which happens a lot in the digital industry) we were being brought in early, as collaborators. Our clients were bringing their own skills to the table, and we were bringing a taste technology and opportunities to exploit. Together we’d spin out ideas to somewhere unexpected and surprising.

Based on your experience, what challenges have you faced in your collaborative processes? How have you dealt with these issues?

We are too local. We live in the East London bubble, where clients and collaborators are a short walk away. It’s a ‘can you meet for a coffee’ culture. It’s great, don’t get me wrong. But we are widening our nets and want to start finding like-minded people with shared interests from everywhere.

We’ve been doing talks all over, showing our work and now we need to finally hammer out an online presence and start using online tools to collaborate and build momentum.

What’s your advice to young people who are just starting their careers?

Know your strengths and play to them to open doors. The best way to reach people is with willingness to help and desire to get involved.

Take as an example sending out a portfolio. If you’re early in your career your portfolio probably shows your inexperience as much as your talent. So don’t send it with a “hey I’ve done this, now what you got for me” attitude. Spark up conversations by saying – with examples – how you’d like to help now or how you want to get involved. Then your portfolio becomes not about lack of experience but about your aspirations and desires.

Also, try everything. There is nothing worst then when people say ‘I can do this because I’m a <insert creative profession here>’. The phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none” is toxic. The boundaries of creative professions have blurred. The best creative solutions and portfolios come from people who are fearless in hacking things together no matter how simple or complex. They’re the ones to know where both the limits and opportunities lie.

More form Ross on Twitter @RossC1 and check out The Workers http://www.theworkers.net/

Images courtesy of The Workers