Geoff Cook: “Net New” Creative Work
Geoff Cook is a Partner at Base, a creative studio with offices in New York, Brussels, Geneva, Melbourne, and (as of recently) Saigon. In this interview, he discusses the state of Base, the increasing importance of producing exceptional, “net new” creative work, and two compelling recent projects (12 and Le Printemps).
Interview by Jonah Ginsburg, Director of DesignLabs.
Words from the interviewer are in bold italics.
JG: With the world transforming so fast, how is Base doing these days?
GC: The honest truth is that we have never been busier and the business is extremely healthy as a result. While many other firms are laying people off, our biggest challenge is finding world class people to add to our team across all disciplines, from strategy to design to digital. However, as the world changes, we have noticed that industries affected by tariffs are being extremely cautious. This is particularly true for consumer goods companies that manufacture in China. Yet in other areas like culture, tech, real estate, hospitality, and finance, business remains quite strong. This suggests to me that there is still confidence at the executive level that the economy is doing well despite the outside noise.
JG: You’re contrasting Base’s success with other firms. You think they’re in a different place?
GC: I know for a fact that many are in a different place. I do not know if it is due to the specific sectors they operate in or if they were simply overstaffed and running a little fat. I cannot say for certain what it’s attributable to, but I know from talking directly with others in the industry that the climate is affecting everyone differently.
JG: How much do you think AI is contributing to those layoffs?
GC: I don’t think AI is playing into layoffs yet. Currently, people are using AI as a tool rather than a replacement. The cutbacks are likely more attributable to general uncertainty or sector specific weakness. At Base, we are talking about AI endlessly. Because we have a digital innovation team within our firm, we have a deep bench that allows us to take greater advantage of these tools than the average studio.
We use it today in all aspects of our business. Project managers use it to write better proposals, it’s making our developers more efficient, and our business team uses it for basic contracts. I actually think lawyers at a basic level will see their work greatly diminished because agencies will be able to get a contract to eighty percent completion using AI before seeking finishing touches. We are even building our own agents to search our internal databases for files in minutes rather than days.
I think the replacement of the agency is just now starting. The mid-tier agencies producing good enough work are the ones that will get hit. This actually bodes very well for people at the top who are developing “net new” creative ideas. The top companies will seek out studios that develop truly original work in order to stand out from an increasing homogeneity, and they will pay a premium for that.
JG: What’s the process for producing “net new” work? What differentiates the top tier from the mid-tier studio?
GC: It’s quite simply about having the best people. Sure, we have to set up the parameters for people to do their best work. Like we don’t have people working late nights or weekends, and our project managers are excellent at gathering the right information from the client and doing check-ins at the right time. All of that is important, but eighty percent of it is just having the most talented people. It is like asking why Radiohead is better than other bands. Thom Yorke is just better… more creative. I am not sure there is a better answer than that.
JG: How do you find talented people?
GC: Most often, they find us. We are very rigorous about choosing projects that are compelling and ambitious. When we work with clients who want to do something fresh and out of the box, it leads to press coverage. Publishing that work within our network often attracts people who will fit well within Base. It is a pull rather than a push. For example, our recent work for 12, the matcha brand, resulted in design we’re really proud of and it garnered a great deal of press. Now we’re pulling in both talent and clients because of it.
JG: I would love to learn more about 12. How did the project come about?
GC: The family behind 12 partnered with one of the world’s great matcha farms in Uji, Japan, located in the hills outside of Kyoto. This is where the finest matcha in the world is produced, and this particular farm is even a step above, supplying the emperor of Japan’s matcha. Our clients acquired the rights to supply this matcha to the rest of the world and originally approached us about opening a retail brand in Hong Kong. After some discussion, we proposed a different route, which was to establish it as a Western brand.
As a matcha drinker who knows the market well, I felt there was a significant opportunity to take a big swing. In the market, there were independents like Cha Cha Matcha doing their thing and incumbents like Starbucks essentially making matcha milkshakes, but there was no equivalent to Blue Bottle. We wanted to go after that specific gap in the market. To achieve this, we orchestrated a world-class team. This included Ciguë, the renowned architecture and design firm out of Paris, and Sean Dix, an industrial designer and Tom Dixon alumnus, for the packaging. There was also Sue Chan, who was David Chang’s right hand, for the opening events and PR seeding. The client brought in their world-class tea master, along with Dr. Chris Loss, a professor at Cornell in the food science division. He created special blends of matcha designed to appeal to the American palate.
We coordinated every detail to create the finest matcha brand possible. Five weeks into our soft launch, the brand became a TikTok sensation. People today still wait in line, sometimes up to two hours on weekends, for a latte.
While many investors place small bets to see what sticks, I believe in a different approach that requires a greater investment of money and, most importantly, time. If you invest the time to do things correctly from the beginning, the results will follow.
JG: And what about Base’s recent work for Printemps in New York?
GC: Le Printemps is a heritage brand with over a hundred years of history in Paris. Coming into the New York retail market is incredibly competitive. The US CEO, Laura Lendrum, wanted to disrupt retail and asked Base to help shape those ideas. Our response was to treat it as a hospitality brand rather than a department store: we’re not going to design a department store, we’re not going to act like a department store, we’re not going to service people like a department store. We’re a hospitality brand. You’re going to feel as if you walked into one of the world’s finest hotels.
We also built the strategy from the inside out. Instead of doing the normal move of going after tourists, we catered first to the residents of the building, then, we worked our way outward in concentric circles. We next addressed the immediate neighborhood, then downtown New York, then greater New York, and then the tourists.
We wanted to break every rule and be completely unexpected. Our guiding principle was to be mischievously playful. The architect, Laura Gonzalez, developed a flexible design featuring transformative spaces with a unique flow. We integrated champagne and food at every turn. The merchandise is organized by theme rather than by brand, which is a total departure from how every other department store operates.
We created a high-concept document that we understand is now referred to as “the bible.” This was handed to everyone working on the project so they understood the sandbox they were playing in and the rules of engagement.
JG: Both of these projects seem to involve orchestrating a large team of carefully chosen collaborators. How else do these projects exemplify “net new” work and what can we learn from them?
GC: Several common threads make these projects successful regardless of the sector. The first is developing a clear concept and adhering to it through every stage. This requires a significant investment of time and energy. In our business, some subscribe to that level of commitment while others do not, but ensuring every person who touches the project follows that foundational concept is a vital first element.
The second is the commitment to hiring world-class talent. While it is more expensive, there must be a fundamental belief that top-tier talent will deliver exponentially greater results than the cost of the investment.
A third trait is found on the client side. It requires the ambition to be fearless and to trust talent to break rules or tropes to create something unexpected. Many investment firms try to de-risk by repeating what has worked before or copying the latest trend. It takes an ambitious vision to reject those common paths in favor of something “net new.” While this approach may appear more risky, hiring talent with established track records actually mitigates that risk.
The fourth through line is the intensity of the execution. The orchestration for a project like 12 involves many different experts and requires highly skilled point people on the client side to manage those processes. Alternatively, a client might invest more in a lead agency to handle that complex orchestration. It all comes down to time, money, and energy. If you invest in all three, the results will follow.