CREATIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM, GAUGER & ASSOCIATES, SAN FRANCISCO CA
The secret to a half-century of success is design agility.
Gauger + Associates is an award-winning advertising and design firm. The studio works with start-ups, non-profits, and some of the nation’s leading brands to define strategies and implement unexpected thinking to help clients grow and prosper.
The agency was co-founded by Creative Director David Gauger 50 years ago. Lori Murphy, Senior Art Director and Rob Keil, Associate Creative Director, help lead the creative team, while Julia Gauger, Vice President and Account Director, provides strategic vision.
The team has helped create numerous category leaders through effective brand strategies, positioning, naming, package design, advertising, website creation, media planning, public relations, and social media. Through this work, Gauger has developed a clear process that unfolds logically from extensive information review to creating strategic and impactful communication. The creative goal is to consistently surprise and delight.
As we pivot into a post-pandemic era marked by societal challenge and change, are you optimistic about the future of Graphic Design in supporting and shaping commerce, culture and causes? Are you optimistic about the future of your own design career or business?
There is a greater awareness than ever that we must create products and messages that support healthy lifestyles and environmental sustainability. That is a primary focus of our designers and the studio. The goal of every assignment is not only to create clear communication but to add value to our client’s products and their customer’s lives. We do this based on a philosophy of constant evolution. Over the past 50 years, we have successfully packaged and launched hundreds of products because we embraced change and have evolved to meet cultural transitions. We are in the idea business, and while AI is a new and important tool in our arsenal, we use it and all the other tech tools to bring our ideas to life.
We are seeing an increased focus on Package Design to advance the brand, tell the story, amplify the experience, forge an emotional connection. Do you agree and, if so, what advantages does packaging have over other graphic communications?
When we design a package, we develop a strategic visual language that we extend to all other marketing materials. We focus on how it will compete and stand out against competitor products on the shelf and online. We also consider its use in the home as an extension of the consumer’s values and part of who they are. We also think about the environmental impact of packaging and how that impact can be reduced. How the product and package can have a synergistic relationship is most important to us.
