CO-FOUNDER/CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, PREACHER, AUSTIN TX
In 2014, Rob Baird co-founded PREACHER in Austin, TX, with Seth Gaffney and Krystle Loyland, two colleagues from Mother New York. They moved to Texas to find more soul in the business and more room to experiment. The agency’s home is now a two-story hospitality-forward space, with a contemporary art gallery, a professional recording studio, and a storefront named Divine Provisions which helps support the agency’s charitable initiatives. Preacher’s current clients include ESPN, Foot Locker, Shake Shack, EJ Gallo, and YETI, and the agency has been fortunate to be honored by AdAge’s Small Agency Awards and A-List every year since 2015.
Prior to Preacher, Rob spent almost a decade in the New York and London offices of Mother leading award-winning creative for Virgin Mobile, Stella Artois, Coca-Cola, and Sour Patch Kids, and has also led work at TBWA Chiat Day, Fallon, BBH and Arnold. He’s previously judged D&AD, The One Show, the Art Directors Club, AICP, and Communication Arts among others.
Rob has been lucky enough to have his work featured in every major advertising award show over the years, and has occasionally been mentioned in his family’s annual Holiday letter.
As we pivot into a post-pandemic era marked by societal challenge and change, are you optimistic about the future of Graphic Design to support and shape commerce, culture and causes? Why do you feel the way you do? Are you optimistic about the future of your own firm?
I’m actually really optimistic about the role graphic design is playing right now, and will continue to play in the future. When you think about the power of design and visual communication to supercharge movements and important causes, to give life and momentum to small businesses that might be someone’s true passion in life, or even just to bring happiness as a beautiful package, it’s pretty endless. It feels like brands and organizations have placed the importance of design strategy and visual craft as essential to their success. It’s a wonderful time to embrace multi-disciplinary design.
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 with this observation and, if so, what advantages does packaging have over other graphic communications?
It feels like the emotional connection brands make with their consumers has never been more important, because now, consumers truly crave it. I’ve seen so many products putting little unexpected moments of great brand personality into the nooks and crannies and undersides of packaging. This is a fantastic time for package design, and for designers, to really impact businesses in a meaningful way.
