By Design: Thabang Lehobye on His Passion for Good Design
Thabang Lehobye is the head of design at FCB Africa, where he flexes his skills as a visual artist, illustrator and experimental animator. He started his journey at The Artists Proof Studio and then graduated with a diploma in fine arts from the University of Johannesburg, before going on to study multimedia at Vega School.
Thabang began his 14-year career at Ogilvy Joburg working on brands such as Nike, GlaxoSmithKline, SAB and DSTV. He worked at the South African creative agency The Jupiter Drawing Room, where he honed his craft on campaigns for the likes of Barclays, Absa, MTN, and Edco. Most recently, he joined FCB Africa as a senior designer, and is now head of design, working on Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Toyota, and more.
Sitting down with LBB, Thabang shares his experiences so far, the people he looks up to, and some of the things that keep him going in his career today.
LBB> Tell us about your current role and design specialism.
Thabang> Communication design has always sought to find ways to reach the targeted audiences in the most innovative and cost-effective ways possible. We must constantly be aware of what our core audience is doing, and how they spend most of their time. It is against this backdrop that we can understand the role of advertising design as a form of communication design. We are constantly finding ways to reach these people, which means studying our core audience and using data to pinpoint opportunities from which a brand can trigger an engagement. At FCB Design, we deploy tools such as ‘People and Patterns’; a resource that allows us to understand our core audience’s journey, triggers and opportunities. If we do this well, ‘we build brands that people love’ (as we like to phrase it). Our speciality is just that; communication design that is noticed, needed and loved. My role, above everything else, is to ensure that we do this over and over again in the most efficient way for our clients.
LBB> What drew you to design in the first place, and how has your design career evolved?
Thabang> A moment of clarity came to me while studying fine art at the then Wits Technikon’s (now UJ) Eloff street library. I came across a small book titled ‘Watching Words Move’ by legendary designers Chermayeff and Tom Geismar. It used letters in a single typeface to illustrate meaning. I was blown away by the way words were simply laid out in a way that embodies their essence could be so delightful to look at. I wanted to do the same. And as they say, the rest is history.
Fast forward to today. The essence of design across all specialisms is to serve a purpose without reservation. We all understand this, but when we look around, it is clear that we don’t grasp it. Most of what is out there is not working. The ROI from the client’s point of view doesn’t make sense. My career as a designer has evolved to take this even more seriously. It is not about the designer's taste in aesthetics, but to produce work that works. As another legendary designer, George Lois, would put it… “Advertising is poison gas. It should bring tears to your eyes, unhinge your nervous system and knock you out”. If we do it right we will create communication that is unexpected and evocative enough to ultimately change behaviours.
LBB> What aspects of design do you get really nerdy about, personally?
Thabang> I am obsessed with the idea of making connections part of my thought process for any design challenge. So, to connect the dots! I believe in embracing William Polmer's idea that “creativity is the power to connect things that are seemingly disconnected". Herein lies endless possibilities to form connections in delightful and unexpected ways. This, for me, makes the design process so much fun - to understand that all things are connected. And, when we make those connections and put them out there in unexpected ways, our comms can make it into the next conversation.
LBB> There are so many new design tools out - what tools do you like to use, and why?
Thabang> I am excited about a lot of creative platforms right now, and where things are headed. Design is becoming more intuitive and efficiency is at the forefront of our minds, especially when it comes to the design craft. All of this points to one thing: we’re going to be spending a lot more time with good old pen and paper.
LBB> Design Thinking - thoughts?
Thabang> Every design must start somewhere. At FCB Design, this points to a human-centred approach to problem-solving. This is evident in the tools we use to understand data on our core audience and what brands need to achieve.
Our starting point is what we refer to as distinctive assets. These give the audience unique cues to associate with brands, and they go beyond just the logo. We’re talking about things like visual, audio, graphics, experience, and tonal assets. Building these creates a foundation – allowing each execution to be uniquely designed to grab the maximum attention from the core audience while creating an easy link for them between the creative and the brand. The stronger the assets are, the more consistently recognisable the brand becomes, and the more room exists for us to really tell the brand’s story in memorable ways. Every design is created to stand out, be unexpected and truly evocative. This is our design thinking in a nutshell.
LBB> What are the most persistent misconceptions about your particular design specialism that you see across the advertising and marketing landscape?
Thabang> The misconception about design in advertising is one that is self-inflicted. Reducing every brand challenge with a solution based on a singular discipline of arranging text, photography, graphics and motion; that is graphic design. As such, while we are quick to jump on apps and start graphic designing, equally important is designing what I have referenced on top of it.
As a business, we often don’t fully understand the brand challenges presented to us, and end up going back to clients with the same solutions - adding to the clutter that is out there already. And, most clients have fallen into this trap. You see it with the types of briefs that come into creative and how they are structured. Most of them even point to what the solution must be. Creative problem-solving at FCB Design is not reduced to one discipline, otherwise, we would be calling ourselves FCB Graphics.
LBB> Accessible design is an increasingly prominent topic - from your experience what are the most challenging facets of accessible design? And what does best practice in accessible design in your particular design specialism look like?
Thabang> In ‘Maximum Reach’, the opening chapter of her book, ‘The Big Easy’, Rita Doherty states, “If the number of people who buy your brand drives brand growth, it follows that the more people the brand reaches, the better.” Essentially, the idea is that in order to go big in terms of reach and design, it has to be trustworthy, noticeable and memorable. Accessible design plays a major role in terms of reach. The democratisation of information has made it easy to reach as many groups as possible. This means we also must be sensible about what we put into the world - balancing between universal reach and sensitivity and inclusivity to various groups. Failure to do so can be damaging for brands.
Human-centred design, on the other hand, is critical as a principle. It guides us to effectively reach as many people as possible, and most importantly, to build equity and legacy-making brands. At FCB we call these ‘ideas that are never finished’.
LBB> What design controversies or challenges do you find trickiest to navigate or do you find yourself thinking about most frequently?
Thabang> The challenges we face relate to the previous question: how can design be accessible across different cultural groups, genders, ages and otherwise? I believe the answer lies in those universal insights we all share. These are the holy grail for creative problem-solving. They are the most difficult to unearth, and we need to dig a bit deeper to find them. Or, maybe we need to look in the mirror. Perhaps this is the reason why the most amazing ideas visit us in the bathroom, in many instances.
What makes design accessible is one thing, and what makes accessible design effective is another important topic, especially when it has to be unexpected, evocative and contagious. There is no easy way out, and one size will not fit all.
Another controversial topic is cultural appropriation. A designer can easily reference a Piet Mondrian composition, only to be bashed for its culturally appropriating Mogwalo Ndebele motifs. What makes it even more difficult is who produced it. We must be cautious about how we apply elements of design daily. I believe that over time, people will become more understanding about these kinds of topics, as we all know that nothing was/is created in a vacuum. I might be losing friends over this observation, but I believe that standing up for good design will prevail. After all, everything is connected. My disclaimer is just that we have to be careful about what and how we present accessible design, and that it’s important to always understand its context.
LBB> How do you think about the ethics of design?
Thabang> Ethics of design are as important as elements and principles of design; if we understand how these fundamentals work, we will be intentional in how we use them, and halfway to solving design challenges. We must know our context! For me, this demonstrates maturity. It is not about the designer or client’s taste, but the audience. It is our responsibility as designers to build relationships that will allow such conversations with clients and educate them in terms of best practices.
LBB> What are some of your favourite examples of creative design solutions that inspire you?
Thabang> From the legendary ‘Rainbow for the Rainbow Nation’ [Coca-Cola advert] to the adaptability of ‘Share-A-Coke’ locally, design has always been at the heart of FCB. My favourite example of a creative design solution is our very own, ‘The South African Code of Arms’. I am always in awe every time I see this iconic design in our case studies. It was obviously created way before my time at the agency, but I always wonder what it must have been like to sit in that room conceptualising it. Successfully creating a uniting symbol for a country as diverse as ours is a perfect example of accessible design, and represents the way in which design at FCB stands on the shoulders of giants.
LBB> Which design projects throughout your career have been the most satisfying to work on and why?
Thabang> Some of the most memorable work throughout my career include; Sasol Inzalo, the Power FM logo and campaign launch, and Absa’s environmental design. However, the ones that really stand out (and are most recent) are: Design a brand identity for the biggest travel showcase in Africa — Africa’s Travel Indaba. To create a logo that also resembles an itinerary in visual form was a delight. And finding the a-to-b in the wordmark was truly an inspiring moment.
The same delight came with projects such as packaging design for Coke’s ‘Phonetic Can’, where again, designing iconography to illustrate how an IsiXhosa ‘click’ sounds reminded me of why I love doing what I do. Our most recent project is a visual identity system for the Digital Youth ICT Academy, a visual language that is created using binary ones and zeroes - the most fundamental elements in computing.
LBB> What’s going on at the moment in design that’s getting you particularly excited?
Thabang> FCB Design is and always has been at the heart of most work coming out of the agency. This is a reminder of how we have managed to incorporate creative problem-solving beyond disciplines. This year we are not holding back - something that is evident by the quality of work coming out of Design and the overall agency. We will come back here and compare notes on how we tally in the following rankings. This is what makes me excited: continuing to build brands that people love and getting noticed for doing so.
LBB> Who are your design heroes and why?
Thabang> There are a lot of designers that come to mind, including those that I mentioned earlier. This is generally because of their philosophies and approaches to design. In addition to Chermayeff, Tom Geismar and George Lois, names such as James Victore, Neville Brody and Milton Glaser are also up there. And, as the latter states, “There are three responses to a piece of design — yes, no, and WOW! Wow, is the one to aim for.”
LBB> Thinking of people at the beginning of their careers, what advice would you give them for navigating this constantly changing field?
Thabang> Like everything else, design is always evolving, and we must constantly be aware of these changes in terms of the tools and tech platforms we use, as well as - and most importantly - the context we find ourselves in. In order to continue doing what you do while things evolve, you’ve got to love it. It always comes down to loving what you do.
