Featured image for 5 Questions with HOW Design Live Speaker: Dora Drimalas from Hybrid Design

5 Questions with HOW Design Live Speaker: Dora Drimalas from Hybrid Design

by Dieline Author on 03/31/2016 | 4 Minute Read

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HOW Design Live is a right around the corner, and to say that we're excited is an understatement. To give you a preview of what you'll see in Atlanta, we're sitting down with some of our esteemed speakers to chat about their sessions. This week, we talk with Principal, Creative Director for Hybrid Design, Dora Drimalas about the role brands have with their consumers. 

 

TC: When you talk about brands presenting consumers with a better version of themselves, why do you think it is that people respond so positively to this?DD: I believe people are hard wired to evolve and improve, so when brands help you see a better version of your life within reach, it is very motivating. You naturally want to move in that direction. It also connects individuals to things they already like – not to mention a built in community.If you’re not inspiring your audience, you’re selling and no one likes being sold to. Selling sets up people at opposite sides of a transaction. You instantly have to start convincing someone to come to your side and agree to terms. You’ve spent all of your effort convincing and that feels false. Quality doesn't need to sell itself.

TC: Considering everything that people are bombarded with on a daily basis, what do you think is most important in a brand standing out from the crowd?DD: A unique voice, and a unique point of view. There is so much noise out there today. A brand can’t just be a better version of what already exists, they need to be different, but with a purpose. They have to be brave enough to stand out. A great creative voice and point of view can’t happen where there is fear. 

TC: The creative team at Hybrid Design is divided into two separate parts: logical and experimental. How can designers utilize this approach in their own work?

DD: Our organization is meant to create contrast. It’s meant to push projects to strange and interesting places before we ever present to a client. We work for a wide range of clients and find that it’s often best to apply what we have learned from one industry to a completely different one. Some people specialize, but we really try not to do similar creative twice. For us, the more we design, the more we need to challenge ourselves creatively. This is an industry where you can’t coast—not for a minute. The work has got to be fresh and honest—every time.TC: In regards to your presentation, what is one valuable piece of advice or information you hope attendees walk away with?DD: Great work makes you feel. Joy, happiness, sadness, envy, hate, laughter and more. It elicits your emotions, and if it doesn’t? Then you need to keep working and refining until it does.

TC: In the past year, what has been the most promising advance in the packaging world? What about the biggest disappointment?DD: I love the return to beauty and craft in packaging. Packaging that is an artifact in its own right – that delights in some unexpected way. Seeing a movement toward engraving, embossing and tactile uncoated papers. 


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Editorial photograph

Theresa entered the world of design through The Dieline. With a background in writing and journalism, she has a passion for discovery and cultivating human connections. Her work for The Dieline is a constant journey to deeply understand all facets of the design process and to investigate what makes designers tick. Theresa's writing has taken her snorkeling in between the tectonic plates in Iceland, horseback riding through a rural Brazilian town, and riding an octopus art car at Burning Man with Susan Sarandon as part of a funeral procession for Timothy Leary (long story). When not writing, she is planning her next trip or taking too many pictures of her cat.